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  • As White House wavers on visas, Chinese students at California colleges face uncertainty and worried parents

    As White House wavers on visas, Chinese students at California colleges face uncertainty and worried parents


    Top Takeaways
    • About 18,000 Chinese students are enrolled at the University of California, 2,600 at California community colleges and 850 at California State University.
    • Chinese students have increasingly chosen colleges outside the U.S., including closer to home in Hong Kong and Singapore.
    • Like all international students, Chinese students can be a valuable source of tuition for public universities, since they pay more than California residents.

    A flurry of at-times contradictory White House pronouncements are stoking confusion and concern among the 50,000 Chinese nationals who are studying at California’s colleges and universities — and potentially steering students away from further work and study in the U.S.

    Recent shifts in U.S. policy toward China have cast a “cloud of suspicion” over Chinese students, said Gisela Perez Kusakawa, the executive director of the Asian American Scholar Forum, an advocacy group.

    “Let’s say you invested all this time, money and energy and years of your life studying to get into a prominent university here in the U.S.,” she said. “You get in, [but] now it’s no longer guaranteed that you could actually finish that degree.” 

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a two-sentence statement on May 28 that the U.S. would “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.” He also pledged to “enhance scrutiny” of future visa applications from China and Hong Kong. 

    But the proposal for stronger visa enforcement appears to have been short-lived. On June 11, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would allow Chinese students into colleges and universities as part of a trade truce with China. 

    The flip from crackdown to rapprochement is one of the latest flash points in a volatile period for Chinese students. Even before Trump’s second term, fewer Chinese students were coming to American universities, data show. International students on U.S. college campuses have experienced a tumultuous spring term as the Trump administration first terminated and later said it would restore thousands of international students’ records in a federal database. The State Department in May paused new student visa interviews but said Wednesday it would resume processing and require applicants to make social media accounts public for government review. 

    V., a Chinese national student at UC Davis, who requested that EdSource withhold his full name in light of uncertain U.S. immigration policy, said the reelection of Trump has made him “a little bit afraid of speaking out.” 

    “I’m more conscious about, if I speak online or on social media, maybe I’ll get deported,” he said, even though he generally avoids posting anything political online.

    Though he hopes to continue working in the U.S. when he graduates this summer, V. knows several Chinese students who also attended American colleges as undergraduates and initially intended to pursue graduate degrees in the U.S., but are now continuing their education in other foreign countries instead.

    The ebb and flow of Chinese students is of particular interest to higher education institutions in California. China accounts for 36% of all international enrollment in the state, according to the Institute of International Education, making it California’s single-largest country of origin for international students. Nearly 18,000 Chinese international students are enrolled at the University of California, almost 6,000 at the University of Southern California, about 2,600 across the state’s community colleges and roughly 850 at California State University. 

    Those students bring with them coveted tuition dollars, a boon to the state’s public universities, where international students pay a premium over the rate charged to California residents.

    California universities responded to the Trump administration’s statements on Chinese student visas with expressions of support for international students from China. A written statement from the UC system on June 11 said the public university system “is concerned about the U.S. State Department’s announcement to revoke visas of Chinese students.” The statement said international students and scholars are “vital members of our university community and contribute greatly to our research, teaching, patient care and public service mission.”

    If Chinese students were to stop attending U.S. colleges and universities, their absence would be felt across academic disciplines. More than a fifth of Chinese students in the U.S. studied math and computer science, roughly 17% pursued engineering and almost 13% sought degrees in business and management, according to 2023-24 data from the Institute of International Education. 

    Chinese students are most heavily enrolled in U.S. graduate programs. Roughly 123,000 Chinese nationals studying at U.S. colleges and universities — about 44% of all Chinese students in the U.S. — are graduate students.

    Sources interviewed for this story emphasized that Chinese students are weighing not only the immediate twists and turns of U.S. foreign policy, but longer-term concerns about cost of living and the draw of preferable options closer to home. They also noted that restrictions on Chinese students are consistent with policies Trump pursued during his first term.

    ‘Our parents are super, super worried’

    A Chinese international student at the University of Southern California who graduated from a Ph.D. program in May said he has become accustomed to exchanging concerned text messages with friends whenever news of possible changes to U.S. immigration policy breaks. EdSource agreed to withhold his full name due to his concerns about increased scrutiny on international students. 

    “I’ve gotten texts from people saying, ‘Oh, are you OK? Are you safe?’ I’ve got people checking on each other, asking them, ‘So what can happen to the current visa holders? And if I already scheduled [a visa interview], will I still be able to go?’” he said.

    Already, he added, peers in China are contemplating pursuing their degrees in the United Kingdom or Australia as alternatives to the U.S. The student himself is applying for Optional Practical Training, which allows eligible international students to extend their time in the U.S. after completing an academic program.

    Meanwhile, at UC Davis, V. has found something like a second home. He has joined a sports team, pledged a fraternity and played an instrument in a school-affiliated band. Contrary to the stereotypes of U.S. cities as plagued by gun violence and crime that are common in Chinese media, he has found Davis to be peaceful, diverse and open-hearted. 

    But with the latest vacillations in U.S. immigration policy, concern is growing at home among Chinese students’ families. “Our parents are super, super worried,” he said, something evident whenever he checks a group chat where the parents of Chinese students in the U.S. share their questions and concerns. 

    A gradual slide in Chinese students at U.S. colleges

    There are ample signs that Chinese students have been cooling on American degrees long before Trump’s return to office this year.

    Data from the Institute of International Education show that the number of Chinese students in the U.S. increased rapidly during the 2000s, a trend that continued at a slower pace through the early years of the first Trump administration.

    But the number of Chinese internationals at U.S. institutions began to drop with the onset of Covid-19 and has continued to fall since. As of the 2023-24 school year, there were more than 277,000 Chinese students in the U.S., down more than 95,000 students from pre-pandemic levels in 2019-20.

    Several experts interviewed for this story framed the Trump administration’s recent statements about Chinese students as the latest of several policy changes that may discourage Chinese students from attending college in the U.S.

    As early as 2018, U.S. consular officials said they would shorten the duration of visas to Chinese students studying advanced manufacturing, robotics and aeronautics from five years to one, forcing students to seek annual renewals instead. Then, in 2020, Trump signed a presidential proclamation suspending the entry of Chinese students and researchers deemed to have links with the Chinese military, prompting the U.S. to revoke the visas of 1,000 Chinese nationals. 

    After Trump left office in 2021, Biden administration Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken struck a more conciliatory tone regarding Chinese students in the U.S., saying in a May 2022 speech that the U.S. “can stay vigilant about our national security without closing our doors.” And during a November 2023 meeting, former President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed a commitment to more educational exchanges.

    But the Biden administration initially continued a Department of Justice (DOJ) initiative launched under Trump in 2018, which targeted Chinese researchers accused of stealing American intellectual property. The Biden DOJ ended the program in 2022 following concerns about racial profiling.

    And in March 2024, before Trump’s return to office, reports surfaced that more than a dozen Chinese students were denied reentry into the U.S. despite holding a valid visa, while others reported being searched and questioned for hours at the U.S. border. The State Department told The Washington Post at the time that the number of Chinese students found to be inadmissible for entry had been stable in recent years.

    ‘We are still hoping it’s getting better’

    Geopolitical concerns are not the only reasons some Chinese students may think twice about studying at U.S. colleges and universities. 

    Al Wang, the general manager of Wiseway Global, which recruits Chinese students to study in other countries, said that Chinese students may not apply to certain U.S. institutions because rankings of the best universities in the world tend to score institutions in countries like the United Kingdom and Singapore above U.S. rivals. In addition, he said, Chinese students may choose to stay home for college, seeing joint-degree programs in China with U.S. universities like Duke as a more economical option.

    Wang nonetheless anticipates that the U.S. and China will continue cooperating on education and cultural exchange programs, something the Chinese Ministry of Education has encouraged. He predicted that more Chinese students will study abroad in the U.S. for a school term or summer intensive, rather than enrolling in degree programs. “We are still hoping it’s getting better, but we don’t know where it’s going,” he said. 

    The Chinese international student at USC suggested that U.S. universities aiming to maintain their international student population should focus on providing legal support, security and a sense of belonging. Failing that, he added, it won’t take long for current students to warn would-be classmates. 

    “They’re going to tell their peers from high school, or they’re going to tell people from home, ‘Oh, don’t come,’” he said.





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  • Newsom’s $8 billion fix to spare cuts to schools, community colleges may face tough sell

    Newsom’s $8 billion fix to spare cuts to schools, community colleges may face tough sell


    Gov. Gavin Newsom announces his 2024-25 state budget proposal, including his plans to deal with a projected deficit in Sacramento on Jan. 10.. Credit: Brontë Wittpenn / San Francisco Chronicle / Polaris

    Gov. Gavin Newsom buoyed the hopes of school district and community college educators this month when, despite a sizable three-year decline in state revenue, he promised to protect schools and colleges from cuts and to uphold future spending commitments.

    They might want to hold their applause until after the last act, when the Legislature passes the 2024-25 budget in June.

    In an analysis of the state budget, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) cautioned that there are questions about how Newsom plans to close $8 billion of a huge revenue shortfall facing schools and community colleges.

    Beyond meeting this challenge, the LAO also urged legislators to start planning for education spending beyond 2024-25, when flat or declining revenues are expected to raise difficult financial choices. They could pit funding of ongoing expenses against sustaining ambitious programs like summer and after-school programs for low-income students, additional community schools, money for teacher training in early literacy and math, and confronting post-pandemic learning setbacks.

    “The state faces significant operating deficits in the coming years, which are the result of lower revenue estimates, as well as increased cost pressures,” the analyst said.

    But the immediate enigma is Newsom’s strategy for the $8 billion.

    Newsom is projecting that state revenues to run schools and community colleges will be short $14.3 billion over three years: the budget year that ended in 2022-23, the current budget year of 2023-24, and the coming year. That number is calculated as revenue through Proposition 98, the formula that determines the proportion of the state’s general fund that must be spent on schools and community colleges — about 40%.

    Proposition 98 revenues are sometimes close but never exactly what a governor and the Legislature assume when they approve a budget. Revenues for the past and current years exceed or fall short of what they projected and not what they predict for the year ahead.  

    Budget analysts were particularly handicapped when calculating the 2023-24 budget. They didn’t anticipate the shortfall from 2022-23 and didn’t discover it until fall 2023, because of a six-month delay in the filing deadline for 2022 tax returns.

    Newsom is proposing to divert $5.7 billion from the Proposition 98 rainy day fund to fill in the current year’s deficit as well as what’s needed to sustain a flat budget, plus a small cost of living increase, for 2024-25. Draining the rainy day fund would require the Legislature’s OK.

    The remainder — and biggest piece — is the $9 billion revenue shortfall from 2022-23, which would be $8 billion after other automatic adjustments. That shortfall is technically an overpayment beyond the statutory minimum Proposition 98 funding guarantee. It fell dramatically from what the Legislature adopted in June 2022 to $98.3 billion that revenue actually produced. The biggest decline was in income tax receipts on the top 1% of earners.

    School districts have already spent funding from 2022–23, including on staff pay raises that they negotiated with good faith estimates. Newsom and the Legislature could try to deduct that overpayment from the current and 2024-25 budgets, but such a move “would be devastating for students and staff,” Patti Herrera, vice president of the school consulting firm California School Services, told a workshop last week with more than 1,000 school district administrators in Sacramento.

    As an alternative, Newsom proposes to find reductions from the non-Proposition 98 side of the general fund, which covers higher education, child care and all other non-education expenses, from prisons to climate change programs.

    “We are super grateful there will be no attempts to claw back” the money given to school districts in a past year’s budget, Herrera said.

    Newsom’s challenge is to make districts and community colleges financially whole without increasing the minimum Proposition 98 guarantee. Raising Proposition 98 could create a bigger obligation in the future, including potential deficits after 2024-25 — unless the Legislature raises taxes, a nonstarter in an election year.

    How Newsom is going to do this is a mystery. The one-sentence reference to it in his budget summary says only, “The Budget proposes statutory changes to address roughly $8 billion of this decrease to avoid impacting existing LEA (school districts) and community college district budgets.”

    Both the LAO and School Services said it’s their understanding from the Department of Finance that the payments from the general fund to cover the Proposition 98 overpayment would be made over five years, starting in 2025-26.

    “We have some questions about that proposal. Probably the most pressing one is how is the state going to use revenue that it’s not going to collect for several years to address a funding shortfall that exists right now,” said Ken Kapphahn, the LAO’s principal fiscal and policy analyst for TK-12 education.

    The questions are legal and political. The proposed statutory language, which may be released in a trailer bill in the coming weeks, will reveal how the state Department of Finance will finesse postponing balancing the 2022-23 budget that’s $8 billion out of kilter. Budget hearings next week in the Capitol may indicate how receptive legislative leaders are to further reducing general fund spending, which also is feeling a financial squeeze.

    A search for the extra $8 billion

    Additionally, Newsom is proposing several billion dollars of accounting maneuvers that will book spending in 2024-25 but delay and defer payments for programs and some state salaries until early 2025-26.  Included are $500 million in deferred reimbursements to the University of California and California State University for the 5% budget increase that Newsom committed to funding in 2024-25.

    “Many of these solutions involve moving costs to next year. That is one reason we have the state looking at a large deficit, not just this year, but the following year,” Kapphahn said. “I can’t recall another situation quite like this.”

    Barring a recession, which neither LAO nor the Newsom administration is forecasting, both Newsom and the administration are projecting general fund deficits averaging about $30 billion annually in the three years after 2024-25. Pushing the $8 billion solution for the 2022-23 Proposition 98 deficit, along with other general fund delays and deferrals into those years will compound difficult choices, according to the LAO.

    “Overall, the governor’s budget runs the risk of understating the degree of fiscal pressure facing the state in the future,” the LAO analysis said.

    The LAO suggested other options for resolving the 2022-23 deficit. It recommended applying the remaining $3.8 billion from the Proposition 98 reserve fund that Newsom hasn’t touched and looking for reductions in unallocated one-time funding such as an unused $1 billion for community schools and canceling $500 million for electric school buses. 

    Even with no cuts to Proposition 98 next year, many school districts and charter schools will likely face their own deficits in 2024-25. That’s because the projected cost-of-living adjustment for next year will not be enough to cover the loss of revenue from declining enrollments. The COLA, tied to a federal formula measuring goods and services bought by state and local governments and not consumer products, is currently projected to be 0.76%; it would be the lowest increase in 40 years, with one exception, the year after the Great Recession, in 2009. This would come on the heels of two years of near record-high COLAs of 6.6% and 8.2%.

    The analyst’s office projects the COLA may inch up to 1% by June, when the budget is set. At that rate, a hypothetical school district with 10,000 students would see declining revenues with an enrollment decline of only about 100 students.

    Paso Robles Joint Unified School District in San Luis Obispo County, with about 6,000 students, is among those with declining enrollment since the pandemic. As a result, the district, with about 800 full-time employees, anticipates a reduction of five full-time staff members in 2024-25 and perhaps 40 layoff notices the following year, said Brad Pawlowski, the assistant superintendent for business services.

    Pawlowski said he came away encouraged after School Services’ presentation that schools will be spared cuts in the next budget, while acknowledging it’s a long time between now and the budget’s adoption.

    “We have seen a common message between the governor and the Legislature to protect education. And that does make me feel good,” he said. But doing so, he added, “will mean finding other ways to make that up outside of Prop. 98. That’s going to be the real challenge.”





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  • WCCUSD school psychologists face burnout due to consistent staff shortages

    WCCUSD school psychologists face burnout due to consistent staff shortages


    A group of WCCUSD school psychologists at a union contract rally in 2023.

    Courtesy of John Zabala

    West Contra Costa Unified School District’s school psychologist internship program once flourished. The district recruited from substantial applicant pools from local universities and provided a strong start for beginning school psychologists entering the workforce, often retaining them after the internships ended. 

    Now, however, in the years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, WCCUSD is struggling to recruit interns and fill vacant school psychologist positions. This means psychologists, considered essential pieces of school environments, are carrying larger case loads and working longer hours, leading to burnout.

    WCCUSD, like other districts across the state, is no stranger to staff shortages — the district started the 2023-24 academic year with more than 200 special education paraprofessional vacancies. The shortages have persisted, and on Jan. 31, Public Advocates, a nonprofit civil rights law firm, filed three complaints with the district, alleging some schools failed to provide students with qualified teachers because of problems related to staffing shortages.  

    School psychologists fill a critical role in school communities, collaborating with administration, teachers and parents to ensure students are succeeding academically, emotionally and behaviorally. 

    West Contra Costa has struggled with five to seven school psychologist vacancies for the past couple of years. Halfway through the current school year, the district is still dealing with three.

    “We’re going to weather, this obviously, but we still have a couple of years in which we are going to have a really significant shortage, and we’re going to have a really significant increase in the demand for services, so we’re kind of in for a little bit of a scary period,” said John Zabala, a school psychologist in the district and the president of United Teachers of Richmond. 

    California is generally facing a critical shortage of school psychologists. According to the California Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists recommends a ratio of 1 school psychologist for 500 to 750 students. However, California schools on average have 1 per 1,000 students. Some schools have 1 per 3,000 students.

    Although WCCUSD’s ratio falls into the recommended range at around 1 school psychologist per 500-550 students, school psychologists in the district still face large caseloads and longer work days, contributing to burnout.

    Some districts compensate for shortages by hiring contractors or traveling school psychologists. Emily Springhart, department co-chair of psychology at West Contra Costa, however, said the district has preferred increasing the caseload of school psychologists and extending their work days to deal with the shortage.

    “A lot of the report writing and the case management — those things just go home with people,” Springhart said. “I’m sure it’s not great for their own personal health.”

    Schools have seen a substantial increase in the number of students requiring mental health and behavioral resources in recent years. In April 2022, 69% of public schools reported that the percentage of students seeking mental health services had increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Covid-19 disrupted early intervention for many students, leading to an increase in the number of students needing support, while the staff who would be able to support them, like school psychologists, have not. 

    Mary Campbell, a WCCUSD school psychologist and former department chair, said she worries about what the shortages and the resulting burnout could mean for the longevity of the profession. 

    Springhart said the school psychologist shortage seems to be caused by the same factors triggering shortages of other school staff: inevitable events like retirement, but also financial hardship, forcing people to move out of parts of California with high costs of living. 

    But another cause lies in the declining number of incoming applicants from universities that typically feed into districts like WCCUSD. Springhart said the number has steadily declined, despite the district having a long and strong history of hiring school psychologists from those programs.

    “It seems like all of the districts are kind of fighting over everybody right now, just because there’s not enough people coming out of programs,” Springhart said.

    Oanh Tran, school psychology program coordinator for California State University, East Bay, said she’s actually seen an increase of applicants to the program in recent years. But because the Bay Area is home to so many school districts, there aren’t enough school psychologists to go around.

    “We have so many districts, so many schools, and just a handful of students are graduating with their PPS (Pupil Personnel Services) credential to service those schools and districts,” Tran said. 

    Tran said new school psychologists are also experiencing burnout earlier in their careers. Not only are they dealing with more assessment caseloads, but they’re also spending their days putting out fires likely caused by a lack of early intervention.

    The best districts, Tran said, prioritize monitoring the needs of their school psychologists, ensuring they have access to helpful mentors, have a manageable caseload, and feel supported by their team. Students are being strategic about finding districts that provide these resources, Tran explained. 

    “In West Contra Costa, I do remember there was a time where they did have a lot of our practicum and interns,” Tran said. “But now, I think because there are so many districts that are recruiting our students, it’s competitive. It’s so competitive. We only have so many students in our cohort, but we have over 50 districts now participating in our recruitment fair for our students.”

    Although West Contra Costa offers competitive pay, especially after salary increases last year, Springhart agreed the shortage has been a regional issue, extending beyond the district. She said more education and recruitment about the profession may be necessary to increase the number of applicants to school psychologist programs. 

    “I think there are ways that we know that we can attract and keep people in these jobs, which can be very rewarding jobs,” Campbell said, “but not when we’re so under-resourced.”





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  • Trump Shows His Fascist Face

    Trump Shows His Fascist Face


    It was inevitable. And now it’s happening. During his first term, Trump repeatedly encouraged violence. He told police officers in New York not to be so nice when they arrest people. He asked “his” generals if they could shoot protestors in the legs. He broadcast fake videos showing him beating up a cartoon character labeled CNN. He urged his crowds at rallies to beat up protestors and said he would pay their legal fees. He wants to seem like a real man, a tough guy. But don’t forget that this tough guy dodged the draft five times with a podiatrist’s note about bone spurs in his feet.

    This week, his troubles were mounting. There was the very public split with Musk, who dropped hints about Trump’s name in the still confidential Epstein files. There was Elon’s claim that Trump would have lost the election and control of the House without Elon’s help. What kind of “help”? There was the tariff mess, which was causing a global economic disruption and predictions of inflation. And a Trump’s poll numbers were plummeting.

    What a perfect time to send in large numbers of ICE agents to immigrant neighborhoods in Los Angeles! Send them to Home Depot, where immigrants cluster in search of work–not the “criminals, rapists, and murderers,” but laborers looking for work.

    Voila! Their friends, families, a neighbors turn out to protests the ICE raids, and at o e there are crowds and people waving Mexican flags (a big mistake, they should have waved American flags). The situation was volatile but there was no reason to think that local and state police couldn’t handle it.

    Trump is shrewd: he saw his chance to distract public attention from his failing policies, and he took it. Without bothering to contact Governor Newsom, Trump mobilized the National Guard. He ordered 2,000 into the troubled neighborhood. Then he sent in another 2,000, plus 700 Marines.

    Only the Governor can call up his state’s National Guard, except in the most exceptional situations (the last time it happened was 1965, when President Johnson mobilized the National Guard in Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators because Governor George Wallace refused to do so).

    It is even more unusual for a President to call in the military to oppose ordinary people, which is normally handled by state and local police. There is an act-the Posse Comitatus Act–that specifically forbids the Army and Air Force from acting against civilians on American soil. A different law, 10 U.S. Code 275, forbids Navy and Marine Corps members from the same thing. Trump claims that the anti-ICE protests are an insurrection, which allows him to call in the Marines. Legal scholars disagree, but most think he overreached and that there was no insurrection in Los Angeles.

    Indeed, the large show of force drew an even larger crowd to the protests and made it more dangerous. Nonetheless, there seem to be more military at the scene than protestors.

    Miraculously, no one has been killed (unlike the genuinely violent insurrection on January 6, 2021, where Trump rioters viciously beat police officers and several people died). He sat back and watched the insurrection on television and is now considering whether to reimburse them for their legal expenses after being imprisoned for engaging in insurrection.

    Trump said on national television that “many people” had been killed during the protests (not true) and that if he had not sent in the troops, the city would have been “obliterated.” This is nonsense. The clash between the protest and the military is contained to a few blocks of a very large city.

    Today, there were spontaneous peaceful rallies in many cities to show support for the demonstrators in Los Angeles.

    The best response: show up for a “No Kings” rally on Saturday. Check the website http://www.nokings.org to find one or create one where you live.

    Trump is not only diverting attention from his monstrous One Ugly Bill, he is laying the groundwork for martial law and dictatorship.



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  • College commencements face disruption from pro-Palestinian protests

    College commencements face disruption from pro-Palestinian protests


    Pro-Palestinian encampment encroaches on the stage and grass area where commencement is planned for Sunday at Pomona College.

    Credit: Michael Burke / EdSource

    At Pomona College in eastern Los Angeles County, commencement ceremonies are scheduled to take place this weekend on the college’s central Marston Quad, with events planned Friday through Sunday.

    But as of late Thursday, a pro-Palestinian encampment on the quad was growing in the exact location where commencement is supposed to be held. Dozens of students have set up tents, Palestinian flags and barricades around the college’s graduation stage, making it unclear whether the college will be able to proceed with commencement activities.

    Protesters said Thursday that they have no plans to leave the encampment until the college meets their demands to divest its endowment funds from companies supporting Israel and its war in Gaza. 

    “These schools love their pageantry and their ceremonies, so seizing the commencement plaza was really just a strategic move to show the college that we will continue to disrupt business as usual until they divest,” said Kwame Nkrumah, a sophomore at the college studying political sociology. 

    The elite liberal arts college of about 1,700 students is one of several campuses across California with commencement events scheduled this weekend that could be disrupted by protests. 

    The University of Southern California canceled its main stage commencement ceremony altogether, citing security concerns. It does have other events planned, including a celebration for graduating students and their families at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that was held Thursday night. 

    At UC Berkeley, which will hold its main ceremony Saturday morning, campus officials acknowledge protests are possible but say they are moving ahead with commencement like business as usual.

    They are some of the first graduations to be held since pro-Palestinian encampments and protests popped up last month across California and the rest of the country, sparked by the arrests of more than 100 protesters at Columbia University on April 18. Protesters have demanded their campuses divest from Israel. Protesters at one campus in California declared success earlier this week, when Sacramento State changed its investment policy to state that the college will no longer invest “in corporations and funds that profit from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights.”

    At Pomona, campus officials say they remain committed to holding their commencement events this weekend. The first event scheduled to take place on the quad is Friday at 5 p.m., when the college plans to hold an induction for its chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, an honor society. On Saturday evening, the college plans to hold a celebratory dinner on the quad for graduates and their families before the main commencement ceremony on Sunday morning.

    “Throughout the year, college leaders have offered to meet with student protesters and will continue to do so. We will promote safety for all members of our community and pursue our educational mission, considering the full range of viewpoints. We are committed to holding Commencement to honor the Class of 2024, with their loved ones, and preparations are continuing,” a college spokesperson said in a statement to EdSource.

    College officials, who were not made available for an interview, have not disclosed how or whether they plan to clear the encampment in order to hold the commencement activities. Nkrumah said students are prepared for the possibility that police will attempt to clear the encampment. Last month, 20 students were arrested while occupying the college president’s office.

    Mattin Khoshzaban, a graduating senior at Pomona, said he and his classmates have heard little from administrators ahead of this weekend’s ceremonies. Khoshzaban said he supports the protesters and their message but added he’s frustrated by the possibility that commencement could be disrupted. Like many current college seniors, he graduated from high school in 2020 and didn’t get an in-person graduation ceremony because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “Although they’re trying to protest the administration, it feels like a protest against the students. And especially because we didn’t get our first graduation,” he said. “We have our families flying in. We literally don’t know what’s going to happen.”

    Khoshzaban, who is studying economics, has a dozen family members who were expected to fly into the Los Angeles area starting Thursday night from Oregon, including his parents, grandparents, siblings and even aunts and uncles. 

    “My family has protested other things at different times, but they are upset for me because they know I didn’t have a high school graduation,” said Khoshzaban, who added that it would be “very meaningful” for him to be able to walk across the commencement stage.

    Anwar Mohamed, another graduating senior, feels differently. He also had his high school graduation in Chicago canceled because of the pandemic, but he isn’t worried about whether he walks across the stage.

    Demanding that Pomona divest is a personal issue for Mohamed, who is one of the organizers of the encampment. Mohamed, who is Muslim, said he remembers his family talking about Palestine since he was just 3 years old.

    “Every time we were in Friday prayer, it was always like our prayers are to Palestine. Like our actions are to Palestine, our beings are for Palestine,” he said. “And I think for me as a senior, it’s realizing that I didn’t come here for walking across a stage. College was never about this degree. College was about doing this study and understanding the material world that we live in.”

    Farther north in California, at UC Berkeley, planning for commencement is proceeding normally and will be held Saturday morning at California Memorial Stadium. College officials are not ruling out the possibility of protests but say there are no plans to change any of the usual commencement programming. 

    “Berkeley graduation ceremonies have been venues for all sorts of protests for many years. This year, like every year in the past, our efforts will focus on ensuring the ceremony can be successfully held, and on supporting the ability of graduating students, their friends, and families to safely enjoy and take part in an incredibly meaningful day,” said Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for the campus.

    Christopher Ying, a graduating senior at UC Berkeley, said he appreciates that Berkeley is moving ahead with a typical commencement. Ying is this year’s recipient of the University Medal, Berkeley’s top honor for graduating seniors, and will give a speech at the ceremony. He received the honor in part for his work with incarcerated people, including tutoring them and helping them edit and publish news stories that were distributed at prisons statewide. 

    Ying doesn’t plan to address Israel’s war in Gaza during his speech, saying that it wouldn’t be genuine to talk about it because none of his extracurriculars while in college related to the conflict. But he added that the university never told him he couldn’t talk about the conflict in his speech. 

    Meanwhile, at the University of Southern California, college officials canceled the commencement speech of valedictorian Asna Tabassum before canceling the ceremony altogether. Tabassum had been attacked by pro-Israel groups over a link in her Instagram bio that led to a website supporting Palestine.

    “I’m glad that Berkeley is not going down that same path. Berkeley obviously has a very rich history of having been involved with the free speech movement,” Ying said.





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  • Parents of truant students won’t face jail, sanctions under new bill

    Parents of truant students won’t face jail, sanctions under new bill


    California showed progress in some areas, such as health insurance, school discipline and absenteeism.

    Allison Yin/EdSource

    Top takeaways
    • Bill seeks to repeal criminal misdemeanor offense of state’s truancy law
    • CalWORKs sanctions over student truancy would be replaced by screenings for resources and access to work program
    • Districts in recent years appear less likely to lean on punitive measure to address unexcused student absences

    In 2011, when criminal penalties were first tied to truancy, five parents in Orange County were arrested for their children’s truancy. Other counties similarly chose the punitive approach over the years, with Merced County initiating an anti-truancy push in 2017 that included the arrest of 10 parents. Those parents were charged with misdemeanors, contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

    If a proposed bill is passed this legislative session, jail time and fines of up to $2,000 for parents of truant students could soon be eliminated in California.

    Assembly Bill 461, introduced by Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens, D-Silicon Valley, would repeal the criminal misdemeanor offense of the existing truancy law, meaning that parents of truant students, 6 years of age or older, in grades 1-8, would no longer be punished by fines or up to a year in county jail.

    The bill proposes an additional change: families receiving cash assistance via the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program, known as CalWORKs, would no longer be penalized if a student aged 16 years or older is chronically truant. The current penalty requires that a truant child is removed from the calculation of the family’s monthly cash assistance.

    “Criminalizing parents for their children’s truancy ignores the root causes of absenteeism and only deepens family hardships,” said Ahrens in his author’s statement.

    Under the state’s truancy law, parents of habitually absent students were previously arrested, but it remains unclear how many cases resulted in criminal charges in the nearly 15 years since it went into effect.

    State law dictates that a district can declare a student truant and refer them to the district attorney after three unexcused absences of more than 30 minutes during one school year.

    Once a student’s case is referred to the district attorney, prosecutors have wide discretion over how to charge parents for their child’s truancy, from an infraction – akin to a traffic violation, to a misdemeanor – contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

    In California, the percentage of chronically absent students catapulted from the pre-pandemic rate of 12.1% in 2018-19 to 30% in 2021-22, as schools reopened for in-person instruction. The percentage has since dropped to about 20% in 2023-24, according to state data, though rates range widely across student groups.

    State education law lists over a dozen reasons for excusing students from school, but most excused absences are related to illness and mental health. Unexcused absences often mean that students lacked documentation such as a note from a doctor, or that they provided no reason for their absence, or that the reason they provided does not qualify as an excusable absence, school officials say.

    Districts often try to avoid punitive measures

    There is no central repository tracking truancy cases, but EdSource found last year that school districts have increasingly gone to great lengths to avoid referring chronically truant students to the local district attorney. Instead, they opt for alternatives such as sending more notifications to parents after a student’s absence than what’s required by law, or scheduling multiple meetings between parents and school staff to better understand and address the underlying reasons for frequent absences.

    The decision by districts to lean into alternatives rather than available punitive measures is partly why Ahrens and AB 461’s supporters are pushing to change the law.

    “If we’re not prosecuting these cases…then why should we have this in the books? We don’t need the stick if everything else is already working to the benefit of our families,” said Yesenia Jimenez, senior policy associate at End Child Poverty CA, an advocacy organization that co-sponsored the bill.

    Eleven organizations have expressed support for the bill, with three of them co-sponsoring, and there is no listed opposition as of Monday.

    Early conversations about Assembly Bill 461 focused solely on the link between public benefits and chronic truancy, Jimenez said.

    CalWORKS provides cash assistance to families with unmet basic needs, such as housing, food, or medical care. Monthly grants range in amounts dependent on region, income, and the number of eligible family members, with the average monthly grant being about $1,000 during the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

    Provisions of the proposed law

    AB 461 also proposes changes to the CalWORKS program, including:

    • Entirely eliminating the financial sanction on families if students are deemed truant
    • Making a family with a truant child eligible for family stabilization services and allowing a student 16 years or older to voluntarily participate in CalWORKS’ welfare-to-work program, so long as their participation supports and does not interfere with school attendance
    • Qualifying families for stabilization services if they’re undergoing homelessness, undertreated behavioral needs, and including individual or group therapy, temporary housing assistance and parenting education among the services they receive
    • Granting access to resources such as substance abuse services, vocational education, and mental health services to a truant student aged 16 years or older who opts into the welfare-to-work program

    Jimenez, whose team researched the sharp rise in chronic absenteeism at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, said they knew the rates were steadily decreasing each school year.

    While AB 461 began as a way to reform public benefits programs, the team behind the bill began to more heavily consider the criminal penalties families might face as a result of truancy once the Trump administration ramped up actions targeting immigrants, Jimenez shared.

    “Now we’re just facing a completely other beast in the sense that our families are afraid to go to school because we’re seeing (the Department of Homeland Security) show up at elementary schools attempting to deport families, and families have already been subject to deportation,” she said, referring to a case early this month when immigration officials seeking information about five students in first through sixth grades were denied entry at two Los Angeles Unified elementary schools.

    With the provisions of the proposed bill, supporters are looking to circumvent immigrant families from being penalized for school absences due to fear of immigration officials.

    In Southern California this month, an undocumented father was arrested while leaving home to drive his teenage daughter to school. Some advocates have compared the ordeal to the 2017 arrest of an undocumented father who similarly was detained by ICE during a morning school drop-off.

    “We don’t want (truancy) to be the reason why our families, who we’re trying to protect, could be essentially pipelined not only into the carceral system but certainly into the deportation system at this point in time,” said Jimenez.

    Some families opted to keep their children home from school early this year in Kern County after the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol arrested 78 people. At least 40 have been deported, according to a lawsuit filed in February.

    A bill signed into law last year requires changes to the truancy notifications sent to families by removing threatening language about punitive measures they might be subject to and instead opting for sharing resources about supportive services, including mental health resources.

    Advocates for AB 461 agree with the premise of the bill, said Jimenez, but they wish to go further in removing the potential for arrest.

    AB 461 most recently passed through the Committee on Human Services and on Tuesday will be heard by the Committee on Public Safety.





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  • UC, CSU face cuts under Newsom’s proposed budget

    UC, CSU face cuts under Newsom’s proposed budget


    Students walking on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills on Nov. 19., 2024.

    Amy DiPierro

    The University of California and California State University are facing nearly an 8% reduction to their state funding for 2025-26 under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal unveiled Friday, raising concerns about the impact on their campuses.

    Top officials at both of the state’s public university systems immediately warned that the cuts, which were telegraphed in last year’s budget agreement, would result in larger class sizes and fewer available courses. They hope the Legislature will restore some of those funds before the budget is finalized this summer.

    UC, which has 10 campuses, would see a decline of $396.6 million in funding while the 23-campus CSU would lose $375.2 million under the governor’s proposal for next year. 

    Newsom also plans to defer previously promised budget increases of 5% — part of his multiyear compact agreements with the systems — until 2027-28.

    CSU Chancellor Mildred García expressed disappointment that the governor’s budget maintains cuts even in light of a rosier state budget outlook than previously projected — and said she hopes that funding will be restored if state revenues improve. The CSU enrolls more than 460,000 students, the great majority of them undergraduates.

    “The impact of such deep funding cuts will have significant real-world consequences, both in and out of the classroom,” García said in a statement. “Larger class sizes, fewer course offerings and a reduced workforce will hinder students’ ability to graduate on time and weaken California’s ability to meet its increasing demands for a diverse and highly educated workforce.”

    UC President Michael Drake offered fewer specifics but said he is concerned over how the cuts might affect “our students and campus services.” UC enrolls just shy of 300,000 students.

    Newsom’s proposal is only the start of the budget process. He and lawmakers will negotiate over the next several months as updated revenue projections become periodically available before the budget is finalized in the summer.

    The state’s system of 116 community colleges fared better and would receive $230.4 million in new general funding as part of a small cost-of-living increase under Proposition 98, the voter-approved formula that determines how much money K-12 schools and community colleges receive from California’s general fund. The system enrolled more than 1.4 million students as of fall 2023.

    Community college leaders responded favorably to the proposed budget’s support for career education and workforce development. “The governor’s emphasis on career education and recognition of prior learning aligns with our colleges’ mission to assist 6.8 million adults in advancing their career paths through their local community colleges,” Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, a member of the California Community College trustees, said in a statement.

    State funding is only one source of revenue for the two university systems, which also get money from student tuition and fees as well as federal support. 

    In total, the governor’s budget proposes $45.1 billion for the state’s three higher education segments – UC, CSU and California Community Colleges — plus the California Student Aid Commission, which administers the enormous Cal Grant aid programs and others.

    Under Newsom’s multiyear compact agreements, first announced in 2022, UC and CSU were due to receive 5% annual budget increases in exchange for making progress toward goals like increasing graduation rates, eliminating equity gaps in college completion and enrolling more California residents. With Newsom planning to cut funding and defer those increases, achieving the goals could prove challenging. 

    “In the absence of that incentive, I think we in the equity community and students are going to have to really ensure that we are demanding that our CSU and UC leaders continue to hold the line and honor their commitment to students even in leaner fiscal times,” said Jessie Ryan, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit organization that advocates for expanding college access in California. 

    Cal State’s 2025-26 budget request pleaded for the state not to cut its base funding and not to defer the money promised in the system’s previous agreement with the Newsom administration. CSU officials estimated that a 7.95% cut was tantamount to what’s needed to serve more than 36,000 full-time students. 

    The CSU system sought an operating budget of $9.2 billion, $593 million more than in 2024-25. That includes money for line items CSU officials say they can’t avoid, like increases to liability and property insurance and health care premiums. The budget request argues that a funding cut “would severely constrain” CSU’s ability to deliver on other top priorities, like programming for students’ basic needs and mental health.

    In contrast, Newsom’s budget proposal was met with a warmer response from the chancellor of the state’s community college system, Sonya Christian, who said it “supports the priorities” of the system. In addition to the cost-of-living increases, Newsom’s budget includes several new funding proposals for the community colleges. They include:

    • $168 million in one-time funding for a “statewide technology transformation” project that will streamline data collection across the system, including automating credit transfers between colleges
    • $100 million to expand “credit for prior learning,” under which colleges award credit for skills learned outside the classroom, such as in a job or by volunteering 
    • $30 million in ongoing funding to expand the Rising Scholars Network, programs that provide services for current and formerly incarcerated students

    Friday’s proposal also includes a nearly 8% cut for the California Student Aid Commission, but its programs would still receive a hefty $3.1 billion. Most of that money — $2.6 billion — would go toward the Cal Grant program, which provides aid awards for roughly 417,000 students. The remainder would fund the Middle Class Scholarship and the Golden State Teacher Grant Program, which aids students studying to become teachers who commit to working in high-need schools. 

    “The governor’s proposed budget recognizes the role of financial aid in students accessing the life-changing opportunities of California’s higher education institutions,” Daisy Gonzales, executive director of the commission, said in a statement.

    Christopher J. Nellum, the executive director of EdTrust-West, said the January budget maintains the state’s commitment to educational equity. But he said the state should “aggressively invest more in education and keep California focused on ensuring any new resources advance racial equity” in anticipation of the incoming Trump administration, which has signaled its opposition to diversity programs. 

    Emmanuel Rodriguez, the senior director of policy and advocacy for California at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), said in a statement that the state must also ensure the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education is adequately equipped “to shield Californians from anticipated federal regulatory changes that will leave students more vulnerable than ever to predatory, low-quality colleges.” The bureau has the authority to discipline postsecondary institutions if they don’t provide the promised education or prove to be fraudulent. 





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  • How more Hispanic teachers could change the face of California education

    How more Hispanic teachers could change the face of California education


    Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

    California has had a racial imbalance between its teacher workforce and its student population for years, with a majority Hispanic student population being taught by teachers who are mostly white. That could be changing, as more people of Hispanic heritage enroll in college teacher preparation programs in the state.

    Overall enrollment in teacher preparation programs in California has decreased in recent years, but the biggest declines have been among white teacher candidates. The result has been a higher percentage of people of color entering teacher preparation programs, according to the state’s Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

    In the 2022-23 school year — the most recent year state data is available — more than half of the new teacher candidates identified themselves as a race other than white. Nearly 40% of the 17,337 newly enrolled teacher candidates that year were Hispanic, and just over 33% were white, according to CTC data.

    That was a stark contrast to the racial makeup of the state’s teacher workforce that same year, when 55% of the state’s 312,124 teachers were white, and Hispanic teachers made up 25% of the workforce from transitional kindergarten (TK) through high school.

    “Over half of our TK-12 student population identifies, and the majority of our English language learners also are Latino,” said José Magaña, executive director of Bay Area Latinos for Education. “The research is pretty clear that not just Latino students and English language learners, but all students, benefit from having a more diverse educator.”

    Latinos for Education offers fellowships to support Latinos in the education system. The Bay Area branch of the organization also has a Latinx Teacher Fellowship program to support beginning teachers and paraprofessionals.

    Research shows that when students are taught by educators who reflect their cultural backgrounds and understand their lived experiences, it results in stronger academic outcomes, greater social-emotional growth, and a profound sense of belonging, said Kai Mathews, executive director of the Urban Ed Academy in San Francisco, which recruits and supports Black male teachers.

    “Increasing the number of Latinx educators is about more than representation — it’s about creating classrooms where every student feels seen, valued and is liberated to be their authentic self,” Mathews said.

    Changing California demographics

    The change in the racial makeup of teacher candidates coincides with the evolving population of the state, where 56% of the K-12 student population was Hispanic last school year, according to the California Department of Education. The number increases to over 60% for children younger than age 5, said Shireen Pavri, assistant vice chancellor of California State University’s educator and leadership programs.

    In the years between 2018 and 2023, the percentage of Hispanic teacher candidates has slowly increased from 31.4% to 39.7%, while the number of white teacher candidates dropped by 10 percentage points, according to CTC data. The number of Hispanic teacher candidates also has been increasing, although it dropped from 7,154 in 2021-22 to 6,934 in 2022-23, when the overall number of teacher candidates declined for a second consecutive year.

    California State University, which prepares the majority of the state’s teachers, had the largest percentage of Hispanic students in its teacher preparation programs in 2022-23 — nearly 50%, according to the CTC’s  “Annual Report Card on California teacher preparation programs.” The number is currently 55%, Pavri said.

    During that same time, the percentage of white candidates in CSU teacher preparation programs decreased, and the percentage of teacher candidates of other races remained flat.

    CSU is leading the way

    “Anecdotally, a lot of our Latinx population, who come into our teacher preparation programs, come in because they want to make a difference,” Pavri said. “They didn’t necessarily see people who looked like them when they were going through school. Many of them came in as English learners. They want to make an impact now on their communities and give back.”

    Some of the recent success at diversifying the pool of teacher candidates at California State University can be attributed to the Center for Transformational Educator Preparation Programs, which has helped to recruit, prepare and retain teachers of color, according to the university.

    Its Transformation Lab, a four-year program that recently ended, increased the retention rate of teacher candidates at some campuses and improved teacher placement numbers at others, Pavri said. At CSU Bakersfield and CSU Northridge, for example, the completion rates for Black candidates increased by 17% and 31% respectively between 2020 and 2023, and Stanislaus State doubled its student teaching placements for historically underserved teacher candidates at Modesto City Schools over a two-year period. 

    The center’s leadership is seeking additional funding to support similar programs in the future.

    The university also operates CalStateTEACH, an online multiple-subject teaching credential program that focuses on recruiting male teachers of color from throughout California.

    In University of California teacher preparation programs, 35% of the teacher candidates are Hispanic, 29% are white, 20% are Asian and 2.8% are Black. There are still slightly more white teacher candidates than Hispanic, 38% and 32.6% respectively, in teacher preparation programs at private universities and colleges.

    State programs bearing fruit

    The increase in the number of Hispanic teacher candidates in teacher preparation programs could be attributed, in part, to efforts by state lawmakers to ease the teacher shortage and diversify the teacher workforce by making earning a credential easier and more affordable. The state has offered degree and coursework alternatives to several tests, established residency and apprenticeship programs and paid for school staff to become teachers.

    District grow-your-own programs and the state’s Classified School Employee Credentialing program and apprenticeship programs are meant to diversify the educator workforce because school staff recruited from the community more closely match the demographics of the student body than traditionally trained and recruited teachers, according to research.

    “All of those state investments, particularly around affordability, have helped incredibly with bringing more Black and brown students into our teaching field,” Pavri said.

    CSU teacher residency programs outpace even the traditional teacher preparation programs in terms of the number of teachers of color enrolled, she said.

    Numbers for other ethnic groups flat

    Despite the efforts, California State University continues to struggle to attract Black teacher candidates, hovering around 3% for years, despite several initiatives to improve their numbers, Pavri said. 

    “While we celebrate this progress, we must confront the persistent underrepresentation of Black, Asian and Pacific Islander educators,” Mathews said. “Our classrooms deserve to reflect the fullness of California’s diversity. Ensuring this kind of equity in the teaching workforce isn’t just good for students—it’s essential to building the inclusive, transformative and liberating system our communities deserve.” 

    Statewide, Black teacher candidates made up 4%, and Asian teacher candidates about 9.5% of total enrollment in California teacher preparation programs between 2018 and 2023, according to CTC data.

    There are fewer Black teachers because of obstacles they encounter on the way to completing their education, including an unwelcoming school environment, disproportionate discipline and overrepresentation in special education, Pavri said. 

    Pursuing a teaching credential, where traditionally student teaching is unpaid, is not affordable for some. Teacher salaries, which are generally lower than the pay for other jobs with the same qualifications, and working conditions also are a deterrent for students from families with limited generational wealth, Pavri said.

    More needs to be done to keep teachers

    The increase in the percentage of Hispanic teacher candidates is positive, but not significant enough, Magaña said. In order to reflect student demographics, the state will need to make significant investments to recruit and retain educators.

    “The numbers are staggering around the number of educators that are leaving the profession, especially our Latino educators,” he said.

    Magaña, who was a classroom teacher for 15 years, said Latino educators often have to take on extra work on campus, whether it is supporting translations or family engagement.

    “It can be a lonely role,” he said. “Sometimes there may be just one Latino educator on campus, and without mentorship and community, and network building, it makes it easier for folks to not feel supported.”





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  • When districts face the tough job of closing schools, Manny Barbara is the go-to guy

    When districts face the tough job of closing schools, Manny Barbara is the go-to guy


    Manny Barbara, right, and new Alum Rock Superintendent. German Cerda discuss plans to transition the district to fewer schools.

    Credit: John Fensterwald/EdSource

    Takeaways From Manny Barbara’s school-closure playbook:
    • Allow plenty of time; let the closure process play itself out.
    • Create a fully representative advisory committee without board members, and protect confidential discussions.
    • Celebrate the closure of a school with a community event.
    • Principals must take the lead to welcome parents, students and staffs to their new schools.

    Alum Rock Union Elementary District in East San Jose was out of time. By last fall, it had spent down most its savings; enrollment, more than 16,000 K-8 students in the early 2000s, had dropped to 7,300 and was headed to under 6,000.

    The state was threatening to take it over.

    With more than two-thirds of its 21 schools at less than 50% capacity, the school board faced what it had long delayed: downsizing. It turned to Manny Barbara, the closer. 

    Alum Rock would be the sixth school district in the San Jose area that Barbara had advised on closing schools in the two decades since, as superintendent, he had shuttered two schools in nearby Oak Grove. A former school psychologist, Barbara was well-respected, affable and a good listener. He also had a plan for closing schools.

    Having fired its last superintendent, the Alum Rock board hired Barbara in the summer of 2024 as interim superintendent to lay the groundwork in the community for likely closures. He switched roles to facilitator when the new superintendent, German Cerda, took over in September.

    Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, 222 elementary, middle, and high schools in California closed, according to the state. Along with the five that Alum Rock will close in the fall and additional consolidations of four schools, there will be many more statewide, with tighter budgets ahead and state enrollment projected to decline further.

    Barbara discusses his template for closing schools and how it worked in Alum Rock in an interview with EdSource. The interview was shortened and edited for clarity.

    It’s April; suppose you’re a school board planning to close some schools this fall. What would you say about the timing?

    It’s too late because you need time for the process.

    There are three phases in school closure. The first is the preparation, informing the board, making the case why it has to be done.

    Then the actual process itself: That involves engaging the community through a committee process and taking the recommendation to the board.

    And then, once the board makes a decision, the third phase, which is just as challenging, is the transition to fewer schools.

    At Oak Grove, we started a year in advance — meeting with community, explaining the rationale, presenting the information to the board. Once you begin, you need to be done around February so that you’ve got the last few months for the transition and closure.

    What are the factors to consider when deciding whether to close?

    It’s an economic decision. You don’t want to do this unless you absolutely have to. With Alum Rock, there was a potential receivership.

    It’s also a psychological experience — emotional for the people involved. Parents, staff, students do not want their school closed. I don’t blame them. They get angry. You have to be prepared for that. You can’t convince people with sheer logic.

    Finally, it’s a political process. Elected boards are vulnerable. Parents can make threats of recall.

    What are the factors to address even before you begin the process?

    Context is important. No two districts are alike. The size of the district matters, the number of schools you have to close, the political climate in the district, the stability of the board, superintendent experience. All should be taken into account.

    Employee unions have to be informed. I never expect the associations to support school closures. The associations in Alum Rock’s case weren’t thrilled about it. My expectation is that only if they say they understand the situation, then at least they don’t tell you one thing privately and then publicly say something different.

    Goal for savings: $1 million per school

    So how much would you expect to save from closing a school?

    Close to a million dollars from the savings in administration, support staff, energy costs and so forth. That does not count any revenue that might be received from leasing the school or selling a site, which could bring in tens of millions of dollars.

    When you consolidate two schools, for example, with 300 students per school, you only need one principal, not two.

    In Oak Grove, we were able to do it through retirements. That’s not always possible.

    What’s the role of the superintendent?

    It’s critical. The superintendent has to be front and center. It’s ultimately the board’s decision, but the superintendent needs to be the key communicator and take as much of the heat as possible.

    Is it wise for districts to consider a facilitator?

    I would not recommend that superintendents do it on their own. With a facilitator, a superintendent can observe.  A superintendent has to be out there communicating with behind-the-scenes meetings, listening to people, hearing their concerns, and explaining why it has to be done. You always should be focusing on what’s best for all the students in the district.

    You’re really selling hope that, at the end of the day, the district will come out better in terms of serving all the students. There’ll be more resources available for students and compensation for employee groups.

    I remember a meeting — it was close to 11 p.m. with 100 parents. I made a comment, “Look, if there’s anything I could do to avoid closing the school, I would do it.” Then I caught myself and said, “Well, no. There is something a lot worse: if I have to lay off a lot of staff that support other students in the district to keep open a small school.”

    Who should be on an advisory committee?

    Representatives from every school, all the employee groups, the administration, community groups like neighborhood associations. The one in Alum Rock was particularly challenging, with about 30 people.

    Who chooses them?

    Schools choose their own. The parents apply, and the principal selects. Unions choose their own representation.

    But no board members?

    No board members. The reason is that I don’t want the board members to get too involved because they’re going to be involved in making the final decision. It’s up to them — they can do what they want to do.  I did not encourage them to attend the committee meetings as observers, and they did not.

    As an advisory committee, their meetings were not subject to the Brown Act, the open-meetings law. Did you suggest that they not be open to the public?

    Yes, that is what I recommend. As the superintendent’s advisory committee, it is important to protect committee members. If you’re a parent and you realize “I have to vote to close my school,” it’s not fair to put them in a position where they’re taking the heat.

    Did their names appear in the vote on recommendations?

    The results, but not the names of how people voted. 

    Do you ask the committee not to discuss what is going on? With 30 people, I’m sure it was difficult to keep things in the room.

    I’m not naïve.  You tell people, please keep it in confidence, but we’re dealing with human nature, and sometimes things get out.

    However, after every meeting, a summary of everything that went on in the meeting is made public. The first part in the process is informational. They hear information on the budget, facilities, programs, enrollment, financial projections.

    What are the criteria for deciding which schools to close? Is it diversity, test scores?

    Test scores are not a factor, but it’s school enrollment, demographics; there are legal constraints you have to take into account, like the impact on a lower socioeconomic community. You take into account even political things, like how close they are to charter schools, whether they’re dual-immersion schools and special programs. You also look at the cost of improving facilities.

    Do you recommend speaking with parents?

    There’s constant communication. You need to go to the schools that are recommended for closing. As you might expect, there’s not a lot of, “Thank you for the great work.”

    What is the process before the board?

    You present in a hearing so the public can respond. Then you present again as action.

    How to handle the transition

    Then what after the decision?

    The bad news is that’s actually the easy part. Morale can be very down. And then you go through this period where people are losing their jobs.

    There needs to be a closure period. Schools are a large part of people’s lives, so you celebrate that ending. That is very hard for boards and superintendents, but they have to be there. For a district that closes many schools, it’s like a new district, and you’re now asking, “How are we going to reimagine ourselves going  forward?”

    So how do you bring two groups of parents and teachers together?

    It starts now, not in the summer, with a meeting with staff, explaining the process, meeting with PTA groups, school site councils, since they’re going to merge parent leaders. Principals have to take the lead in making this happen.

    The transition is easier for students and harder for adults. Once kids get there, and teachers welcome them, they adapt pretty quickly.

    Is there an effect on the receiving school, too?

    Depending on how many students they’re receiving, psychologically, they close, too. The teachers may still be there, but it’s a new school.

    For teachers, the transition can go smoothly if the cultures are similar. Sometimes, you need to bring in facilitators for staff to communicate.

    Do you have meetings where kids and parents meet one another before the end of school?

    I recommend that — whenever possible, not just once. Parents especially.

    In instances where things fall apart — boards rescind decisions or can’t reach agreements on closing schools — why does this happen?

    Usually, it falls apart if you rush the process. Anyone can close a school. You just make an announcement, and that’s done. Now, you have to deal with the repercussions.

    You hear about districts where parents said they didn’t believe the dire financial problems the district says existed.

    You have to have credibility with the financing, make budget numbers available to anyone who wants to see them, and explain it over and over. You have to make your case.  

    What happened in Alum Rock?

    You strive for consensus. I’ve been involved with closures in six districts. I’ve always had unanimous votes from the boards. In Alum Rock, with that many schools, we arrived at a consensus on six (four elementary and two middle schools), but the final three were very difficult, and we were under a timeline. The superintendent had to make the decision for the final three. The board responded and modified some. In the end, they got it done.

    How has the process affected you?

    Even as a facilitator, it’s emotional. People are grieving, they love their school. The superintendent and the board go through a lot of stress. Closing a school is the hardest initiative that you’re going to face as a superintendent. 

    I’ve been willing to help, although I kept saying I was never going to do it again. This time, I really mean it.

    How Alum Rock achieved its savings

    Alum Rock Superintendent German Cerda recalls sobering words from a fiscal adviser for the state last September on the plan to close or consolidate nine schools. “He said, ‘You aren’t going to be able to. This is impossible,’” Cerda recalled, with a laugh. “He told me in my face the day they’re approving my contract. And I’m like, ‘Thank you. I’m going out there to accept the contract.’” Cerda was previously assistant superintendent in nearby Campbell Union High School District.

    Cerda proved him wrong. The closure of five schools this fall, plus the expected closure of a school with 200 students in 2026-27, along with the consolidation of four schools into two, will save $8.4 million. The savings will come from reduced expenses like electricity and fewer staff positions (a single principal, secretary, custodian, counselor and community liaison instead of two of each), he said. Additionally, the district will save $7 million to $8 million through teacher layoffs and retirements, and fewer schools with undersized classes will lead to some larger class sizes within limits set by the teachers’ contract – 31 students per class in the case of middle schools, he said.

    The savings don’t include the potential income from selling or leasing closed schools; several companies and private high schools have expressed interest, Cerda said.

    District morale is low because of layoffs and school closures, Cerda acknowledged, but in meeting with principals who will remain, he sensed excitement for the future. There will be more enrichment courses, and once again, Alum Rock will offer algebra in eighth grade – essential for any middle school in San Jose.

    “They can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.





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