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  • Texas Floods: Staff Cuts at Weather Service, Plus Local Refusal to Pay Taxes for Early Warning=Disaster

    Texas Floods: Staff Cuts at Weather Service, Plus Local Refusal to Pay Taxes for Early Warning=Disaster


    The disastrous floods that swept through Hill Country and caused the deaths of 80 or more people were made worse by human error.

    The New York Times found that the local branches of the National Weather Service were short on staff; critical positions were empty. The computer specialists who worked for Elon Musk in an operation called DOGE decided that too many people worked for the National Weather Service. Some meteorologists took buyouts, others resigned.

    Furthermore the affected area did not have an early warning ststem. Local taxpayers didn’t want to pay for it.

    The quasi-libertarian belief that we don’t need government services and we shouldn’t pay for them took a toll on innocent people.

    The combination of Musk’s ruthless cost-cutting and local hostility to taxes set the stage for a disastrous tragedy.

    The Times reported:

    Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose. 

    Texas officials appeared to blame the Weather Service for issuing forecasts on Wednesday that underestimated how much rain was coming. But former Weather Service officials said the forecasts were as good as could be expected, given the enormous levels of rainfall and the storm’s unusually abrupt escalation.

    The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight. 

    The shortages are among the factors likely to be scrutinized as the death toll climbs from the floods. Separate questions have emerged about the preparedness of local communities, including Kerr County’s apparent lack of a local flood warning system. The county, roughly 50 miles northwest of San Antonio, is where many of the deaths occurred. 

    In an interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive, and local residents are resistant to new spending. 

    “Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” Mr. Kelly said. Asked if people might reconsider in light of the catastrophe, he said, “I don’t know.”

    The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.

    The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said. Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.

    That office’s warning coordination meteorologist left on April 30, after taking the early retirement package the Trump administration used to reduce the number of federal employees, according to a person with knowledge of his departure. 

    Sign up for Your Places: Extreme Weather.  Get notified about extreme weather before it happens with custom alerts for places in the U.S. you choose. Get it sent to your inbox.

    Some of the openings may predate the current Trump administration. But at both offices, the vacancy rate is roughly double what it was when Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January, according to Mr. Fahy.



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  • Early literacy funding raises reading scores of California’s lowest performing schools

    Early literacy funding raises reading scores of California’s lowest performing schools


    An elementary student reads on his own in class.

    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Research by Stanford University found that 75 of the lowest-performing California elementary schools that received funding from an out-of-court settlement made significant progress on third-grade state Smarter Balanced tests this year.

    The results indicate that the $50 million the schools received for effective reading instruction in the primary grades carried over to third grade after two years of funding. 

    “The fact that we were able to budge third grade comprehension assessments with a grant that was focused on TK, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, with a light touch on third grade, is amazing,” said Margaret Goldberg, literacy coach at Nystrom Elementary in West Contra Costa Unified, one of the schools that received the Early Literacy Support Block Grants, or ELSBs.

    The 75 schools had the lowest scores in the state in 2019 on the third-grade Smarter Balanced test. They received the money, averaging $1,144 per year for the 15,541 K-three students, under the settlement in the lawsuit, Ella T. v. the State of California, brought by the public interest law firm Public Counsel. It argued that the state violated the students’ constitutional right to an education by failing to teach them how to read adequately.

    Eligible schools were chosen from various districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, West Contra Costa Unified and others. The funding promoted the literacy instruction known as the “science of reading,” which includes explicit phonics instruction in kindergarten and first grade, along with the development of vocabulary, oral language, comprehension and writing.

    Schools had the flexibility to choose to fund literacy coaches and bilingual reading specialists, new curriculum and instructional materials, expanded access to libraries and literacy training for parents. Schools were encouraged to participate in professional development in the science of reading and seek guidance on their literacy plans from the Sacramento County Office of Education, which oversaw the grants.

    Released Monday, the study concluded that the block grants “generated significant (and cost-effective) improvements in English language arts achievement in its first two years of implementation as well as smaller, spillover improvements in math achievement,” wrote researchers Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, and Sarah Novicoff, a Stanford doctoral candidate in educational policy.

    Students in the funded schools were scoring at the bottom of the scale in 2019, and, despite significant progress, few had achieved reading at grade level in 2023. Dee and Novicoff credited the early education grant for increasing third graders’ achievement by 0.14 standard deviation, the equivalent of a 25% increase in a year of learning, compared with demographically similar students who did not receive the funding. Researchers also found a similar gain by comparing the scores of third graders in the schools with the grants with third-grade scores of fifth graders from the same schools who had not benefited from the funding.

    The Smarter Balanced reports results in four performance bands: standard not met, standard nearly met, standard met and standard exceeded. The schools with the grants succeeded in raising scores by 6 percentage points from the lowest category to standard nearly met, significantly reducing the number of students requiring intensive help. Still, after two years of funding, only 13.5% of students are proficient in reading, having met or exceeded standard. That’s 3 percentage points higher than in 2018, and 1 percentage point above pre-pandemic 2019. Schools with similar students not receiving the grants remain below where they were before Covid, according to the research.

    Dee and Novicoff were unable to analyze why some schools performed better than others, which could be useful in shaping the state’s policy on early literacy. Unlike some states with comprehensive literacy plans, California does not collect any assessment data that school districts collect from TK to second grade. And, under the rules that the state negotiated in the settlement, participating schools were not required to submit their assessment data to the California Department of Education; most voluntarily did in the second year, but many did not in the first year. It’s also unclear how many schools adhered to their literacy plans or focused on less effective or ineffective strategies for improvement. 

    Researchers used the only complete set of state-level data to which they had access — third-grade reading comprehension assessments. Those scores may have understated the progress in reading that many schools made on district assessments in the first and second grades.

    Public Counsel filed the Ella T. v. the State of California lawsuit in 2017, and the settlement went into effect during the height of the pandemic. Dee said the early success of the program during Covid, amid teacher shortages and extremely high chronic absences, made the results even more striking. 

    The third graders who took the Smarter Balanced test in 2023 “were the hardest hit by the pandemic. They were in kindergarten when it was interrupted by Covid,” Goldberg said. “They attended first grade remotely. In second grade, in schools like mine, which chose to adopt new curriculum, their teachers had never taught the curriculum before.”

    Dee noted the academic gains from the grant were relatively large compared with the cost, making the program quite cost-effective — an effect size that is 13 times higher than general, untargeted spending.

    Goldberg said the grant was efficient “because early intervention is cheaper and it’s more effective than waiting until third grade or later grades to provide reading support.”

    The grant funding ends in June 2024. Dee said whether schools can sustain improved scores without specific funding support is an open question. Novicoff mentioned that the grant schools may be able to continue receiving support for literacy coaches and reading specialists if they receive funding from the new Literacy Coach and Reading Specialist Grant program. 

    Instead of being based on performance, the literacy coach grants are awarded to schools with high unduplicated pupil percentages, or the number of students who are eligible for free or reduced meals, are English language learners or are foster youth. Schools eligible for an early literacy grant may also qualify for a literacy coach grant. 

    Dee said design and implementation are key if the state hopes to continue or scale this success. This means paying close attention to school-based literacy action plans, oversight and resources with some flexibility. “This is a story about how schools that get money tend to do better — money does matter in schools, and this is another piece of evidence into that bucket,” Novicoff said, “but it also shows that what we can do with the money and how you structure that funding really does matter.”





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  • Early literacy grants work, but three years is not enough

    Early literacy grants work, but three years is not enough


    A student holds a flash card with the sight word ‘friend’ during a class at Nystrom Elementary in the West Contra Costa Unified School District in 2022.

    Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

    I once believed that improving reading at a failing school could be a finite job. I thought it meant bringing in a new curriculum, showing teachers how to use it and then lingering long enough to ensure that students receive consecutive years of high-quality instruction.

    I was terribly wrong, but my misbelief brought me to work on California’s Early Literacy Support Block (ELSB) grant, and for that I’m grateful.

    The early literacy grant resulted from a class-action lawsuit. Students sued California for lacking a plan to address low reading achievement. The result was a $53 million settlement to provide the state’s lowest-performing schools with supplemental funding and guidance. A recent evaluation by researchers at Stanford University found the focus on early literacy turned out to be worth more than the grant’s dollar amount — the program was 13 times more effective than general increases in school spending.

    During an EdSource Roundtable on literacy, Mark Rosenbaum, lead attorney in the lawsuit noted, “If this is a pilot program, it has succeeded. We don’t need a task force; we don’t need more studies; we just need a commitment to expand it to every kid, every teacher and every school.”

    Improving reading instruction requires a literacy plan backed by strong leadership. It means coordinating resources, monitoring progress, and changing course when needed. It demands making decisions based on evidence, not adult preferences, and prioritizing early literacy so that every child gets off to a good start reading.

     I was on a team that helped eligible schools draft literacy action plans for the grant funding. I’d hoped this work would inform statewide planning, but despite the program’s success, California is no closer to a literacy plan.

    And worse, in a few months, schools like mine will lose the funding and support that made us briefly successful.

    When the program launched, I joined Nystrom Elementary, in West Contra Costa Unified, as a literacy coach. At the time, 91% of our second-graders needed to learn kindergarten phonics, as did 65% of upper graders. Working fast, we created a “walk-to-read” block in which grade level bands (e.g., first and second grades) pooled their students and sorted them into groups according to assessment data. Each teacher taught two of the groups. Our plan required collaboration and created peer accountability for teaching a new curriculum.

    In the second year, teachers led. They facilitated professional development, refined instruction and analyzed student data. We began to pick up momentum. By the middle of the year, the need for second grade intensive intervention was cut almost in half (from 86% to 46%). By the year’s end, according to the district’s reading comprehension assessment, Nystrom Elementary had the highest growth.

    This year, we turned our attention to improving writing and language instruction. We’ve forged a partnership with SAiL Literacy Lab to bridge the divide between what researchers know about language development and how we teach our students.

    Each year, we’ve adjusted our literacy action plan, incorporating what we’ve learned from research, practice and our student data. We’ve spent our literacy block grant funds on curriculum, coaching and intervention to strengthen classroom instruction, but our staff’s commitment to the plan is what improved achievement. 

    Good literacy plans in California are rare, and wasted opportunities abound. Walk into any school and you are likely to see curriculum (some of it brand new) collecting dust. Our literacy coaches often say they are kept busy with subbing, yard duty and other tasks that don’t improve classroom teaching. Reading interventionists often feel isolated in their work, unsure how much they are contributing to their school’s overall success. Most rare in California are strong literacy plans that are backed by secure funding.

    The money from the Early Literacy Support Block Grant is drying up, but my school’s work is not done. It never will be.

    More than 95% of our students are from low-income households and our non-stability rate (students who enroll and disenroll, often due to unstable housing) is over 26%. Our school will always have intervention needs, teachers requiring support and data demanding analysis and action. These needs are not problems, as long as they are met with a plan and funding.

    As Rosenbaum noted in the EdSource Roundtable: “This grant is only for three years. … That was the best we could get in the settlement, but that makes no sense if you care about kids. I wouldn’t say about my kids, ‘I will do what you need for three years, and then we’ll do the best we can afterwards.’ These schools, these educators, need what they need forever.”

    This year, California spent over $225 million on coaching and intervention, but a literacy plan was not a condition for schools receiving the funds. Another $248 million was recently added to bring in a new cohort of schools, but those with expiring literacy plans were not prioritized.

    Because California lacks a strategic plan to improve literacy (the very reason for the lawsuit years ago), effective literacy plans may soon become dreams deferred. The irony of this cuts deep.

    •••

    Margaret Goldberg is a literacy coach in West Contra Costa Unified School District and co-founder of The Right to Read Project, a group of teachers, researchers and activists committed to the pursuit of equity through literacy.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Solving California’s early literacy crisis is a social justice imperative

    Solving California’s early literacy crisis is a social justice imperative


    Kindergarten teacher Jana Herrera at Booksin Elementary in San Jose discusses a story written by Casandra Lopez Monsivais.

    Liv Ames / EdSource

    Believing in the future of California’s most vulnerable students demands an urgent focus on early literacy. Nearly 178,000 economically disadvantaged third graders are not meeting state standards for English language arts, and the vast majority of those falling behind are disproportionately Black and Latino children. Early learning gaps all too often turn into lifelong opportunity gaps. If we as a state are failing to teach a significant number of students from low-income communities to read, then we are failing to be the progressive leaders we profess to be.

    According to the latest data from California’s standardized tests, only 3 in 10 third grade students from low-income communities are at grade level in English, compared with 6 in 10 of their higher-income peers. These educational inequities follow a child through to their adult life. Research shows that adults with limited literacy, which includes 28% of Californians, are more likely to be unemployed or earn an income that falls below the poverty level. According to the World Literacy Foundation, illiteracy can also lead to poor health, disenfranchisement and even crime. Among youth involved in the juvenile justice system, up to 85% are functionally illiterate.

    This is not just an education issue, it’s a social justice issue.

    There are a number of factors, both in and outside the classroom, that have contributed to this achievement gap. We are calling on the state Legislature to address those within their control, which include a combination of the public school system not prioritizing academic outcomes for low-income students enough, no requirements for school districts to teach reading based on evidence-backed practices, a lack of accountability to ensure statewide reading efforts are being implemented with fidelity, and an outdated state-approved instructional materials list.

    We now know so much more about how to effectively teach children to read than we have in the past. A large body of interdisciplinary research known as the science of reading informs us of the methods proven most effective in ensuring elementary students develop strong literacy skills. A focus on language development and building background knowledge along with direct and systematic teaching of phonics, word recognition, fluency, and other critical foundational skills benefits students, including English learners.

    In recent years, one-third of states have committed to implementing comprehensive literacy policies grounded in the science of reading with encouraging signs of success. Mississippi, one of the leaders in comprehensive research-based literacy reform, went from being ranked 49th in the country in 2013 for fourth grade reading to 21st in 2022, and has made steady progress in reading scores for Black and Latino students and students from low-income communities.

    The science of reading is not a panacea for all student reading challenges. But, based on historical research and positive implementation outcomes, it can dramatically improve the lives of California students, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

    Given the urgency of this educational crisis, we implore our elected leaders to pass a comprehensive literacy policy agenda based on the science of reading in 2024 so that all children will have the best chance to become proficient readers by the end of third grade.

    Anchor components of the agenda should include:

    1. All English language arts, English language development and reading instructional materials used in California public schools must adhere to methods supported by research.
    2. Investments in statewide educator training programs for both the science of reading and implementing evidence-based literacy instruction.
    3. Additional accountability measures and professional development that will help ensure newly certified teachers are prepared to effectively teach reading based on the principles and practices of the science of reading.

    Details of these policy recommendations may be found in the California Early Literacy Coalition’s early literacy policy brief.

    If there is one primary responsibility of public elementary schools, it is to teach children how to read so they are set up for future success. It is time that we prioritize unlocking reading potential and future opportunities for all of California’s children.

    •••

    Megan Potente is co-state director for Decoding Dyslexia CA, a grassroots movement dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for those with dyslexia and all struggling readers.

    Marshall Tuck is CEO of EdVoice, a nonprofit organization seeking to change state policy so that children from low-income communities receive high-quality educations.

    The opinions expressed in this piece represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Newsom promises funding to jump-start early literacy

    Newsom promises funding to jump-start early literacy


    Gov. Gavin Newsom displays the Golden State Literacy Plan, a compilation of actions he has taken to improve reading in early grades, during an appearance at Clinton Elementary School in Compton on June 5.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed Thursday that the state budget will include hundreds of millions of dollars to fund legislation needed to achieve a comprehensive statewide approach to early literacy.

    Assembly Bill 1454, which passed the Assembly on Thursday with a unanimous 75-0 vote, would move the state’s schools toward adopting evidence-based literacy instruction, also known as the science of reading or structured literacy. 

    Although phonics, the ability to connect letters to sounds, has drawn the most attention, the science of reading focuses on four other pillars of literacy instruction: phonemic awareness, identifying distinct units of sounds; vocabulary; comprehension; and fluency. It is based on research on how the brain connects letters with sounds when learning to read.

    “Learning to read is life-changing for a child,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, said in a statement. “And strong reading skills are the gateway to academic success, lifelong confidence, and opportunity. With this legislation, we take a clear and necessary step toward ensuring every child in California learns to read, and read well. This bill is supported by a broad and growing coalition all united in one belief: That we can and must do better for our students.”

    Rivas forged a deal for AB 1454 after ordering the sponsors of the bill, which included advocacy groups Decoding Dyslexia CA, EdVoice, and Families In Schools, to settle their differences with advocates for English learners and the California Teachers Association.

    The compromise legislation would provide funding for optional teacher training in evidence-based practices, require that all TK-5 textbooks that districts adopt be aligned to in this approach, and ensure all newly credentialed administrators are trained to support evidence-based instruction.

    Assemblymembers Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, and Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, co-authored the bill. 

    “We attached that bill to the budget, so we mean business,” Newsom said during a press conference at Clinton Elementary School in Compton. “We wanted to get that done, and we got it done. We hope we’ll get it done with an additional $200 million attached to it.”

    Advocates of a comprehensive statewide approach to early literacy say the bill would fill in significant gaps in the state’s current policy of local control over instructional decisions. It completes a comprehensive plan to improve literacy in the state, said Newsom, introducing the Golden State Literacy Plan.

    “This Golden State Literacy Plan is a step-by-step plan to make real what we are promoting,” Newsom said, holding up the nine-page document — a compilation of actions the state has taken, culminating with additional funding for literacy-related programs and actions.

    While states like Mississippi, Tennessee and Colorado have started with a framework grounded in the science of reading and a comprehensive plan for early literacy, California, over the past five years, adopted disparate parts: new evidenced-based reading standards for teacher preparation programs, state funding of an early grade diagnostic screening system for reading challenges like dyslexia, and funding reading coaches in the state’s lowest-performing schools. It also included the expansion of transitional kindergarten and expanded bilingual programs.

    Newson talked about his personal experience with dyslexia and how it has motivated him to improve literacy in the state.

    “There’s not a day where my dyslexia does not expose itself,” he said. “If anyone’s seen my writing, they can attest to how it exposes itself. So this has been an imperative for me to do more and do better in this space.”

    Newsom also took the opportunity Thursday to talk about some of the state’s successes, including improved scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading in both fourth and eighth grades between 2011 and 2022.

    The Compton Unified School District was selected for the press conference to highlight the district’s increased test scores and graduation rates. 

    “Today’s event reflects a shared purpose, ensuring literacy for all,” said Compton Unified Superintendent Darin Brawley. “The governor’s emphasis on literacy is both timely and essential. Research and experience tells us that if students are not reading by grade three, it’s going to be a struggle. Thereafter, their academic path becomes increasingly difficult.”

    Compton Unified has worked to eliminate the opportunity gap by expanding access to early literacy programs, multilingual education and STEAM pathways, he said.

    “Compton Unified is proof that demographics do not determine destiny,” Brawley said. “With the right investments, the right leadership, the right vision, the right partnerships, we can transform outcomes and unlock the full potential of every single child.”

    Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, which advocates for English learners, said the state literacy plan supports a diverse student population. The organization, which had opposed the original bill, was satisfied that the materials and training in the new bill would incorporate the specific literacy needs of English learners.  

    “The recently launched literacy and biliteracy resources, the literacy content blocks and the preschool through third-grade learning progressions provide critical guidance to help educators support young learners in both English and their home language,” Hernandez said. “Thank you, Governor Newsom, for ensuring that multilingual learners are at the center of California’s literacy promise.”

    The Golden State Literacy Plan also highlights the state’s investments in literacy in the governor’s upcoming budget, including $1.7 billion for a block grant to fund professional development for teachers, $500 million for TK-12 literacy and math coaches, $387.6 million for additional Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant funding, $40 million to support literacy screenings, and $25 million to support implementation of math and literacy initiatives, elevate best practices, and establish a clearinghouse for state-developed math and literacy resources.

    The increased state funding for literacy comes amid criticism of Newsom’s spending plan for education, which the Legislative Analyst’s Office has said will create new debt and rely on one-time funding to pay for ongoing operations.

    John Fensterwald contributed to this report.





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  • Homeless infants and toddlers largely unenrolled in early ed programs

    Homeless infants and toddlers largely unenrolled in early ed programs


    Teacher Marisol Garcia Del Ruiz holds up a book in English and demonstrates the words for emotions in Spanish at a Head Start class in Norwalk in September 2015.

    Sarah Tully, EdSource

    Enrollment in early childhood development programs can mitigate some of the consequences of homelessness among infants and toddlers, but only 1 out of 9 of these children are enrolled in such programs, according to a recent national report.

    In California, 1 out of 6 are enrolled.

    An increasing number of families with infants and toddlers are homeless, with many staying in shelters, motels, temporary homes or living unsheltered, according to federal data included in the report from SchoolHouse Connection, a national homeless advocacy organization, and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan.

    Researchers indicate that there is no single reason for increasing homelessness because each family’s situation differs; however, the rates have been exacerbated by the end of pandemic-era eviction protections. Infants and toddlers are most at risk of evictions, according to a report published in October by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    In California during the same program year, there were over 1.6 million infants and, of those, more than 55,000, or 3.27%, experienced homelessness. Less than 10,000 of the homeless infants and toddlers were enrolled in an early childhood program, leaving tens of thousands of children without educational programming and potentially also unconnected to supportive resources to help their families find stable housing.

    The report relied on census data to estimate how many children under age 3 were experiencing homelessness across all 50 states.

    Homelessness rarely ends in a linear fashion, meaning that the infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness during the 2021-22 program year, whose data was used for the SchoolHouse Connection report, may well be the same young students in unstable housing today. Understanding the data may help shape how schools support students in need, particularly given that homelessness often has long-lasting effects on academic development.

    “The younger and longer a child experiences homelessness, the greater the cumulative toll on their health and well-being,” the report authors wrote. “In fact, the impacts of homelessness on young children, including on children’s school readiness, can be long-lasting, even after families are stably housed.”

    To estimate the prevalence of homelessness, authors used “the percentage of first graders identified as homeless in each state,” a number they indicate is conservative since advocates have long shared that homeless youth remain undercounted.

    The data on Early Head Start came from the Head Start Enterprise System, while local educational agency enrollment information was gathered using Ed Data Express, a site that holds data collected by the U.S. Department of Education.

    The report further detailed which type of early childhood program the enrolled children in California were attending.

    During the 2021-22 program year, there were 915 infants and toddlers enrolled in a home visiting program, 2,883 enrolled in an early Head Start program, and 5,887 who were being served by a local educational agency.

    In California, the low enrollment rates translate to just 1 in 6 infants and toddlers experiencing homelessness being enrolled in a program.

    While infants and toddlers may not be enrolled in a local educational agency, such as an elementary school or a county office of education program, some districts have implemented programs that help support the siblings of homeless children who are attending school.

    For example, Greenfield Unified School District in Monterey County has used pandemic-era federal funds to offer baby items as donations, so that families in need could be identified and supported even if their infant or toddler was not yet enrolled in a district program.

    Those federal funds, however, are set to expire within the next year, leaving school staff unsure of whether they will be able to continue offering those services.

    Over the last two decades, Congress has amended certain requirements to access federal early care, education and homelessness programs in order to increase the enrollment of homeless children and families. For example, homeless families have additional time to provide immunization records when enrolling in Head Start programs, which also have the flexibility to reserve slots for homeless families.

    Despite these changes, homeless infants and toddlers remain overwhelmingly under-enrolled.

    The report offered recommendations on homelessness prevention and eliminating the program enrollment gap, such as improving the quality of data on homeless children who are accessing child care subsidies, and targeting housing vouchers toward families with children and expectant parents who are experiencing homelessness, among other items.





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  • California must not punish districts for being proactive on early learning

    California must not punish districts for being proactive on early learning


    Transitional Kindergarten students in Garden Grove Unified School District benefit from a full day of high quality instruction.

    Courtesy: Garden Grove Unified School District

    According to a recent survey on education, overwhelming majorities of Californians think that preschool is important for student success in K–12 schools, and a strong majority supports state-funded programs such as transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds.

    We agree. This strong preference is echoed by families in our districts clamoring for their children to participate in transitional kindergarten (TK).

    California is on course to make TK a universal option for California families. Universal TK in our districts provides a full-day program with credentialed teachers and full-time aides. In 2021, the state laid out a five-year timeline to expand TK, gradually phasing in younger students each year, until 2025-26 — when all 4-year-old children will have the ability to enroll. 

    The intent of this foundational program is to meet a critical need for quality early learning and care for children at no cost to families. This allows parents to work full time to support their families, knowing that their children are receiving educational services that lay a foundation for academic success and support children’s development. Our districts serve distinct communities that have in common a high proportion of low-income students and significant numbers of English learners. As we shared information about the TK expansion with families, unsurprisingly, we heard from many who wanted to enroll their 4-year-old children, including young learners whose fourth birthdays fall outside the annually expanding eligibility window. 

    Our families urged us to accelerate the implementation of the early TK timeline and provide universal TK as soon as possible. 

    Recognizing our families’ significant need and the benefits of early learning, our districts decided to get ahead of the curve. We planned ahead for an accelerated two-year rollout of transitional kindergarten for students born through June 30. We knew we would not receive average daily attendance (ADA) funding for students whose birthdates fell outside the state’s rollout plan, but as we were planning well in advance of the 2023-24 school year, we were unaware of any penalties for early rollout as they did not exist at that time. We budgeted accordingly for the expansion of our enrollment and made plans to staff our TK classrooms months in advance of school starting.

    Our districts are now facing penalties in the millions of dollars for taking these proactive steps. And we are not alone. Based on a voluntary informal survey, seven of 28 districts in Orange County likely face penalties for accelerated implementation. We believe many districts across the state are similarly impacted, with some yet unaware of the fiscal hit for early expansion.

    Last July — months after districts started planning for the 2023-24 school year — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed education budget trailer bill SB 114, which created new statutory requirements for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years for school districts offering early transitional kindergarten. These changes included a maximum class size of 20 students and a 1:10 adult-to-student ratio, which is smaller than regular TK ratios. No additional funding was provided to meet these new requirements. The trailer bill imposed significant fiscal penalties for districts if they did not comply with the new provisions.  

    Districts like ours were not able to meet the lower class size requirements because the school year was weeks away from starting when this bill was signed. We had no time to change course. Many families in large urban districts like ours are most in need of TK due to families’ inability to afford private preschool and lack of free preschool options. Turning away families who had enrolled their child in TK and who desperately needed this care was unthinkable. 

    School districts plan and budget — inclusive of staffing, facilities and bargaining — at least nine months in advance of the next school year, which typically begins in early or mid-August. This includes communicating with families so they can make plans for their children, and enrolling students in January and February for the following school year. This is necessary so that schools will be appropriately staffed and classrooms are ready before the first day of school.

    The steep fiscal penalties we face for early enrollment in TK threaten our fiscal outlook in a budget year that is already anticipated to be lean.   

    There is an opportunity to make this right.

    The Legislature and Newsom administration can waive the current year, 2023-24 fiscal penalties and allow districts appropriate time to plan and implement requirements for 2024-25. Actions can be taken via legislation — Assembly Bill 2548, authored by Assemblymember Tri Ta, would waive the current school year penalties on districts offering early TK; another option is to enact the waiver for 2023-24 through budget trailer bill language. We, and more than 40 leaders of districts and county offices of education, are urging lawmakers to take action now.

    The districts that are impacted by penalties for early enrollment in TK serve high-poverty communities where free or low-cost full-day preschools are not available and parents cannot afford paid preschools.

    Making early TK available to as many families as possible is the right thing to do. Approving the waiver of the fiscal penalties for 2023-24 will save our districts from millions of dollars in penalties and protect our fiscal stability while we continue to make great strides in serving early learners. 

    •••

    Gabriela Mafi is superintendent of the Garden Grove Unified School District.
    John Garcia is superintendent of the Downey Unified School District

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Education has been a significant interest of Kamala Harris since early in her career

    Education has been a significant interest of Kamala Harris since early in her career


    Vice President Kamala Harris speaks from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Monday during an event with NCAA college athletes. This is her first public appearance since President Joe Biden endorsed her to be the next presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.

    Credit: AP Photo / Susan Walsh

    The likelihood that Vice President Kamala Harris will be the Democratic nominee for president is inviting scrutiny of her positions on every public policy issue, including education.  

    By her own accounting, those views have been profoundly shaped by her experiences as a beneficiary of public education, as a student at Thousand Oaks Elementary School in Berkeley and later at the Hastings College of Law (now called UC Law San Francisco).

    Just three months ago, in remarks about college student debt in Philadelphia, she paid tribute to her late first grade teacher Frances Wilson, who also attended her graduation from law school. “I wouldn’t be here except for the strength of our teachers, and of course, the family in which I was raised,” she said.

    The most memorable moment in Harris’ unsuccessful 2019 campaign for president was in the first candidates’ debate when she sharply criticized then-Vice President Joe Biden for opposing school busing programs in the 1970s and 1980s.  

    “There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day, and that little girl was me,” Harris said in the debate.  

    She was referring to Berkeley’s voluntary busing program set up in 1968, the first such voluntary program in a sizable city. Biden was apparently able to put the exchange aside when he selected her to be his running mate several months later. 

    At age 12, her family moved to Montreal where she attended a public high school, and then went to Howard University, the Historically Black College and University in Washington D.C. for her undergraduate education.

    It is impossible to anticipate what if any of the positions Harris took earlier in her career, or as a presidential candidate five years ago, will be revived should she win the Democratic nomination, or even become president. 

    But they certainly offer clues as to positions she might take in either role. 

    When she kicked off her campaign for president at a boisterous rally in downtown Oakland in January 2019, she made access to education a major issue. “I am running to declare education is a fundamental right, and we will guarantee that right with universal pre-K and debt-free college,” she said, referring to pre-kindergarten.  

    By saying education is a fundamental right, Harris addressed directly an issue that has been a major obstacle for advocates trying to create a more equitable education system. 

    While education is a core function of government — even “perhaps the most important function,” as Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling — it is not a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. That has meant relying much more on state constitutions.

    During her term as vice-president, she has played a prominent role in promoting a range of President Biden’s education programs, from cutting child care costs to student loan relief.

    Last year she flew to Florida especially to take on Gov. Ron DeSantis over his attacks on what he dismissed as “woke indoctrination” in schools. In particular, she was incensed by the state’s middle school standards that argued that enslaved people “developed skills that could, in some instances, be applied for their personal benefit.” 

    DeSantis challenged her to debate him on the issue — an offer she scathingly rejected. “There is no roundtable, lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeemable qualities to slavery,” she declared at a convention of Black missionary women in Orlando.   

    Earlier in her career, she was best known on the education front for her interest in combating school truancy — an interest that could be extremely relevant as schools in California and nationally grapple with a huge post-pandemic surge in chronic absenteeism. 

    Students are classified as chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school days in the school year. 

    Nearly two decades ago, while district attorney in San Francisco, she launched a student attendance initiative focused on elementary school children.  Each year, she sent letters to all parents advising them that truancy was against the law. Prosecutors from her office would meet with parents with chronically absent children. If they did not rectify the situation, they could be prosecuted in a special truancy court — and face a fine of up to $2,500 or a year in county jail.   

    By 2009, she said she had prosecuted about 20 parents. “Our groundbreaking strategy worked,” she wrote in an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, citing a 20% increase in attendance at the elementary level. 

    When she ran for California attorney general in 2010, she backed a bill that enacted a similar program into state law. The law also subjected parents to fines and imprisonment for up to a year, but only after they had been offered “support services” to address the pupil’s truancy.

    This tough stance put her on the defensive when she ran for president, and she softened her position on the issue. She said the intent of the law was not to “criminalize” parents. And in her memoir “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey,” Harris described her approach to truancy as “trying to support parents, not punish them.”

    As attorney-general, she used the clout of her office to go after for-profit colleges she accused of false and predatory advertising, and intentionally misrepresenting to students the benefits they could provide. She was able to get a $1 billion judgment against the California-based Corinthians Colleges Inc. which eventually declared bankruptcy. ““For years, Corinthian profited off the backs of poor people – now they have to pay,” she said at the time.

    During her presidential campaign five years ago, she made a major issue of what she labeled “the teacher pay crisis.” She said as president she would increase the average teacher’s salary by $13,500 — representing an average 23% increase in base pay. Almost certainly the most ambitious proposal of its kind made by any presidential candidate, the cost to the federal government would be enormous: $315 billion over 10 years.

    To pay for it, she proposed increasing the estate tax on the top 1% of taxpayers and eliminating loopholes that “let the very wealthiest, with estates worth multiple millions or billions of dollars, avoid paying their fair share,” she wrote in The Washington Post.  

    Also on the campaign trail, she proposed a massive increase in funding to historically Black colleges and universities — one of which (Howard University in Washington, D.C.) she graduated from. In fact, she proposed investing $2 trillion in these colleges, especially to train Black teachers. She contended  that if a child has had two Black teachers before the end of third grade, they’re one-third more likely to go to college. 

    Biden was able to push through a big increase in support for such institutions totaling $19 billion — far short of her goal of $2 trillion.

    Many of her positions on education — including a push for universal pre-school, and making college debt-free — were aligned with those proposed by Biden, or ultimately implemented by him as president. 

    For that reason, there is likely to be continuity in her candidacy with much of the education agenda proposed by Biden. 

    But mainly as a result of lack of action in Congress and Republican-initiated lawsuits blocking his proposals, many of the administrations’s aspirations, like making community colleges free, doubling the size of Pell Grants, and student debt refiled, remain unfulfilled.

    It will now be up to Harris — and the American voter — whether she will have the opportunity to advance that unfinished education agenda.

    This story has been updated to include details about Harris’ education after her parents moved from Berkeley to Canada when she was 12.





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  • Fresno Unified adopts weekly early release schedule, joining other large California districts

    Fresno Unified adopts weekly early release schedule, joining other large California districts


    Credit: Fresno Unified / Flickr

    Starting this school year, Fresno Unified is adopting an early release schedule, joining a dozen of the state’s other largest school districts as well as its neighbors in Fresno County who’ve embraced the practice for years. 

    Now, students enrolled in the state’s third-largest district with nearly 70,000 students will be released about an hour early every Tuesday of a five-day school week. The district’s schools began notifying families in the weeks leading up to the first day this coming Monday. 

    Many districts utilize early release days each week for teacher and staff professional development, such as training and/or planning. 

    In Long Beach Unified, the state’s fourth-largest district with around 65,000 students, the early dismissal days are known as “prep days.” The 49,000-student San Bernardino City Unified dubs its days “Collaboration Day” while others such as Elk Grove and Kern High School District simply classify them as “early out” days. 

    No matter the name, the practice provides “much-needed time for our teachers to plan, work together on professional learning and engage with our parents and families,” said Misty Her, Fresno Unified interim superintendent at a Wednesday press conference about the 2024-25 school year. 

    That’s not the only reason for the shift. 

    Based on the district’s Frequently Asked Questions page about early release, the change also stemmed from 2023 contract negotiations with teachers which brought more than a year of negotiating to an end and prevented a divisive strike that would’ve harmed the Fresno community and the district’s students. 

    “In October 2023 when the Fresno Teachers Association and the district reached a new contract agreement, the agreement included more time for teachers to engage in professional learning during their workday,” according to the FAQ page. “Early release every Tuesday provides this time for meetings and other forms of professional learning.”

    What does it mean for students, staff?  

    Districts bordering Fresno Unified employ early release days as well, including Clovis and Central Unified located in Fresno County. 

    Clovis Unified, for instance, has used the early release days for at least 25 years. 

    According to the district’s FAQ page, while each campus will follow the Tuesday early-release schedule, the actual time of dismissal may vary, depending on a school’s bell schedule. Students attending Design Science Middle College High School who take classes at Fresno City College will get their early-release day on Friday, and the district’s child development and preschool programs will continue to follow a schedule outlined by the state. 

    Parents in the Bakersfield City School District have long been accustomed to their children getting out an hour early on Wednesdays. 

    “As a stay-at-home mom, it doesn’t affect me,” said Vicki Ramos, a mother of three students who attend Evergreen Elementary in Bakersfield. “For people that have jobs, it’s kind of inconvenient because they have to get childcare.”

    After-school programs usually provide that care for enrolled students. 

    The after-school programs throughout Fresno Unified will still start immediately after dismissal on Tuesdays to offer extended learning and support to students.  Buses will also run early. 

    Even though early release means students are spending one less hour in the classroom on Tuesday, Her said they will not be missing out on instruction because the time subtracted is made up every other day of the school year. She added that the opportunities to involve families and collaboration among teachers will improve the way educators serve their students. 

    Teachers can connect and engage with parents more often, especially if their students are struggling, Her said. For example, rather than waiting until parent-teacher conferences weeks or even months into the school year, the early release provides the opportunity for intervention on a weekly basis. 

    Superintendent Her’s No. 1 goal for Fresno Unified is to improve student outcomes by decreasing the distance from standards by 15% in the next two years. Distance from standards measures how far students are from meeting proficiency. So as part of the professional development offered during early-release schedules, teachers will work together and with school administration to target the goal of bettering student academic gains, she said. 

    “We’re really hoping that with teachers working closely together, planning together, coming up with their lessons together, it starts to impact what we … get for students.” 





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  • No cuts for schools, more funding for early literacy, in Newsom’s revised budget

    No cuts for schools, more funding for early literacy, in Newsom’s revised budget


    Gov. Gavin Newsom presents his revised 2025-26 state budget during a news conference in Sacramento on May 14, 2025.

    Credit: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

    TK-12 schools and community colleges can expect the same funding in 2025-26 that they received this year, plus a small cost-of-living adjustment, and there will be a big boost for early literacy, Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed Wednesday in the revision to his January state budget plan.

    Schools and community colleges will be shielded from the pain facing other state services because of the revised forecast of a $12 billion drop in state revenues that Newsom blamed on the “Trump slump” — the president’s erratic tariff and other economic policies that are affecting California.

    For the University of California and California State University, the news was better than anticipated. The systems would face a 3% cut for 2025-26, notably less than the nearly 8% reduction Newsom proposed in January. The smaller cut may provide some relief at a time when higher education in California and across the nation is worried about losses in federal research grants and other funding under Trump administration policies. 

    The 2.3% cost-of-living adjustment in 2025-26 for most TK-12 programs is determined by a federal formula that does not factor in the cost of housing, the biggest expense facing teachers and other employees.

    In his May budget revision, Newsom keeps significant money for TK-12 programs that he proposed in January for fully rolling out transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds, along with additional funding to reduce class sizes, and for expanding summer school and after-school learning to more districts.

    And Newsom would add $200 million to his earlier $543 million proposal for early literacy instruction, with money to buy instructional materials, hire literacy coaches and train teachers in “evidence-based literacy instruction,” which is code for teaching phonics and word decoding as well as other fundamental reading skills.

    That funding would take a significant step toward creating and funding a comprehensive early literacy strategy and coincides with compromise legislation, pushed by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, on spelling out what the instruction and reading materials should look like.

    “We’re thrilled. We’re excited,” said Marshall Tuck, CEO of EdVoice, which pushed early literacy legislation. “In a really tight budget year, prioritizing reading for California kids and investing $200 million is real leadership.”

    Newsom would also add to past efforts to recruit teachers by including $64.2 million in one-time funding for the Golden State Teacher Grant Program, under which teachers receive college tuition in exchange for agreeing to teach in underserved districts and in subjects facing critical shortages, and $100 million to pay stipends to student teachers. Unpaid student teaching has been cited as one of the primary reasons teacher candidates fail to complete their credentials. 

    The Legislature has a month to reshape Newsom’s budget before the June 15 constitutional deadline to pass a budget for the fiscal year that starts on July 1.

    What the budget doesn’t include, however, is any funding to backfill for the potential loss of billions of federal dollars in Medi-Cal funding for school physical and mental health services, cuts for Head Start programs, training grants for new teachers and research grants for the University of California and California State University, and the dismantling of the AmeriCorps program, which supplies teachers aides and tutors in hundreds of low-income schools.

    “Our ability to backfill all these federal cuts — no, we’re not going to be in a position to do that, we just are not in that position,” Newsom said. “It’s the old adage, you can’t do everything but you can do anything. There may be areas where we can make adjustments.”

    “I think we should be cautious about eliminating consideration of x, y, and z until we see the totality of the challenges as they present themselves.”

    In one cost-cutting measure, Gov. Newsom is proposing to roll back California’s health insurance program for undocumented immigrant adults, by charging premiums and freezing new enrollment, a move that advocates said will affect their children, many of whom are U.S. citizens. One in 10 California children are estimated to have an undocumented parent.

    “When a parent or family member is sick and unable to work or provide care, kids suffer as a result,” said Mayra Alvarez, president of the nonprofit organization The Children’s Partnership.  “Ripping away these family members’ access to health care, while they are also under threat of cruel immigration enforcement and other anti-immigrant policies, in turn puts the well-being of our children at risk.”

    Higher education

    State funding for the state’s system of 116 community colleges would change little from last year, receiving 0.6% less, at $8.9 billion. However, some of its important funding — $531.6 million from Proposition 98 revenues — would be deferred for a year under the proposal.  

    UC would have its funding cut by $129.7 million, while CSU would lose $143.8 million. In January, Newsom’s administration had proposed deeper cuts of $396.6 million and $375.2 million, respectively. 

    The revised budget maintains a proposal to defer previously promised 5% budget increases until 2027-28 for both systems. Those deferrals, which were part of Newsom’s multiyear compact agreements with the systems, were also included in Newsom’s January budget proposal. 

    The compacts, originally agreed to in 2022, promised annual budget increases for UC and CSU in exchange for the systems working toward goals such as increasing graduation rates and enrolling more California residents. 

    “We were able to hold strong to that over a two-year period. And we’re struggling now with some challenges,” Newsom said during a news conference Wednesday, though he added that the compacts are “sacrosanct” and that the systems would get their deferred dollars in 2027-28.

    By reducing the proposed cut to UC’s budget for 2025-26, the 10-campus system will be able to minimize cuts to student support services and preserve “critical investments like affordable student housing construction,” President Michael V. Drake said Wednesday in a statement.

    CSU Chancellor Mildred García in January warned that a nearly 8% state budget reduction would result in larger class sizes and fewer course offerings for the system’s more than 460,000 students, hampering their prospects for graduating on time. With those cuts now dialed back to 3%, García praised the May revision as a “thoughtful and measured approach to addressing the state’s fiscal challenges.”

    Proposition 98 maneuvers

    In total, the May revision proposes $45.7 billion for the state’s higher education institutions and the California Student Aid Commission.

    The minimum funding for 2025-26 for Proposition 98, the formula that determines the portion of the general fund that must go to TK-12 and community colleges, would be $114.6 billion, down from $118.9 billion in 2024-25 because of shrinking state revenues.

    Newsom proposes to make up the difference by shifting numbers around, depleting what was left in the Proposition 98 rainy day fund. Among other maneuvers, he would:

    • Drain the remaining $540 million from a fund that was $8.4 billion only two years ago, when the state faced a fiscal crisis.
    • Defer $1.8 billion that would be due to schools in June 2026 by a month, to July 2026. Schools should notice little difference, although the maneuver does create a state obligation that must be repaid.
    • Withhold $1.3 billion due to schools and community colleges in 2024-25 in anticipation that the revenues for the rest of the year might come up short because of the further decline in state revenues.

    This last maneuver grabbed the attention of the California School Boards Association, which filed a lawsuit over a similar effort last year and is threatening to do so again.

    “Even in lean times, investing in public schools is California’s best economic strategy, so we cannot sidestep constitutional protections for public education nor underfund Prop 98 to offset shortfalls in other sections of the budget,” association President Bettye Lusk said in a statement.

    The immediate reaction to the budget proposal was positive, with some caveats.

    “The bottom line is that amid a budget crisis, the governor is protecting every major investment in education,” said Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors, a consultant for school districts. “We want to make sure Prop 98 funding is accounted for. As long as that’s the case, there’s not much to complain about.”

    Scott Moore, head of Kidango, a nonprofit that runs many Bay Area child care centers, praised the commitment to universal transitional kindergarten (TK) while criticizing Newsom’s decision to suspend a cost-of-living adjustment for child care providers for low-income children and freeze funding for emergency child care services for foster and homeless children. 

    “We know that small class sizes and highly qualified teachers are two of the most important quality standards to ensure children benefit from pre-K. This budget invests wisely in TK,” he said. “The proposed cut to the COLA (cost of living increase) for child care providers must be restored. Now is the worst time to eliminate a small, but very much needed and deserved COLA for those who take care of our youngest and most vulnerable children.”





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