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  • Anticipating less state aid, CSU campuses start making cuts

    Anticipating less state aid, CSU campuses start making cuts


    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

    The Cal State System is anticipating more university-wide budget cuts as it faces expected cuts in state aid due to the state’s budget deficit for the 2024-25 budget year. 

    Already many campuses have started consolidating programs, freezing hiring, eliminating positions, deferring maintenance projects and restricting purchases. 

    At San Francisco State, President Lynn Mahoney said the campus has a hiring freeze and is starting a “voluntary separation program” this spring. It is also restructuring courses with actual enrollment. Last fall, the campus said it would need to cut about 125 positions this spring. 

    “The reductions have been and will continue to be painful,” Mahoney said. But the campus’ reductions and changes will “hopefully within about four years achieve enrollment and budget stability.” 

    In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom made an agreement to give CSU annual 5% base funding increases over five years in exchange for increasing enrollment and improving graduation rates. However, with the state’s $38 billion projected budget deficit, this year the governor proposed delaying the $240.2 million increase for the 2024-25 budget year to the following year.

    While CSU would then get two years’ worth of increases, the system would have to borrow the money to get through next year. 

    The plan is still risky for the university system if the state’s budget situation worsens and it is unable to fulfill its commitment next year. 

    “The governor’s administration has supported and continues to signal future support for the CSU and its compact,” said Steve Relyea, executive vice chancellor and chief financial officer for the system. “But the proposed deferral raises significant concerns, and we must proceed with fiscal prudence and caution.” 

    The 23 campuses are already being asked to help cover a $138 million shortfall this year. The system is projected to be short at least $184 million more from 2024-26.

    Relyea said the system will move forward with cost-cutting strategies but still find support for compensating faculty and staff, protecting students’ education, improving the handling of Title IX complaints and other priorities. 

    Trustee Julia Lopez warned the board that CSU’s financial commitments may have put the system in a deeper financial hole than is being projected once it includes promises like improving Title IX and repatriating cultural and human remains to Indigenous people. The only revenue outside of state dollars is the tuition increase, and at least a third of that money will go to improving financial aid, she said. 

    “There’s a huge gap between what we have to pay for in commitments and the revenues we identified,” Lopez said. “The conversation in Sacramento is just beginning. We need to have our voices heard, and we need to be very clear.” 

    Trustee Jack McGrory said the message to the Legislature has to be what happens if CSU doesn’t receive funding. 

    “There are courses that are going to be cut, there will be employees that are going to have to be cut, and that’s the reality of what we’re dealing with,” he said. 





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  • Teacher diversity is an investment in students worth making and keeping

    Teacher diversity is an investment in students worth making and keeping


    Participants in the Diversity in Leadership Institute’s Aspiring Principals of Color program.

    Courtesy: Adela Montes / Diversity in Leadership Institute

    Representation matters, especially in the classroom. Students can do better when they are instructed by a person who looks like them. As California is challenged by fiscal uncertainties, school districts are bracing themselves to establish their own budget priorities. Now more than ever, it is time for school districts to protect and realize their promises of establishing and maintaining teacher diversity that is reflective of the students and communities they serve.

    Two years ago, the Los Angeles Unified School Board demonstrated its commitment to Black students, educators and families by passing a resolution on Black student excellence through educator civersity, preparation and retention. The resolution demonstrates the district’s commitment to foster a more inclusive and equitable educational landscape.

    But resolutions are only as good as their implementation. Los Angeles Unified has taken some initial steps that can be built upon and expanded to serve as a model for other districts.

    In addition to prioritizing workforce diversity in the district’s Ready for the World strategic plan, one of the district’s key initiatives has been to create affinity spaces for Black male and female educators. These spaces provide a supportive environment for Black educators to connect, share experiences, and receive mentorship and support throughout their careers. This effort is a crucial step toward increasing the representation of Black educators in the teaching profession and fostering inclusivity.

    Another significant initiative has been the district’s targeted recruitment efforts at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to diversify the teaching pipeline. By partnering with institutions like Cal State Dominguez Hills, the district has secured funding for programs that support Black students pursuing careers in education. This effort is a vital step toward addressing the longstanding inequities faced by Black students and educators.

    Additionally, the district has established mentorship and support programs to incentivize students to pursue careers in education and facilitate a seamless transition into the profession. The Educators of Tomorrow program, for example, offers financial incentives to students pursuing teaching credentials and provides resources and support to facilitate their career transitions. Moreover, the district’s collaboration with nonprofits to expand the Black educator pipeline and the emphasis on mentorship opportunities within the district demonstrate a concerted effort to nurture talent and foster growth.

    These efforts are not limited to Los Angeles Unified. In the Bay Area, Emery Unified School District is seeing progress through targeted approaches to improving outcomes for Black students by shifting to equity-based grading, paying teachers to tutor outside of school hours and continuing its focus on recruiting Black educators, among other strategic approaches.

    And recognizing the need to invest more in school leadership, in July 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature approved the Diverse Education Leaders Pipeline Initiative, a $10 million dollar grant program, to address the need for a more diverse and culturally responsive education leadership workforce.

    Administered by the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing, this initiative seeks to credential and train over 300 new administrators across the state over the next four years.  To recruit, support and retain educators, particularly those of color, we must have a pipeline of culturally responsive school leaders.

    These local and state initiatives must be celebrated, supported and replicated. But while we celebrate Los Angeles Unified’s efforts to date, we know more transparency and engagement with community stakeholders is vital for realizing the promise of the district’s 2021 resolution. We also know others cannot follow what they can’t see. Los Angeles Unified and districts across California must share their data and learning so that others can join in taking action too.

    Fiscal uncertainties can undermine progress and change if our leaders don’t uphold their commitments and maintain their courage. Districts have shown progress toward ensuring our schools reflect the students and communities they serve. Our state and district leaders can’t stop investing and prioritizing teacher diversity now.

    We can’t build a better tomorrow for California’s students and families of color without keeping and making the necessary investments of today.

    ●●●

    Laura McGowan-Robinson, Ed.D., is CEO of the Diversity in Leadership Institute, a nonprofit working to build a movement of racially diverse and culturally competent public education leaders.

    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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  • Delaine Eastin remembered: Making the most of being schools chief in California

    Delaine Eastin remembered: Making the most of being schools chief in California


    Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin.

    Credit: John Joanino/Advancement Project California

    Despite the office’s imposing title, California’s superintendent of public instruction has little actual power to do much about education.

    The governor has far more influence, as does the State Board of Education. And then there are the local school boards, which, by law, are responsible for the nearly 1,000 school districts in the state.

    That is why it was remarkable that at least 500 people packed into the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento last week to honor Delaine Eastin, who was superintendent of public instruction over two decades ago. She was the first, and so far, only, woman to occupy the post.

    The state superintendent position is largely what you make of it — and Eastin, who died in April at the age of 76, made the most of it.

    Part of her success had to do with her outsize personality. She regularly girded colleagues for any number of political battles with Shakespeare’s rallying cry, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.”

    Part of her impact was rooted in her sustained belief in public education, of which she herself was a product. A native of California, she attended public schools and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California.

    “Children are the living messengers we are sending to a time we will never see,” she would say. To those who argued that public education costs the state too much, she would offer the rejoinder, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

    And to those who wondered why they should support children in districts other than their own with their taxes, she argued, “This country runs on other people’s children.”

    Some of her success had something to do with her oratory, which was honed in her high school drama classes. As an assemblymember before becoming state superintendent, she was regarded as one of the best speakers in the Legislature. She regularly got standing ovations in the multiple speeches she made around the state. Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a legendary speaker himself who attended the memorial service, would often send her to speak in his place. 

    Her legacy includes her single-mindedness in promoting smaller class sizes in California’s K-3 grades. She was a force in creating California’s Academic Performance Index in 1999, the first statewide system for ranking schools based mostly on test scores.

    She was also a leader in promoting California’s first efforts for universal preschool — a vision that is now coming to fruition with the expansion of transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds. 

    Less well known was her backing of Alice Water’s Edible Garden Project, which began at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley in the mid 1990s. “If it had not been for Delaine, we would not have had an Edible Garden Project,” said Waters, the founder of the renowned Chez Panisse restaurant just blocks from the school. On a video, Waters shared that there are now 6,500 edible school gardens around the world.  

    Above all, Eastin was a huge backer of California itself. Californians, she would often say, “are people who grew up somewhere else and came to their senses.”  

    Throughout her life, she was single-minded in promoting women for public office.

    Eastin’s last appearance on the political stage was in 2018 when she “had the audacity to run for governor,” as Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis described the run. It was a quixotic effort at best — something Eastin was well-aware of, Kounalakis said. “She ran largely to talk about the importance of public education.”

    As the two of them traveled together around the state during the campaign, Eastin would say, “This is what the future could look like” if they both were elected. But Eastin only got 4% of the vote. Kounalakis was more successful, becoming California’s first woman lieutenant governor.  

    While she did not make it to the governorship, there was something biblical in the arc of the life of a woman who did not have her own children, despite wanting them — but was nonetheless able to improve the lives of millions of them in her home state.

    Her staff in the Department of Education recalled the many times they would set out early, half awake, on yet another trip to an outlying district.

    “It’s going to be a great day,” Eastin, ever the motivator, would tell them. “We get to visit schools.”  

    •••

    Louis Freedberg is interim CEO of EdSource.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. 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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  • Making the most of my belated return to college

    Making the most of my belated return to college


    Xavier Zamora graduates from Cal State LA in a commencement ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

    Credit: Myles Bridgewater-Jackman/Cal State LA

    My academic career was delayed and nearly derailed by ADHD, and I didn’t have a clue. 

    I started my academic journey in 2002. At the time, I had a 2-year-old son with another child on the way. I enrolled at the University of New Mexico and, within a few years, started working part time as a mental health technician at a youth mental hospital. Little did I know that a single, off-the-cuff conversation with one of the doctors there would change my life forever.

    He asked if I had ever been diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder), which, to me, was an absurd question to ask because I am certainly not hyperactive. At the time, when I thought of ADHD, I imagined little kids running around like they had just drunk 2 liters of soda. I can’t remember what answer I gave him, but his question planted a seed in my brain, and there it remained for years.

    While I loved studying photojournalism at that time, my grades gradually went from OK to bad. I didn’t have a problem understanding the concepts. I struggled with time management, completing tasks and procrastination.

    I had responsibilities. I thought it best to return home to California and pivot. In 2009, I dropped out of college and became a freelance photographer, shooting everything from weddings to commercial photography. I missed college and photojournalism, but I needed to pay bills.

    Fast-forward to 2017. With both my boys now attending high school, I re-evaluated my first attempt at college to see where I went wrong.

    Reflecting on the conversation about ADHD I had years ago, I decided to consult my doctor and a psychiatrist. I was diagnosed with a condition called attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, predominantly inattentive or ADHD-PI.

    The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders offered me this explanation: “Inattention manifests behaviorally in ADHD as wandering off task, lacking persistence, having difficulty sustaining focus, and being disorganized and is not due to defiance or lack of comprehension.”

    All this gave me flashbacks to high school. I clearly remember the decline in my attention span. I was reading books by authors like Michael Crichton, Anne Rice and Carl Sagan before my freshman year. By the end of that same year, I struggled to retain anything I read from a few pages of a class textbook. 

    I had so many thoughts in my head, and they were all vying for my attention simultaneously. A song I heard the day before, a conversation with a friend, a scene from a movie I hadn’t seen in years. It felt like trying to read a book while in a packed sports bar during the Super Bowl. These explanations for my inattentiveness and procrastination were seen as thinly veiled excuses and had been regularly dismissed by teachers, counselors and my parents. They told me I was lazy and needed to snap out of it. I never could.

    I am not alone. Roughly 3% of adults in the U.S. live with inattentive ADHD, the most common variation of the disorder.

    Talk about a revelation. I had been fighting with one hand tied behind my back and didn’t even know it. When I realized what I was dealing with, I did my research and found ways to manage the effects. 

    I created an office space free from distractions like loud conversations and easily accessible video game controllers. I don’t often play video games, but giving in to a quick game of Call of Duty can send me down a rabbit hole of distractions that can easily consume hours of my time.

    I also started using apps like Calendar, Reminders and Evernote to keep track of notes, appointments, tasks and deadlines.

    I restarted my academic journey in 2019 at Pasadena City College, and at 41 years old, I approached it with care and discipline. In two and a half years, I graduated with two associate degrees, in communication arts and social and behavioral sciences.

    Next, I enrolled in Cal State LA in 2022, ready to knock out two more degrees.

    I wrote notes for every class lecture and every reading and class assignment. By the time I graduated, I had amassed a collection of 65 notebooks, one for each class I took.

    My ADHD made it hard to retain what I read, so I used text-to-speech features to make my laptop read my books aloud while I read along. Also, I isolated myself. I used my noise-canceling headphones to study as if in the silence of a monastery.

    When I returned to college, I placed myself in a better place to succeed. My kids were old enough to take care of themselves. I had my ADHD in check and built an incredible support structure among professors and therapists. The support of my family helped immensely. 

    And, I was blessed with professors who understood what I had on my plate.

    Today, I am chasing a master’s degree. And I will not care whether a fellow student asks me “Are you a professor?” Every gray hair holds a story worth telling.

    •••

    Xavier Zamora recently graduated from Cal State LA with a double major in journalism and TV, film and media studies. He is a member of the EdSource Student Journalism Corps.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. We welcome guest commentaries with diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Crowded classes, staff shortages, insufficient pay are making some California teachers rethink careers

    Crowded classes, staff shortages, insufficient pay are making some California teachers rethink careers


    Kindergarten teacher Carla Randazzo watches a student write alphabet letters on a white board at Golden Empire Elementary School in Sacramento.

    Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo

    Insufficient school funding is hurting California teachers and their students, according to “The State of California Public Schools,” a report from the California Teachers Association released Tuesday. 

    The lack of funding has meant insufficient wages and high health insurance premiums for teachers, crowded classrooms and a lack of support staff, according to the report, which is based on a December survey of almost 2,000 TK-12 educators.

    Most of the educators surveyed said that their pay is too low to afford housing near their jobs and that their salaries aren’t keeping up with the rising costs of groceries, childcare and other necessary expenses.

    Ninety-one percent of the educators surveyed who rent reported that they can’t afford to buy a home. Only 12% of the teachers surveyed said they were able to save a comfortable amount for the future, while 31% said they are living paycheck to paycheck.

    “Many educators are spread thin and frankly aren’t able to make ends meet financially, and are working in a public school system that continues to be underfunded year after year,” said CTA President David Golberg at a press conference Tuesday.

    The California Teachers Association represents 310,000 of the state’s educators, including teachers, nurses, counselors, psychologists, librarians, education support professionals and some higher education faculty and staff. The survey was conducted for the union by GBAO Strategies, a public opinion research and political strategy firm.

    Teachers who took part in the survey, which targeted teachers throughout the state to provide a representative demographic, overwhelmingly agreed that California schools don’t pay high enough salaries to teachers or have the resources to meet the needs of the students.

    Eighty-four percent said there aren’t enough staff, resources or training to support special education students, and 76% reported that classrooms are overcrowded. Sixty-eight percent said students lack access to mental health support.

    California ranked 18th in per pupil spending in 2021-22, the most recent year nationally comparable data is available – slightly above the national average, according to a November report by the Public Policy Institute of California. When the difference in labor costs were taken into account, California dropped to 34th. In the five years between the 2018-19 school year and the 2023-24 school year, education funding increased nearly 34% in California, according to the PPIC.

    “We’re not even in the top 10 when we compare ourselves to other states,” Goldberg said. “So, that shows you the real disconnect from the wealth that exists in our state and the resources that are going to students and educators.”

    Almost a third of the teachers surveyed have taken second jobs or gig work to make ends meet, 37% have delayed or gone without medical care and 65% have skipped family vacations because of financial constraints, according to the report.

    “These are not extra frills,” Goldberg said. “These are things that we consider part of just the everyday life that us, as human beings and as workers, a dignified life would entail. And, you see that a lot of educators are living with a scarcity around even the most basic things.”

    Four out of 10 of the educators surveyed said they are considering leaving the profession in the next few years. Nearly 80% of the teachers said that finances were the primary reason they would consider the job change.

    Sacramento-area TK teacher Kristina Caswell said a recent increase in the cost of healthcare premiums at her district swallowed up the recent raise she received. She said the affordability tool on the Covered California website rates her healthcare costs for a family of five as unaffordable.

    “I will spend money on my students before I will think about going to that doctor’s appointment that I need and spending that money on maybe a prescription that I need if I get sick,” she said. “That’s something I will stop and think about. Whereas when I’m thinking about my students, I don’t (stop to) think about spending the money.”

    Despite their concerns, 77% of teachers surveyed said they still find their job rewarding, although 62% are dissatisfied with their overall working conditions.

    “I’m really thankful and grateful that I have the job that I have,” Caswell said. “I absolutely love my job. I adore my students, I adore the families that I serve.”





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