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  • Nearly all school parcel taxes pass, but mixed results for school bonds in March election

    Nearly all school parcel taxes pass, but mixed results for school bonds in March election


    The March 5 primary proved to be a good day for passing school parcel taxes, but not so good for school construction bonds.

    With fewer than 1% of votes statewide remaining to be counted, it appears likely voters in 10 of 11 districts approved parcel taxes. Although a small sample size, the 91% passage rate beats the historic 65% pass rate for primary elections, according to Michael Coleman, who publishes election results at CaliforniaCityFinance.com (see note below). The sole defeat was the Petaluma Joint Union High School District’s eight-year proposed tax at $89 per parcel.

    Voters in 24 of 40 school districts passed school facilities bonds: 60% compared with the historic 73% primary election approval rate. And the winners include two tiny school districts in Sonoma County that looked like they would be defeated on election night but picked up enough mail-in or provisional votes to eke out a win.

    It takes a 55% majority vote to pass a bond, and in Fort Ross School District, two votes made the difference for the $2.1 million bond; the 158 to 126 vote was 55.6% to 44.3%.  Supporters of the $13 million bond in the Harmony Union School District picked up 6 percentage points since election night to end with 56.3% of the vote.

    School districts can choose the March primary or November general election for a parcel tax or school bond. Most traditionally choose November, when more voters cast votes. But others gamble on the primary election, when there’s less competition, with fewer state bond issues and many initiatives competing for dollars on the ballot.

    The most recent proposal for a state school construction bond, which would have provided matching funding for local school bonds, was also on the statewide primary ballot in March 2020, and it lost — the first in decades to lose. But it coincided with the emergence of the Covid pandemic, adding an edge of anxiety for voters. It also had the misfortune of coincidentally being designated Proposition 13, which likely caused confusion among voters with the 1978 anti-tax initiative that substantially restricted property tax increases and required a two-thirds voter majority to pass new taxes, including parcel taxes. (Voters lowered that threshold for school facilities bonds to 55% with Proposition 39 in 2000.)

    The Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s aides are negotiating whether to place a school facilities bond proposal on the November ballot. With student enrollment declining statewide, most of the money would be designated for renovations and repairs, not new construction.

    Brianna Garcia, vice president of School Services of California, a school consulting company, doubted that the lower-than-average passage rate for bonds would predict the outcome in November for local and state bond proposals. Many more districts will place bonds before voters, and the passage rate will revert to the norm for November elections, which is over 80%, she said.

    While agreeing with Garcia, Eric Bonniksen, superintendent of Placerville Elementary School District in El Dorado County, cautioned that people struggling financially “are looking at every avenue to fit within their budgets, including school bonds.”  A drop in interest rates, even if not large, which economists are forecasting, “may make people feel better about the economic outlook,” he said

    Voters, Bonniksen said, want to see something visible, like remodeling a building, reconstructing a field or painting a school. “If a bond only fixes sewer and electrical lines, they will question, ‘What did you do for this money?’” he said.

    Voters passed about $3 billion worth of projects, not including interest, generally paid over 30 years at rates of $15 per $100,000 of assessed property value in Sunnyvale to $60 per $100,000 of assessed property value in Benicia, Hayward, Culver City and Desert Sands unified districts. The largest bonds approved are for $675 million in Desert Sands, $550 million in Hayward, and $358 million in Culver City.

    The largest bond that failed was for $517 million in Tamalpais Union High School District in Marin County; as of March 22, it was 1.25 percentage points shy of 55%. Opponents, led by the Coalition of Sensible Taxpayers, questioned the scale of the work and said the money would disproportionately go to Tamalpais High, with not enough to two other high schools. The district last approved a construction bond two decades ago.

    Parcel taxes

    Only about 1 in 8 school districts, primarily in the Bay Area and districts with wealthier families in the Los Angeles area, have passed one. Parcel taxes are one of the few sources of funding for districts to supplement state or local funding. Because Proposition 13 bans tax increases based on a property’s value, parcel taxes must be a uniform amount per property, regardless of whether it’s a cottage, a 10-bedroom house, or an apartment building.

    Courts have ruled, however, that parcel taxes can be assessed by the square footage, and three of the 11 on the ballot (54 cents per square foot per year in Berkeley Unified, 55 cents in Albany Unified, and 58.5 cents in Alameda) passed. School boards in high-cost Bay Area districts argue that parcel taxes are critical because state funding under the Local Control Funding Formula doesn’t take regional costs into consideration.

    The approved parcel taxes range from $75 per year for eight years in Martinez Unified to a $768 per year extension of an existing parcel tax, with an annual cost of living adjustment, in Davis Joint Unified.

    Note: Updated data indicated that parcel taxes in Manhattan Beach Unified and Petaluma City Elementary School District, along with bond proposals in Fort Ross and Harmony Union school districts picked up enough support to pass.





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  • Public school choice exists in California, but few districts offer it

    Public school choice exists in California, but few districts offer it


    A Walnut Valley Unified kindergarten teacher shows her students a book during class.

    Credit: Walnut Valley Unified / Facebook

    An underused, little-known public school choice program allowing students to enroll in other districts that open their borders has been reauthorized six times in the past 30 years. Under a bill winding its way through the Legislature, it would become permanent, with revised rules.

    Under the District of Choice program, districts announce how many seats they make available to nonresident students by the fall of the preceding year, and parents must apply by Jan. 1. By statute, enrollment is open to any family that applies, without restrictions — and with a lottery if applications are oversubscribed. The program bans considering academic or athletic ability or, if an applicant is a student with special needs, the cost of educating a student. 

    “This bill is a crucial step towards creating a more inclusive and equitable public education system — one where all students have the opportunity to grow and thrive,” said Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, the author of Senate Bill 897.

    With enrollments dropping statewide — and projected to continue — districts could view District of Choice as a strategy to stem the decline and bolster revenue that new students would bring. But few districts have seized the option. At most, 50 districts out of nearly 1,000, mostly rural or suburban and small, have signed on.

    That number, in turn, has restricted the openings for families; fewer than 10,000 students annually have transferred through the program — about 0.2% of California’s students, according to an evaluation of the program by the Legislative Analyst’s Office in 2021.

    The list of districts for 2024-25 will be 44, the same as this year. That is down from 47 districts in 2021-22, when a total of 8,398 students transferred, according to the latest data available from the California Department of Education.

    Of those, 2,574 students — 31% of the total — transferred to a single district, Walnut Valley Unified, a 14,000-student district in the San Gabriel Valley. The district includes the cities of Walnut and Diamond Bar and abuts Pomona Unified. Newman, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, represents Walnut Valley; his predecessor, Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, also championed District of Choice and shepherded a previous five-year reauthorization.

    Together with five other districts receiving the most students — Oak Park Unified, Glendora Unified, West Covina Unified, Valley Lindo Elementary School District and Riverside Unified — the five received 82% of the students in the program statewide. Riverside, with 1,100 of its 42,000 students enrolled through District of Choice, is the only large district using the program.  

    Robert Taylor, Walnut Valley Unified’s superintendent, said the district had participated in the program for decades, in the belief that the district “should provide any child an opportunity regardless of special needs, socioeconomic status or street address. And that’s still today. We take every kid who wants to come.”

    Taylor cited the “diversity of well-rounded opportunities” that draw outsiders: Arts offerings in elementary schools, starting in kindergarten, include dance, theater and music and are taught by professionals in the arts, he said. There is a counselor in every elementary school, and counselors stay with the same students throughout high school and meet one-on-one with them during the summer. The graduation rate is 100%, he said.

    Responding to an allegation he hears, Taylor said, “No, we don’t cherry-pick students. We don’t want to, and it’s been against the law to.”  The 2017 reauthorization of the law requires that districts give low-income students priority for transfers, and SB 897 would add homeless and foster children as well. The 23% of low-income students from other districts enrolled at Walnut Unified are slightly less than the 25% overall in the district.

    Students from 30 districts have enrolled through District of Choice, Taylor said, and some parents drive from more than an hour away. One district that has not been sending additional students is its larger, less affluent neighbor, Pomona Unified, where 85% of its 22,000 students are from low-income families.

    Under an arcane rule, a district can cap the number of students it permits to leave for districts of choice at a cumulative 10% of its average daily attendance since it first joined the program — even if many students have long since graduated from high school. Pomona reached that limit a half-dozen years ago, after going to court to prove that Walnut Valley had already exceeded the target, said Superintendent Darren Knowles.  

    SB 897 would delete that clause and replace it with a new annual cap: 10% of a district’s current average daily attendance for districts with fewer than 50,000 students and 1% for districts with more than 50,000 students. Sending districts would also be exempt if county offices of education verified that a loss of students to the program would jeopardize their financial stability.

    Pomona Unified was the only opponent listed at a hearing last month in the Senate Education Committee, where the bill passed unanimously. Rowland Unified, a 13,000-student district to the west of Walnut Valley, has also complained about the financial impact of the transfer program. 

    Knowles said he doesn’t oppose the concept of school choice, if the distribution is equitable. But before reaching the cap, Walnut Valley drew disproportionately high numbers of white and Asian families from the wealthier neighborhoods in Diamond Bar that lie within Pomona Unified. The latter may be attracted to the two dual Chinese language immersion programs in Walnut Valley.

    Wealthier families are able to drive their kids to Walnut Valley; low-income Latino families with both parents working more than likely can’t, said Knowles.

    “The District of Choice does not create a good distribution for Pomona Unified,” Knowles said. “We need kids excelling as well as those struggling. Taking out the smartest kids in any district is not a good situation.”

    Pomona Unified already has closed six elementary schools due to declining enrollment, Knowles said. The new cap could “decimate us within five years,” Knowles said. “Give us time to recover, a reprieve.”

    Newman said that he is open to further accommodations for an adverse financial impact. “We don’t want well-intended legislation to have unintended consequences,” he told EdSource. 

    Who chooses?

    In its 2021 evaluation, the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that District of Choice “allows students to access educational options that are not offered in their home districts,” including college prep courses, arts and music and foreign languages. Nearly all the students transferred to districts with higher test scores.

    Newly required oversight measures found no districts discriminating against interested students, and that the program appeared to increase racial balance for some districts and reduce it for others, the LAO said, “although the changes for most districts are small.” It found that statewide, fewer low-income students used the program, compared with other students in their home districts; however, the proportion of those students had risen over four years from 27% to 32%. Participation of Latino students, though also on the rise, was smaller than the Latino enrollment in their home districts — similar to Pomona and Walnut Valley.

    Among the last children to transfer from Pomona to Walnut Valley six years ago, right before the limit was reached, is Ethan Fermin. Then entering kindergarten, he is now in sixth grade at Suzanne Middle School. His sister, now in second grade, was admitted through an interdistrict transfer, a more restrictive permit process that requires both districts to approve the move. A family must make the case for the transfer or cite a hardship — in this case, the transportation challenges of having kids in two different districts.  Parents whose children are denied a transfer can appeal to the county board of education, which often reverses a decision.

    Ethan’s father, Billy, graduated from Pomona Unified schools; he was high school class president and active in many school activities, Fermin said. From his home, he can see the elementary school his kids would have attended — a two-minute walk from their house. Friends from high school are Pomona teachers. His kids would have attended his high school, Diamond Ranch High.

    Leaving the district wasn’t easy, he said, adding, “But it’s a different world from when I went to school.”  What caught his eye in Walnut Valley, he said, was a program in two elementary schools that leads to the International Baccalaureate, a rigorous high school program that stresses inquiry-based learning. He liked the early years’ focus on developing well-rounded, creative and open-minded learners and risk-takers. “Given the choice, it was night and day,” he said.

    Taylor said Walnut Valley doesn’t market its programs as District of Choice, and he doesn’t speak negatively about other districts. Fermin said the district is smart to use social media heavily to show off what’s happening in its schools, and banners go up at the start of the sign-up period.

    Possible reasons for so little participation

    Charter schools are by far the largest public school choice program in California. The more than 1,200 charter schools served 685,553 students in 2022-23 — 11.7% of statewide enrollment, compared with about 2% through interdistrict transfers and 0.02% through District of Choice.  

    The Legislature passed laws permitting charter schools in 1992 and the District of Choice a year later. Both were viewed as strategies to counter a school voucher initiative that would have provided public funding for private school tuition, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office’s analysis. Voters trounced the voucher initiative, which drew only 30% support in the 1993 vote.

    Why so few districts have participated in the program is a matter of conjecture. The five-year reauthorization periods raised the risk for districts and parents that their participation might be cut short. Ken Kapphahn, principal fiscal and policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst’s Office who did the evaluation, said some districts are able to receive as many interested transfer students as they want through the interdistrict permit process, under which they can set academic and behavior conditions.  

    Some districts would involve long drives to get to, while others assume they don’t have special offerings to lure lots of students, he said. And it’s his impression, he said, that many districts still don’t know the program exists; the California Department of Education does not promote it.  

    Newman said there is an entrepreneurial potential of the program that many superintendents haven’t recognized. The ability to draw students from nearby districts could inspire “a high level of innovation” that best serves students’ interests, he said. 

    Former President of the State Board of Education Mike Kirst, who said he supports making the program permanent, suggested another reason: It could be that district superintendents consider District of Choice a violation of an unwritten education commandment, Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s enrollment.

    “It’s a professional norm that you don’t try to ‘poach’ students from other districts,” he said.





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  • Newsom again pledges to spare cuts for TK-12 and community colleges, but not for CSU and UC

    Newsom again pledges to spare cuts for TK-12 and community colleges, but not for CSU and UC


    Gov. Gavin Newsom unveils his revised 2024-25 state budget during a news conference in Sacramento on May 10, 2024.

    Credit: AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli

    Despite a further deterioration in state revenues, Gov. Gavin Newsom again pledged Friday to protect ongoing funding and the large-scale initiatives for TK-12 schools that he has set in motion.

    “I just don’t want to see education cuts,” Newsom said during a news conference on the revision to the proposed 2024-25 state budget he presented in January. “Right now, I want to see us preserve the progress we have made on community schools, on preschool, on after-school-for-all, summer school — all the work we’ve been doing.”

    Newsom’s comment during a two-hour session with reporters reflected the challenge of writing annual budgets subject to volatile revenue fluctuations dependent on the incomes of the top 1% of earners. Receipts from capital gains taxes that soared to $349 billion in 2021-22 dropped to $137 billion in 2023-24. The current fiscal year ends June 30.

    As a result of the projected shortfall, other state operations could face additional cuts. Newsom didn’t make the same promise he made for schools to higher education, leaving California State University system officials on edge. In a statement, CSU Chancellor Mildred Garcia said she was “deeply concerned” about a revised state budget that would grant no increase next year, then a 2% increase in 2025-26, instead of a 10% increase over two years as promised in January.   

    “As the institution that educates the evolving workforce of California, this budget places us in a position of making difficult decisions,” Garcia said.

    It was not clear whether the University of California would face similar cuts, although Newsom typically treats both systems similarly. UC officials would not comment on the issue. In a statement Friday, UC President Michael Drake said that the system is hoping to “finalize a budget that sustains the University’s research, public service, and education mission.”  

    The summary of revenue reductions and spending cuts Newsom released lacked the details that usually accompany a May budget revision; however, more information is expected by Tuesday, the deadline for statutory budget language. 

    Some TK-12 advocates expressed relief, nonetheless. 

    “Given the magnitude of the fiscal crisis, that the governor could put together a budget that largely protects K-12 is remarkable,” said education consultant Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors.

    Derick Lennox, senior director of governmental relations and legal affairs with the California County Superintendents, was more cautious. “We can appreciate the governor’s commitment to hold schools harmless to the extent he can, but so much will all depend on the details for Proposition 98 and what is available,” he said, referring to the portion of the general fund that determines funding for TK-12 schools and community colleges. 

    Newsom said general fund revenues were expected to decline an additional $7 billion for a total of $27.6 billion for the three-year period from 2022-23 through 2024-25. The total deficit would be nearly twice as big, but the Legislature has made a combination of cuts, savings, and deferred spending since January.

    The shortfall for TK-12 and community colleges, due to lower Proposition 98 funding, would be about $4.2 billion. Although details are scant, Newsom would make up for it mostly by emptying nearly all the remaining $9 billion rainy day fund for schools and community colleges.

    Newsom said the average TK-12 per-student funding for 2024-25 would be $17,502 — $151 per student less than proposed in January. Despite that, funding would include a 1% cost of living increase, a smidge higher than in January. 

    The May revision lists about $1 billion in cuts for early education through high school. Most of the programs are funded by the general fund, not Proposition 98. It would preserve ongoing funding for the expanded transitional kindergarten program for 4-year-olds and long-awaited pay raises for child care providers.

    Cuts would include:

    • $425 million to the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative out of a $4 billion investment, which Newsom said would reflect directing more funding to wellness centers at school sites. Carl Pinkston of the Black Parallel School Board expressed concern. “In the aftermath of the pandemic, many students continue to display signs of trauma, adversely affecting their academic performance and overall well-being,” he said. The initiative “is a critical program that champions equity, aiming to improve behavioral health outcomes for children and youth.”  
    • Delayed funding for additional slots for state-funded child care. Instead of funding 146,000 as planned, the state will continue funding 119,000 new slots funded so far. “Delaying access to child care for the next two years to our youngest Californians is deeply troubling,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of Parent Voices CA, an advocacy group. “Their childhoods do not pause. Their undiagnosed speech or other developmental delays will make it harder for them two years from now.” 
    • Elimination of $550 million in facilities funding for preschools, transitional kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs. Newsom suggested funding could be included in a statewide school facilities bond. He said Friday that negotiations were continuing with legislative leaders for a bond on the statewide ballot in November.
    • A cut of $60.2 million to the Golden State Teacher Grant Program, which pays up to $20,000 to teacher candidates enrolled in credential programs who commit to working for years in priority schools. 
    • Elimination of $48 million in 2025-26 and $98 million in 2026-27 for increased payments for state preschools that serve additional students with disabilities.  
    • A cut of all but $100 million in ongoing funding for the Middle Class Scholarship Program, which previously received more than $600 million annually. In past years, more than 300,000 students across UC and CSU have received scholarships, which are available to students whose families earn up to $217,000. 

    Criticism of a key fix to the shortfall

    Newsom’s solution for minimizing cuts to schools and community colleges would rely on a controversial maneuver. He would fill in the biggest piece of the shortfall — $8 billion in an unanticipated drop in Proposition 98 revenue in 2022-23 — by treating it as an overpayment of the state’s funding obligation.  Since schools and community colleges have already spent the money, he’d fill in the gap by cutting the general fund — but not until 2028-29, when the state’s revenue picture presumably would have improved. Since Newsom announced the idea in January, the repayment obligation has grown to $8.8 billion.

    An accounting move of that magnitude hasn‘t been done before. The Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) has questioned the tactic, and so did the California School Boards Association in a statement Friday in which it implied it might sue.

    The association’s logic reflects the complexity of the Proposition 98 formula for determining funding. The school boards association asserts that the 2022-23 funding level was not a voluntary overpayment but rather a constitutional obligation on which subsequent years’ levels of funding are set.

    “This accounting gimmick would lower the baseline for calculating education funding in subsequent years, subjecting California schools to lower revenue for the foreseeable future,” school boards association President Albert Gonzalez said. “This sets a terrible precedent that potentially destabilizes education funding and undermines the voters’ intent when they passed Proposition 98 more than 35 years ago.”

    The California Department of Finance has insisted that the solution is legal. However, on Friday, Newsom did acknowledge that Proposition 98 is complicated.

    “You need not only a Ph.D., but a physics degree, an engineering degree and everything else to unpack its complexities,” he said.





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  • UC has $32 billion in assets targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, but no plans to divest

    UC has $32 billion in assets targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, but no plans to divest


    Hundreds of San Diego State students protest in support of Palestinians on April 30, 2024.

    Credit: Jazlyn Dieguez / EdSource

    The University of California disclosed Tuesday that it has $32 billion invested in assets that pro-Palestinian protesters demand the university divest, including weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel.

    The university, however, has no plans to sell off those assets, despite the recent protests and encampments across the UC system, a spokesperson reiterated Tuesday.

    The system’s chief investment officer, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, outlined the investments during a meeting Tuesday of the investments committee for UC’s board of regents. Bachher’s list responded to specific demands from the protesters and included broader investments in U.S. Treasuries, which he added in response to the request that UC divest from assets that support Israel. “The answer to that question is the U.S. government,” he said, referring to the aid and weapons that the government sends to Israel. 

    The full list of investments include:

    • $3.3 billion in weapons manufacturers
    • $12 billion in U.S. Treasuries 
    • $163 million in BlackRock, an asset manager that owns shares of companies that support Israel
    • $2.1 billion in investments managed for UC by BlackRock
    • $8.6 billion in the investment firm Blackstone, also targeted by protesters
    • $3.2 billion in 24 other companies targeted by protesters, including Coca-Cola and Disney

    “So if I interpret the questions and the responses mathematically with numbers, the letter sent to us would suggest that we should sell $32 billion of assets out of the $175 billion,” Bachher said, referring to the system’s entire investment portfolio.

    The investments committee took no action toward divestment Tuesday, nor did it suggest they were considering doing so. 

    When reached Tuesday, a spokesperson for the system also said UC stands behind its April 26 statement opposing the idea of divestment.

    “The University of California has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel,” UC said at the time. “While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses.”

    Demands for UC and other universities to divest from Israel have heightened in recent weeks as pro-Palestinian encampments and protests have swept the country since last month, including at UCLA and other UC campuses. 

    Driving the encampments are calls for divestment from companies doing significant business with Israel. The protesters see universities as complicit in Israel’s war in Gaza. More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including many women and children, according to health authorities. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people.

    Tuesday’s financial disclosures followed a lengthy public comment period in which many commenters called on UC to divest.

    “I wanted to emphasize my support for the Palestinian encampment students and faculty and to strongly support their call for divestment from all investments in the military industrial complex,” said Darlene Lee, a faculty member in UCLA’s teacher education program and a UCLA alum. “Educational funds should go towards education and community and not war.”

    Calls for UC to divest are likely to continue Wednesday, when the regents will convene for the second of their three-day meeting at UC Merced. Ahead of the regents meeting, protesters at UC Merced set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus, making Merced the latest of UC’s 10 campuses to establish such an encampment.

    In a statement posted on Instagram, organizers of the encampment wrote that they are demanding UC to divest, call for a ceasefire in Gaza and end ties with Israel, including study-abroad programs.

    “The UC regents are meeting on our campus. … They will hear us!,” the organizers wrote.





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  • UC has $32 billion in assets targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, but no plans to divest

    UC has $32 billion in assets targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, but no plans to divest


    Hundreds of San Diego State students protest in support of Palestinians on April 30, 2024.

    Credit: Jazlyn Dieguez / EdSource

    The University of California disclosed Tuesday that it has $32 billion invested in assets that pro-Palestinian protesters demand the university divest, including weapons manufacturers that sell to Israel.

    The university, however, has no plans to sell off those assets, despite the recent protests and encampments across the UC system, a spokesperson reiterated Tuesday.

    The system’s chief investment officer, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, outlined the investments during a meeting Tuesday of the investments committee for UC’s board of regents. Bachher’s list responded to specific demands from the protesters and included broader investments in U.S. Treasuries, which he added in response to the request that UC divest from assets that support Israel. “The answer to that question is the U.S. government,” he said, referring to the aid and weapons that the government sends to Israel. 

    The full list of investments include:

    • $3.3 billion in weapons manufacturers
    • $12 billion in U.S. Treasuries 
    • $163 million in BlackRock, an asset manager that owns shares of companies that support Israel
    • $2.1 billion in investments managed for UC by BlackRock
    • $8.6 billion in the investment firm Blackstone, also targeted by protesters
    • $3.2 billion in 24 other companies targeted by protesters, including Coca-Cola and Disney

    “So if I interpret the questions and the responses mathematically with numbers, the letter sent to us would suggest that we should sell $32 billion of assets out of the $175 billion,” Bachher said, referring to the system’s entire investment portfolio.

    The investments committee took no action toward divestment Tuesday, nor did it suggest they were considering doing so. 

    When reached Tuesday, a spokesperson for the system also said UC stands behind its April 26 statement opposing the idea of divestment.

    “The University of California has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel,” UC said at the time. “While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses.”

    Demands for UC and other universities to divest from Israel have heightened in recent weeks as pro-Palestinian encampments and protests have swept the country since last month, including at UCLA and other UC campuses. 

    Driving the encampments are calls for divestment from companies doing significant business with Israel. The protesters see universities as complicit in Israel’s war in Gaza. More than 35,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including many women and children, according to health authorities. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people.

    Tuesday’s financial disclosures followed a lengthy public comment period in which many commenters called on UC to divest.

    “I wanted to emphasize my support for the Palestinian encampment students and faculty and to strongly support their call for divestment from all investments in the military industrial complex,” said Darlene Lee, a faculty member in UCLA’s teacher education program and a UCLA alum. “Educational funds should go towards education and community and not war.”

    Calls for UC to divest are likely to continue Wednesday, when the regents will convene for the second of their three-day meeting at UC Merced. Ahead of the regents meeting, protesters at UC Merced set up a pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus, making Merced the latest of UC’s 10 campuses to establish such an encampment.

    In a statement posted on Instagram, organizers of the encampment wrote that they are demanding UC to divest, call for a ceasefire in Gaza and end ties with Israel, including study-abroad programs.

    “The UC regents are meeting on our campus. … They will hear us!,” the organizers wrote.





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  • Legislators struggle with how to rein in but not repress ethnic studies

    Legislators struggle with how to rein in but not repress ethnic studies


    Assemblymember Rick Zbur responds to senators’ questions during a July 3 hearing on Assembly Bill 2918.

    Credit: Senate Education Committee

    Legislation authored by members of the Jewish Legislation Caucus to prevent antisemitism and prejudice from seeping into ethnic studies courses passed its first legislative hurdle on Wednesday.

    However, Assembly Bill 2918 faces a hot summer of intense negotiations to persuade legislators who agree with its intent but question whether the bill’s restrictions and lack of clarity could lead to avoidable conflicts. 

    Assembly Members Rick Zbur, D-Los Angeles, and Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, the bill’s chief authors, told the Senate Education Committee they and key education groups are willing to put in the time to fix it.

    “While we actually have issues now that are affecting the climate in schools for Jewish students, this affects all communities that are subject to bias and discrimination,” said Zbur. “We have to get this right for everyone, no matter what your background is.”

    But what supporters see as transparency, opponents see as interference. 

    The bill’s requirements “will expose districts to increased harassment and litigation. The lack of clarity in defining what curriculum and instruction materials are will leave our teachers vulnerable to unwarranted scrutiny,” said Teresa Montaño, a former Los Angeles Unified teacher who now teaches Chicano studies at CSU Northridge. 

    The bill would strengthen disclosure requirements for approving ethnic studies courses and materials. The 2021 law establishing an ethnic studies mandate — that all high schools offer a course in 2025-26 and make it a graduation requirement in 2030-31 — requires districts to hold two hearings before adopting an ethnic studies course. The law also includes a broad warning that the instruction must be free of “any bias, bigotry, or discrimination.”

    But those provisions have proven ineffective, Zbur and others said. Parents have complained they had no idea what their children were being taught; school board members said they were unaware of what was in a course they approved, sometimes on a consent calendar with no discussion.

    The bill, which has the support of State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond, would require:

    • A committee, including classroom teachers, as a majority, and parents, would formally review instructional materials and a locally developed ethnic studies course.
    • The governing board of a district or charter school would determine that the course doesn’t promote any bias, bigotry, or discrimination and explain why they declined to adopt a course based on the ethnic studies model curriculum that the State Board of Educationadopted in 2018;
    • Parents would be sent a written notice before a course is presented for approval.

    At the suggestion of staff, Zbur and Addis agreed not to apply the bill to already approved courses and not to require school board members to certify with the State Department of Education that the course is factually and historically accurate.

    Tensions over the content of ethnic studies courses have simmered since a protracted process by the State Board from 2018 to 2021 to adopt a voluntary ethnic studies course framework. Gov. Gavin Newsom, State Board President Linda Darling-Hammond, and Thurmond criticized the first draft of the framework, written primarily by ethnic studies experts and faculty members, as ideological and biased. 

    After the state board adopted a substantially changed framework in 2021, the first draft’s authors disavowed the final version and formed the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies. Its member organizations have contracted with districts to buy their versions of ethnic studies, which stress the challenges of white supremacy and an oppressive capitalist system, and solidarity with Palestine’s battle for liberation. 

    As Montaño said during a webinar on ethnic studies last year, “I have no choice but to challenge settler colonialism everywhere and to acknowledge that from the very beginning, our disciplines of ethnic studies were aligned to the global struggles in Africa, Palestine and Latin America.”

    In the past year, without mentioning the Liberated Ethnic Studies coalition by name, both Attorney General Rob Bonta and the Newsom administration have reminded school districts to adhere to the law’s prohibition of discrimination.

    “Vendors have begun promoting curriculum for (districts) to use for ethnic studies courses. We have been advised, however, that some vendors are offering materials that may not meet the requirements of AB 101, particularly the requirement (against bias and bigotry), an important guardrail highlighted when the bill was signed,” Brooks Allen, a Newsom adviser and executive director of the state board, wrote in August 2023.

    Conflicts have flared up in the past year. Jewish parents in Palo Alto have complained they’ve been left in the dark about the development of an ethnic studies curriculum that will be piloted this fall. Opponents are protesting the board of Pajaro Valley Unified’s second thoughts about renewing a contract with a liberated ethnic studies contractor.

    Tension has further escalated in reaction to the massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas in October and the subsequent invasion and occupation of Gaza by Israel, causing tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths. The Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education is investigating charges that Berkeley Unified failed to respond properly to rising incidents of antisemitism in its schools. 

    Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, said his concerns about bias when the ethnic studies law was adopted have come true. “Now we see in practice, particularly for those of us in the Jewish community, how, in my view, bad actors have hijacked the process to promote a curriculum that does the opposite of what the goals that we had established,” he said during the discussion on the bill.

    However, more than a dozen ethnic studies teachers and parents, including several Jewish parents opposed to the Israeli military’s invasion of Gaza, disagreed, saying at that hearing that they opposed the bill.

    Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said he was troubled by ambiguities in the bill and the possibility that the strength of ethnic studies could be weakened. “Everything in my core being is telling me that as it’s currently put together, (the bill) is actually going to have the unintended consequence of exacerbating the intensity of disputes at the local level,” he said.

    Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, the committee chair, said he shared Cortese’s concern that ethnic studies could “get unproductively caught up in controversies over whose version of history should be taught in our schools.” 

    “It’s fair to worry about the consequences, absent clarity in the bill, of organizations and individuals without teaching experience involved in developing high school courses,” he said.

    “I think it’s important that the bill move forward. It’s an important discussion,” he added. Encouraging Zbur and Addis to work through unresolved issues with the Latino Caucus and others, he joined the majority in passing the bill, with Cortese dissenting.

      





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  • LAUSD’s 100 priority schools show support for equity, but some say program isn’t enough

    LAUSD’s 100 priority schools show support for equity, but some say program isn’t enough


    Students catch up and get ahead during LAUSD’s Summer of Learning.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    Thomas Jefferson High School has a rich history. 

    It is one of the oldest schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District — established more than a century ago — and lies in Central Avenue, which used to be called “Little Harlem” during the 1920s and 1930s. 

    Its graduates — from Ralph Bunche, the first Black Nobel laureate, to Alvin Ailey, the legendary choreographer — have had lasting impact.

    Now, Jefferson High sits on LAUSD’s list of 100 priority schools — meaning that Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has identified it as one of the district’s highest-needs campuses with lagging academic performance and lower attendance rates. 

    In an effort to promote equity across the district, LAUSD provides priority schools like Jefferson extra support and is the first to receive various resources, including instructional days designed to recover pandemic learning losses, as well as being the first to pilot LAUSD’s AI personal assistant. 

    “This approach places schools with the most need in a place of priority in the District regarding time and attention by Central and Region Offices,” an LAUSD spokesperson said in a statement to EdSource. 

    While veteran teachers and community activists have applauded Carvalho for putting an emphasis on equity, they have also said that being placed on the list creates a stigma that affects the schools’ administrators, teachers and students. Many have also warned that the superintendent’s approach is too standardized and does not address the root, societal causes of students’ academic struggles. 

    “Nobody wants to be listed as a failing school,” said Nicolle Fefferman, a longtime LAUSD educator who co-founded the Facebook group Parents Supporting Teachers. “Who wants to be on this list? No one — because it feels like an indictment of the hard work that we are doing every day at these schools in the face of huge historical and institutional obstacles.” 

    According to a district spokesperson, LAUSD’s priority schools have higher percentages of underserved students, including those who are Black, Latino, foster youth, unhoused and from immigrant backgrounds. 

    Proponents of other equity programs that largely support the same student body, including the Student Equity Needs Index, say their efforts have been sidelined and that they have not received the same level of support. 

    LAUSD has a history of prioritizing equity, Fefferman said, and Carvalho wasn’t the first district leader to roll out a list of struggling schools during Fefferman’s tenure as a teacher in the district. Former Superintendent Ruben Zacarias, who served in the late 1990s, did something similar. 

    “Los Angeles Unified is committed to an equitable approach in providing historically underserved schools with critical access to supports and resources,” the spokesperson for LAUSD said. 

    A need for equity support

    Largely clustered in south and southeast Los Angeles, the roughly 54,000 LAUSD students who attend Carvalho’s priority schools have struggled with chronic absenteeism — 38.2% in the 2022-23 academic year — and lower academic performance. Only 23% of students attending priority schools met or exceeded English standards, while 16% met or exceeded math standards, according to Smarter Balanced Test results for that same year. 

    Meanwhile, nearly 70% of priority school graduates failed to complete their A-G requirements, which are mandatory for admission to the University of California or the California State University systems. 

    Data for the 2023-24 academic year is not yet available, and it is difficult to determine whether performance at priority schools has improved since they were so identified. 

    So far, the priority schools have improved their outcomes, the spokesperson said, noting that their rate of improvement is larger than the district’s overall. 

    “The questions are: How did those schools get there? How long have they been there? And what’s the plan?” asked Evelyn Aleman, the organizer of the Facebook group Our Voice/Nuestra Voz. 

    “Outside of tutoring and additional school days, things like that, what does (being a priority school) mean? Is it going to be Saturday classes throughout the year? Is it just going to be three additional days? That’s simply not going to be enough.” 

    According to a district spokesperson, developing the list of 100 priority schools was part of a larger plan to improve student performance — and that the campuses on the list receive strategic and priority staffing, along with additional professional development opportunities that are “specific to their school’s unique needs.” 

    They also receive more instructional coaches and dual/current enrollment options. Their progress is more closely monitored. 

    Some LAUSD teachers, however, maintain that the extra support that comes with being a priority school won’t be enough because there are other institutional and societal factors that get in the way of better outcomes. 

    “There is so much stress in the community — much of it because of poverty, some because of violence. And it’s not that there’s violence all the time, but it’s the fact that there can be at any moment — that you’re on guard,” said Susan Ferguson, a veteran LAUSD educator who previously taught at Jefferson High School. 

    “When you’re on your stressors like that for an extended period of time, it affects your immune system. It affects your ability to learn and focus. It affects so many things,” Ferguson said.

    ‘I just don’t feel like we’re moving forward’ 

    Educators in priority schools say they can feel pressure from the district to improve outcomes, and Ferguson said LAUSD officials would come by and visit classrooms on a weekly basis. 

    “Classrooms are constantly having visitors: ‘Are they teaching? What are they teaching?’ The people coming in, I feel like, are well-intentioned, but they’re visiting 10 different schools who have different needs,” Ferguson said.

    “And yet, they’re being asked to help all of us, and they can’t — not unless they really spend time at one school looking at it.” 

    Administrators at the Jefferson High School campus, Ferguson said, have been under enormous pressure to improve academic outcomes. 

    She also said she wouldn’t be surprised if students’ psychology were impacted by the constant flow of district administrators in and out of classrooms — and any nervousness coming from their teachers. 

    “Our kids aren’t stupid. I’m sure that they have picked up on … some sort of problem,” Ferguson said. “I’m really hoping that they’re not taking it as being them. … I can’t imagine them not feeling the anxiety.”

    More than anything, Ferguson maintains that the district’s standardized approach may not address the root cause of students’ academic challenges. 

    “‘Let’s have tutors. Let’s assign these tutors to Jefferson and make the kids stay till 6 p.m.’” Ferguson said. “Well, if you bothered to come to our school and talk to our kids, you’d realize that we don’t have kids that generally stay until 6 p.m. because it’s not even safe. And people have family members to take care of and responsibilities.” 

    “It just totally seems not in touch with what’s going on and what the issues are.”

    ‘A broader view’: SENI’s approach to equity 

    A long-term equity program across LAUSD schools — the Student Equity Needs Index (SENI) — is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. 

    The effort, which was developed by the district alongside various community partners, ranks and categorizes all of LAUSD’s campuses based on their needs. The 15 factors that inform SENI’s rankings go beyond academic factors to include the prevalence of gun violence and asthma rates. 

    During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, exposure to the coronavirus and related deaths were also taken into account. 

    Jessenia Reyes, Catalyst California’s director of educational equity, said social indicators help them focus on challenges more uniquely faced by lower income communities and communities of color. 

    SENI then uses a sliding scale to allocate funding, which schools can use to address whatever needs they and their communities collectively feel are most pressing, said Daniela Hernández, the senior director of campaign development at Innercity Struggle, a local nonprofit organization that has been part of the effort to implement the program. 

    About 90% of SENI funds — which come from the district and are given to schools based on their level of need — went toward bolstering staff across elementary, middle and high schools, with many choosing to focus on psychiatric social workers and pupil services and attendance staff, according to a 2021 evaluation of the district’s SENI program conducted by American Institutes for Research. 

    The same evaluation found that SENI helped boost English language arts scores among economically disadvantaged students and those who are English learners. Math scores also increased among students with disabilities who are also English learners and economically disadvantaged.  

    Despite the improvements SENI has seen over the past decade, community advocates have also sounded alarms that not all of SENI funds allocated to schools are spent by principals. According to a district budget report, there is roughly $282 million that remains unused going into the 2024-25 academic year. 

    “Schools are encouraged to utilize SENI funds for each school year in order to serve the students who generated those dollars, and to engage with educational partners regarding the use of these funds,” a district spokesperson said in a statement to EdSource. 

    “Unspent SENI dollars are reallocated to schools based on need in order to address learning acceleration, provide mental health services and supports, provide additional learning supports, support student attendance, and address the needs of student populations.”

    Priority schools, the spokesperson said, get to keep up to 70% of their carryover funds. 

    A delicate relationship 

    This past year, 88 high- and highest-need SENI schools were listed on Carvalho’s list of 100 priority schools. A district spokesperson said that SENI serves as more of a financial designation, while the 100 priority schools list is more of a “strategic designation for central and regional support systems.”

    Advocates have said they appreciate LAUSD’s expressed commitment to equity. 

    “The district, if anything, has been ahead of the game of understanding that students don’t learn in a box — that whatever happens in their community matters,” said Miguel Dominguez, the director of development at Community Coalition, who has worked with LAUSD on the SENI initiative. 

    “If they’re being exposed to gun fatalities in their neighborhood, maybe doing a test or a pop quiz might not be something at the forefront of their mind. … This understanding of this overall whole child approach has been big.” 

    But several advocates also maintain that the district’s attitude toward SENI has changed with the emergence of the 100 priority schools. 

    When Carvalho announced he had developed developedhe list, Reyes said SENI seemed to drift onto the back burner; and, they felt an increasing pressure to prove SENI’s worth, and that it “wasn’t just symbolic” but had funding tied to it. 

    She noted that funding for SENI has increased over the years — soaring from $25 to $700 million. Advocates have continued to press for sustained support. 

    “Now more than ever, it is vital that LA Unified takes actionable steps to demonstrate its core belief of equity by interrupting the course of history and committing to prioritizing stable, long-term adequate funding to meet the unique needs of highest-needs students,” a March letter from various SENI supporters to Carvalho and the school board states. 

    “This includes protection of SENI and ensuring the $700 million investment is a permanent and stable funding source beyond the 2024-2025 school year.”      

    Meanwhile, SENI advocates said that a lack of transparency from the district and its failure to immediately release the list of 100 priority schools has made it harder for them to work collaboratively. 

    The district, however, noted that support for priority schools is intended to help campuses take advantage of their resources, including SENI funding and “removing any barriers that may interfere” with their schools’ individual efforts. 

    “There’s room for improvement in collaborating and working in parallel. Because ultimately, if they are SENI schools and they are priority schools, that means it’s a high-need school, period,” Reyes said. “It needs the support and the love from everybody and everything.”





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  • More, but not enough, Californians accessing free money for college, career

    More, but not enough, Californians accessing free money for college, career


    Baleria Contreras and Monica Cha, representatives with the state’s CalKIDS program, explained what the scholarship funds could be used for once students graduate from high school during a community event at Golden 1 Credit Union in Fresno on April 5, 2025.

    Credit: Lasherica Thornton / EdSource

    Top Takeaways
    • CalKIDS is a state program providing seed money for college or career to eligible public school students.
    • The number of students claiming their CalKIDS accounts is up by nearly 4 percentage points since last year, but it is still far from reaching most of the state’s students.
    • The increase is linked to more community engagement, targeted campaigns and multilingual materials. 

    The doors of the Golden 1 Credit Union remained ajar on April 5 as elementary-aged kids played games or had their faces painted outside while families inside circled the display tables featuring material from the bank and CalKIDS. 

    The event was to encourage families to open a youth education savings account as well as learn about and claim at least $500 in free scholarship money already sitting in a state-funded account.

    Erica Wade-Lamas registered for the interest-bearing money for three of her four Fresno Unified students, an eighth grader and twin seventh graders. (Her twelfth grader was at a prom and would claim his own money later at home.)

    The bank event is one of the noticeable changes to community outreach work by CalKIDS, the California Kids Investment and Development Savings program, a state initiative to help children from low-income families save money for college or a career. 

    “It’s going to be easier on me and my husband, knowing that there’s an extra cushion when they do graduate, to have the ability to use that money for a laptop or something additional that’s not going to have to come out of our pockets,” said Wade-Lamas. “That’s what I’m excited about.”

    Even though the money is automatically deposited into the savings account under a student’s name, families must claim the accounts by registering online. Students can claim the money up until age 26. 

    In 2024, EdSource found that fewer than 8.3% of eligible families had claimed their account, despite fanfare surrounding the launch. 

    To expand its reach and create more awareness, CalKIDS is drawing on lessons from the past, plus the perspective of a new director. The program has changed its approach to marketing and expanded its multilingual and community engagement. 

    Over 3.9 million school-aged children across the state now qualify for at least $500 with CalKIDS, the savings account launched by the state in 2022. It automatically awards at least $500 to low-income students and English learners with the goal of helping families save for college or career training. 

    What is CalKIDS? 

    CalKIDS was created to help students, especially those from underserved communities, gain access to higher education by creating a savings account and depositing between $500 and $1,500 in their name. 

    The California Department of Education determines eligibility based on students identified as low income under the state’s Local Control Funding Formula or as English language learners. 

    Click here to find out if your child is eligible.

    Low-income public school students and English learners are automatically awarded $500 if they: 

    • Were in grades 1-12 during the 2021-22 school year.
    • Were enrolled in first grade during the 2022-23 school year.
    • Are first graders in subsequent years, meaning the number of accounts grows annually. 

    An additional $500 is deposited for students identified as foster youth and another $500 for students classified as homeless. 

    Since last year, the number of students who have claimed their funds has gone up 4 percentage points, and 475,862 or 12% of all accounts statewide have been claimed, still far from reaching most of the state’s students.

    And since hundreds of thousands of new accounts are automatically added each year, maintaining and increasing the percentage of claimed accounts will be an ever-elusive target, especially as the program starts tackling new challenges created by Assembly Bill 2508, which will expand program eligibility.  

    The struggle to reach more families

    The program’s new director, Cassandra DiBenedetto, appointed in October 2024, has visited various communities to learn about the unique barriers and experiences of those who qualify for CalKIDS. 

    “What children in Modoc County are experiencing is very different than what children in LA County are experiencing,” she said. “So I’ve really tried to reach out to our partners in various communities and learn about their experiences so that we make well-informed decisions … based on the lived experience of the people we’re trying to reach.”

    Awareness — or a lack thereof — has been the No. 1 challenge related to CalKIDS account access.

    To improve that, DiBenedetto and her team have, in the past six months, focused on partnering with organizations across the state. 

    From its inception in summer 2022 through the end of 2023, CalKIDS partnered with about 550 organizations to promote the program, according to the state treasurer’s office. Now it works with more than 1,000 community-based organizations, school districts and financial institutions. 

    “More and more people are approaching us saying, ‘Hey, we know you’re doing this thing. We want to be involved,’” DiBenedetto said. “I don’t know that, in the first two years of the program, that was necessarily the case, so I think that has been a huge change for us.” 

    Partnerships, targeted outreach are key

    Thanh-Truc “April” Hoang, a second-year student at the University of California Riverside, remembers attending an open house on campus as a high school senior in 2023 and seeing a display table with Riverside County Office of Education material about free money for college. Hoang learned about CalKIDS and what the $500 could be used for. She and her three younger siblings would go on to claim their accounts. 

    Attending UC Riverside the following semester due to its proximity to her home, Hoang commuted back and forth to campus, saving thousands of dollars in on-campus expenses but faced one unexpected cost: parking. She requested and received her CalKIDS funds to pay for the annual parking permit, lifting a burden off her shoulders — and her parents. 

    “I didn’t want to burden my parents with having to pay for my college parking,” she said. “I wanted them to feel like they didn’t have to constantly keep looking after me, because I have three younger siblings (two of whom are in high school). I wanted to make sure their burden could be alleviated.” 

    Since Hoang and her siblings claimed their accounts once she was aware of it, the CalKIDS funds will continue helping her family.

    “I was just really glad that we were able to find out about this resource,” said Hoang, who helped her younger cousins claim their accounts. 

    In its back-to-school campaign from July to October 2024, CalKIDS used social media and mailers to inform high schoolers and high-school graduates about the money waiting to be claimed. 

    DiBenedetto said that more than 94,000 accounts were claimed in that one targeted marketing campaign; 73% of the new accounts belonged to high school graduates or college students, who could use their money right away.

    She said a new partnership with the California Cradle-to-Career Data System will further help reach that population of students, as will partnerships with the California Student Aid Commission and the community college chancellor’s office, which can connect with college students who haven’t claimed their funds. 

    Addressing language, literacy barriers 

    Last year, advocates, such as those at End Poverty in California, suggested ways for local communities and the CalKIDS program to address the barriers limiting account access, including: 

    • Rewriting informational materials to a third-grade reading level so more families understand the content.
    • Advocating for multilingual outreach at the state level.

    The CalKIDS team has expanded its multilingual media campaigns, too, ensuring materials, such as event fliers, are available in at least the top 10 languages spoken in California — something that wasn’t available a year ago, DiBenedetto said.

    “We are meeting people where they are in the language that they speak,” she said. 

    Subtle shifts in the way CalKIDS is framed and talked about are just as important as language and literacy, said many interviewed. 

    According to DiBenedetto, instead of using the term “savings account,” CalKIDS materials now say “scholarship,” “a baby’s first scholarship,” “the easiest scholarship your child will ever get” and simply “claim your money.” 

    “Sometimes it’s things like the word ‘account’ (that) can be scary in some populations,” she said. “These populations understand the word scholarship.” 

    Increased awareness, access 

    Awareness is growing as a result of increased partnerships, targeted outreach and changes in material to address language access and reading comprehension, DiBenedetto said. 

    “More kids are taking advantage of their CalKIDS scholarship accounts,” she said about the more than 475,000 student accounts claimed as of March 31.  

    But hundreds of thousands of accounts for first graders are added annually, making the percentage of claimed accounts a “moving target,” she said.  

    Newborn accounts

    Those born in the state between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, were awarded $25 before the seed deposit increased to $100. The California Department of Public Health provides information on newborns. Parents who link the CalKIDS account to a ScholarShare 529 college savings account are eligible for an additional $50 deposit for their newborns. A partnership with Covered California has tied the completion of well-child visits and vaccinations to the ability to earn up to $1,000 in the newborn accounts until March 2026. 

    More than 400,000 accounts are added annually for newborns as well, and children born in California after June 2023, regardless of their parents’ income, are granted $100. 

    Nearly 96,000 of over 1 million eligible newborn accounts have been claimed as of March 31.

    Altogether, the claimed student and newborn accounts total 571,631, representing an 82% increase from this time last year. 

    Challenges ahead 

    Due to September 2024 legislation, CalKIDS’ eligibility will expand to all foster youth in grades 1-12, starting next school year until 2029. 

    The CalKIDS team does not yet know the numbers for all eligible foster youth but reported that 3,093 claimed their accounts so far. Based on 2023-24 state data, nearly 30,000 students are foster youth, a number that will likely remain consistent next school year when the legislation takes effect. 

    Millions of dollars have been allocated to program outreach and collaboration.

    But in the 2025 budget approved in June, $5 million was reverted back to the general fund, a maneuver often taken to share funds with other programs.

    Because the program was still in its early stages, DiBenedetto said, it had a minimal impact on outreach efforts.

    The expanded program eligibility and funding changes may present unforeseen obstacles, but the CalKIDS team plans to tackle those challenges by using them as learning opportunities. 

    “I think that we’ve learned a lot over the last couple years,” DiBenedetto said. “I’ve learned a lot over the last (six) months, and we are ready for whatever comes our way. Every challenge is really just opportunity.”





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  • Statewide test scores improved in 2024, but achievement still not back to pre-Covid levels

    Statewide test scores improved in 2024, but achievement still not back to pre-Covid levels


    Students in a Fresno Unified classroom.

    Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr

    This story was updated at 4:25 pm with more details on the assessment results.

    California students made some progress toward regaining their pre-Covid levels of achievement with incremental increases in English language arts, math and science scores last school year, according to state data released Wednesday.

    English language arts test scores overall increased slightly, from 46.7% of the state’s students meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in 2023 to 47% in 2024. Math and science scores also edged up incrementally, with 30.7% of students in both subjects meeting or exceeding proficiency standards compared with 30.2% the year before. 

    Smarter Balanced tests are given to students in third through eighth grades and in 11th grade. They are part of the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP), which also includes the English Language Proficiency Assessment.

    Last school year was the third year students returned to school since the Covid pandemic pushed schools into distance learning and caused dramatic declines in test scores after years of progress. In 2019, more than half of California students, 51.7%, met or exceeded state standards in English language arts, and 37.1% met or exceeded state standards in math.

    Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education and an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, said she found reason for encouragement in the scores. She said that the overall gains were consistent across grades and for Latino and Black students.

     “California’s public schools are making encouraging gains in all of the key subject areas, and these gains are largest for our most vulnerable groups of students,” Darling-Hammond said in a statement. “Our governor and the Legislature have, in recent years, prioritized … accelerating learning and equity: community schools, expanded learning time, transitional kindergarten, and investments in literacy and math. Those efforts are paying dividends.” 

    Students from low-income households made larger gains in all three subjects on the tests than students overall — a change from initially after the pandemic. Low-income students’ scores in English language arts increased 1.5 percentage points over the previous year, with 36.8% meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in English. There was a similar increase in both math and science, with 20.7% meeting or exceeding standards — a 1.4 percentage point increase in each.

    Darling-Hammond attributes the academic improvement to billions of dollars in federal and state assistance directed to students with the most needs. She acknowledged it’s not possible to tease out the impact of the state’s expanded after-school learning program relative to money spent on community schools or literacy coaches. But it’s apparent that the combined money is making a difference; for families experiencing evictions and illnesses in high-poverty neighborhoods, the pandemic isn’t over, she said. 

    “My heart goes out to those in the schools that deal daily with these issues,” Darling-Hammond said.

    This narrowing of the performance gaps occurred even though the proportion of low-income students in California has grown significantly in the last seven years, from 58% to 65%, Darling-Hammond said. And the numbers of homeless and foster children are up too, she said.

    After looking at the same state data, however, the nonprofit advocacy group Children Now expressed alarm. “California’s lack of progress in closing the education achievement gap over the past 10 years is completely unacceptable,” it said in a statement. “We have made almost no progress for our Black and Latino students, who make up more than 60% of California’s TK-12 student population, since the start of the Local Control Funding Formula and associated accountability system a decade ago.”

    Additional protections are needed, Children Now stated, “to ensure the equity-focused funding that is the hallmark (of the funding formula) goes to the schools and students most in need to close our state’s unconscionable achievement gap.”

    Racial/demographic breakdown of test scores from 2015 – 2024

    English and math scores for students in all California schools and districts showing gaps in proficiency.

    California school districts have received record levels of one-time and ongoing funding since the start of the Covid pandemic. But the last $12.5 billion in federal pandemic relief — 20% of which was required to be spent on learning recovery — had to be spent by last month.

    California schools are getting creative to continue to fund positions and other support once funded by Covid dollars, said Alex Traverso, spokesperson for the California State Board of Education. Some schools in San Diego County, for example, are funding counselors and social worker positions, once paid for with federal Covid dollars, with the community schools dollars.

    “So I think as much as we can, we are trying to find strategies and techniques that can keep these programs moving forward and keep student achievement on the rise,” Traverso said.

    The gap in proficiency between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students remains daunting in 2023-24: 29.3 percentage points in English language arts and 30.2 percentage points in math — about 1 percentage point smaller than in 2022-23.

    States’ scores flat after dropping

    An analysis of third-grade reading by David Scarlett Wakelyn, a partner with Upswing Labs, a nonprofit that works with school districts to improve reading instruction, found that California’s scores were similar to 29 other states he has examined: flat after falling sharply after the pandemic.

    Third grade is a benchmark year for achieving fluency. In 2018-19, the last year before the pandemic, 48.5% of California students were proficient or advanced; in 2023-24, 42.8% were, a drop of 5.7 percentage points. In the past three years, reading scores rose less than 1 percentage point.

    Other states that take the Smarter Balanced assessments followed the same pattern, including Oregon, Nevada and Delaware, whose scores were below California before the pandemic and were again in 2023-24. Washington State, where 55% of students were proficient in 2018-19, fell to 47% and has stayed there the past three years.  

    None of the nation’s 10 largest states have bounced back to where they were before the pandemic, Wakelyn found. But in four “bright spot” states — Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana and South Carolina — reading scores increased by 3 to 5 percentage points each of the past three years and are now ahead of where they were before the pandemic. The state leadership in Louisiana, he said, has long focused on adopting high-quality instructional materials and giving teachers deep professional learning opportunities in the new curricula, he said.  

    Smarter Balanced test results divide student scores into four achievement levels, but this year the names of the levels have changed. Instead of “not meeting standards,” “standards nearly met,” “standards met” or “standards exceeded,” they are now “advanced,” “proficient,” “foundational” or “inconsistent.” 

    English learners have mixed results

    Fewer English learners tested as proficient on the summative English Language Proficiency Assessment for California (ELPAC) than last year. The percentage of English learners who tested as proficient went down from 16.5% in 2023 to 14.6% in 2024, while the percentage of English learners who had the most basic level of English increased from 20.33% to 23.93%.

    Students classified as English learners have to take the summative ELPAC every year until they achieve proficiency. There are four levels of proficiency — “beginning to develop,” “somewhat developed,” “moderately developed,” and “well developed.”

    Shelly Spiegel-Coleman, strategic adviser to the Californians Together, a nonprofit organization that advocates for English learners, said it is difficult to know what these numbers mean, because they could be due to a change in the demographics of English learners. For example, the increase in the percentage of students with the most basic level of English could be due to an increase in students who recently arrived in the U.S., she said. In addition, there is no information about how many students are reclassified as proficient in English.

    However, she said, “it would suggest that districts take a look at their English language development program and see if there is a need for intentional work to enhance it.”

    Los Angeles, Compton see gains

    The number of students in Los Angeles Unified (LAUSD) who met or exceeded state proficiency standards in both English language arts and math increased by about 2 points since 2023. Now, 43% of students meet or exceed standards in English language arts and 32.83% of students meet or exceed standards in math.

    School board member Kelly Gonez said the district is committed to continuous improvement and equity.

    “Every day, we’re showing up for our students, and it’s showing results,” Gonez said at a news conference in July, when the district announced preliminary scores. “I believe that we’re at the tipping point of really achieving the ambitious goals that we have for our students in our school district.”

    Nearby Compton Unified also saw improved test scores last school year. Roughly 43% of students met or exceeded proficiency standards in English language arts this year, compared with about 40% the previous year. The number of students who met or exceeded math standards also rose, from just over 31% to nearly 35% this year. 

    “Compton Unified School District has shown steady and remarkable progress in both math and English language arts, with our CAASPP scores far exceeding the state average for school districts with an unduplicated pupil count exceeding 90%,” Compton Unified School District Superintendent Darin Brawley said in a statement to EdSource. 

    Along with Compton and Los Angeles, the California Department of Education singled out Benicia Unified, Fallbrook Union Elementary and Santa Maria Joint Union High School districts for sharp gains in scores.

    Benecia’s 8 point gain in math scores, to 53% proficiency, was led by two years of growth by Hispanic students. At 40.7% proficiency, they are the first student group in the district to exceed its pre-pandemic 2018-19 rate. Superintendent Damon Wright credited the funding of districtwide professional learning and instructional coaches as factors.  

    Fallbrook’s one-year 5.2 point gain in English language arts and 5.9 pont gain in math bring the district almost back to pre-pandemic levels. Superintendent Monika Hazel also credits additional district-level math teaching specialists, leadership coaches and school-level instructional coaches for contributing to the improvement. The state’s $6 billion Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant, which will continue after federal Covid relief runs dry this fall, paid for some of the positions.

    Bay Area schools’ results vary

    In the Bay Area, some districts had big test score gains, while others stayed stagnant. Benicia Unified had a 4-point gain in its overall English test score, and an 8-point gain in math. San Francisco and Oakland test scores were mostly stagnant.

    West Contra Costa Unified is laboring to bring its scores back to pre-pandemic levels. Since the 2021-22 school year, slightly more West Contra Costa students have tested proficient or higher in math — up 2 points to 23% this year. Students who meet or exceed state proficiency standards in English language arts have been flat since 2021 at 32%, compared with 34.9% pre-pandemic.

    To help improve reading scores, the district created a 13-member literacy task force about a year ago to create a literacy plan and improve literacy instruction in the district. District officials did not respond to requests for an update on the task force’s progress.

    Big gains for Central Valley migrant students

    Tulare Joint Union High School District in the Central Valley region had data points worth celebrating and data pointing to areas that need improvement, said Kevin Covert, assistant superintendent for curriculum, technology and assessment of the test results. 

    Based on the 2024 tests, 53.5% of the 1,300 11th graders who took the exam met or exceeded English proficiency standards, a 2.2 point gain from the previous year. In math, 18.3% of students met or exceeded standards — an improvement of less than 1 point. 

    “Some people want to hang their hat on an overall test score,” Covert said. “We’re also looking at how our subgroups are doing.”

    The percentage of Tulare Joint Union students with disabilities meeting or exceeding standards was 12.7% in English, a jump of more than 5 points, and 3.5% in math, an improvement of more than 2 points. Though scores have fluctuated for students with disabilities, the 5.5-point gain in English is the largest percentage growth the group has made within the last decade.

    Though migrant students are a small population of the district’s students, 63.6% met or exceeded English standards, representing a double-digit gain. Only 18.2% met or exceeded math standards, although the increase of 1.5% was higher than the overall district increase.

    “Our success on this test can only be as good, partly, as the instruction that’s going on in the classroom,” Covert said. But educators must also know where students are academically, which is harder to track in Tulare Joint Union.

    Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest district, is struggling to return to pre-pandemic levels of achievement of 38% proficiency and above in English language arts and 29% proficiency and advanced in math. Superintendent Misty Her expressed confidence in the districtwide strategy known as “data chats.” At Data Chats, principals and staff evaluate data and set goals, including the need for intervention, for students to progress.





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  • Teachers are still leaving, but these aspiring educators are excited to join the profession

    Teachers are still leaving, but these aspiring educators are excited to join the profession


    A teacher shows 12th grade students how to construct a small animal house.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Amid a statewide teacher shortage, talk of teachers leaving the profession or simply not going into it in the first place is widespread. In a 2022 UCLA study, 1 in 5 California teachers said they would probably or definitely leave the profession in the next three years because of burnout, low pay and student apathy and misbehavior.

    But what about the teachers who are joining the profession? What motivates Gen Z students to go into teaching today, when it’s seemingly less lucrative and less attractive than ever? 

    One reason students like Katherine Osajima Pope — a recent University of California Santa Cruz graduate who is earning her master’s degree and teaching credential at Stanford University — decide to become teachers is to effect change. Osajima Pope wants to have a positive impact on her students, and, by extension, her community, “even if that’s one person at a time, or one classroom at a time.” 

    Chloe Decker, a rising senior at UC Berkeley, has noticed an increase in students who approach teaching from an advocacy perspective. As a peer adviser in UC Berkeley’s CalTeach program, through which undergraduates can gain teaching experience and even get their credentials, Decker regularly meets with students considering the teaching profession.

    “I have seen so many inspired students excited for student advocacy. They want to change people’s lives, they want to be there for the kids, they want to be one person of influence that can change minds as to how they view education,” Decker said. 

    CalTeach and other undergraduate and graduate credential programs place a heavy emphasis on the role of teaching in equity and social justice. One of the required courses for CalTeach’s program focuses on equity in urban schools, and the program lists increasing “access, equity, and inclusion for STEM learning” as one of its core principles. Osajima Pope said she was “pleasantly surprised” by Stanford’s commitment to educating its students on anti-racism and equity.

    Decker, who aims to become a teacher and then a school social worker, said she has seen a change in “what school actually means.” Beyond “just emphasizing academic requirements,” schools now see themselves as a support and social system for kids — and Decker and many of her peers are excited to engage in this aspect of the job. 

    “It’s just deeper than having them learn what one plus one is,” she said.

    Excited by the idea that educators can do more than teach facts and figures, many future teachers plan to bring their own educational experiences into the classroom, while parting ways with some aspects of traditional pedagogy. 

    Osajima Pope has been working with children for years, volunteering at schools and libraries since she was a child. She called her educational experience growing up in Oakland “transformative,” and said she wants to go back as an ethnic studies teacher to “teach to the same person that (she) was.”

    Susana Espinoza said her high school Spanish teacher exposed her to the world of Chicano/Latino studies, and she wants to similarly broaden students’ horizons. Espinoza, who is currently studying at UC Berkeley, remembers that Spanish class as the first time she saw herself reflected in the classroom, or in “any type of story that was told.” 

    Espinoza hopes to be “that one steppingstone” that allows students to achieve their dreams, as her teacher did for her.

    While equity and access to education are powerful motivators, some future teachers are just as excited by the potential of a job that allows for creative expression and deep interpersonal connections. For Lindsay Gonor, a recent Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo graduate who is now earning a teaching credential there, it was working at a theater camp through her teen years that led her to education. Gonor said the experience contrasted with what she heard from her parents about their jobs, and specifically her father, who was a lawyer.

    “I would ask (my dad) how work was, and he’d be like, ‘They don’t call it going to fun.’ And I was like, well, that’s not what I want to do. I work at the theater camp, and work is fun,” Gonor said.

    These Gen Z-ers are not ignorant of the challenges that come with teaching. Decker said that each time CalTeach hosts a teacher panel, at least one speaker discourages the students from joining the profession — citing the common problems of low pay and long hours.

    Gonor even acknowledged that her credential program is not a good “bang for your buck.” However, Gonor said, “The people that want to be teachers want to be teachers.” 

    Osajima Pope said she’s confronted with the realities of the job practically every time she tells someone her intended field, and she’s met with resistance. But for her, a part of the desire to teach is intrinsic, and possibly inexplicable. 

    “For me, my job isn’t about the money I make, it’s about what I feel passionate about,” Osajima Pope said. “It’s definitely hard to explain choosing happiness over money just because those two are equated so frequently, but I guess it was just (that) there’s literally nothing else I could see myself doing. Like, absolutely nothing else.”

    Clara Brownstein is a third-year student studying English, Spanish and journalism at UC Berkeley, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.





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