Students spend time at the turtle pond on the campus of San Diego State University.
Credit: Noah Lyons/EdSource
According to a 2018 study published by Frontiers of Public Health, spending time outdoors can aid people in a variety of categories: “attention and cognition, memory, stress and anxiety, sleep, emotional stability and self-perceived welfare or quality of life.”
Monicka Fosnocht, an associate therapist at San Diego State University with a background in natural public medicine agrees. “For a lot of students that are struggling with mental health, or even students who don’t and are just stressed, it’s really helpful to get a nice, big dose of vitamin D and get outside so that we can get our brains functioning optimally.”
SDSU has its own outdoor resources. One space in particular, the turtle pond, has become a popular destination for students seeking solace from their academic lives.
The origins of the turtle pond date back to 1973. The campus community asked for more green spaces, and the school delivered. Koi fish dominated the scene at first, but red-eared slider turtles eventually became the pond’s informal namesake.
Within this area, there are hammocks, slacklines, trees, ample seating and, of course, the pond itself, all providing students with a mental health boost.
The therapeutic effect of being in outdoor spaces is increasingly being noted by mental health professionals, including SDSU counseling and psychological services faculty member Tri Nguyễn.
“Therapists are moving a lot more outdoors.” Nguyễn said. “There are providers who do therapy outdoors, by hiking or going on a walk. It’s no longer just within the confines of an office space.”
While individuals between 15 and 21 years old are significantly more stressed than older generations, they are more likely to report their struggles and seek help. Fosnocht is optimistic that young people can normalize conversations surrounding mental health and find unique ways to address it.
“I’m really hopeful for Gen Z and the generations to come that are decreasing the stigma around mental health and also connecting it to very accessible things like being in nature, hanging out with the turtles, talking to other people and taking the time to connect with people in person.”
A frequent turtle pond visitor is Natale Canepa, a fifth-year journalism and media studies major. While he isn’t a musician by nature, he’s added to the character of the turtle pond with his music. He said that to express his excitement about returning to classes after the pandemic, he started whistling.
Nicknamed “The Turtle Pond Whistler,” Canepa posts videos on Instagram, which has, in turn, attracted others to the turtle pond.
In addition to being an outlet for his self-expression, he views the pond as a place for truly living in the moment.
“I see the turtle pond as a place of magic; I come here and I’m mesmerized by the sights, sounds and smells,” Canepa said. “I think the best moments in life are the quiet, slow moments when you can hear the rustling of the leaves in the wind, hear the splashing of the water and look at the little turtles swimming around in the pond.”
Canepa is not alone in that sentiment. Lauren DuBose, a fourth-year business administration major, visits the turtle pond on a near-daily basis to unplug from her academic life.
Even if she only has a 15-minute gap between classes, DuBose spends time at the pond connecting with friends, listening to music and practicing mindfulness.
“Being in San Diego, you have so many sunny days,” DuBose said. “If you can get 10 minutes of sunlight a day just sitting there and closing your eyes a little bit, that’s definitely beneficial to your mental health.”
Another outdoor amenity that SDSU’s counseling and psychological services provides involves a pair of four-legged friends. Baxter and Luna, the school’s therapy dogs, make frequent appearances at school events, including “Lunch with Luna,” which takes place at the turtle pond.
College campuses across California are embracing the outdoors, too.
Students, staff and faculty at University of California, Irvine are encouraged to participate in “Wednesday Wellness Walks” across parks and marshes across the city, while Chico State University has its own guided forest therapy program, based on “forest bathing,” a popular Japanese practice.
And in the spring of 2022, the University of California, Davis created an initiative called Healthy Outside.” This was part of a campuswide effort to get students outdoors and spend more time in natural settings. The program also rewarded students with prizes for participating.
Fosnocht said that practicing mindfulness should go beyond the school, and into the local community.
“We don’t have to limit it to campus alone. When I work with students, I encourage them to use all the outdoor spaces throughout San Diego,” Fosnocht said. “We’re very close to Mission Trails as well as Cowles Mountain and the beaches.”
California may have low public college tuition costs when compared to other colleges and universities nationally, but it is not enough to prevent students from taking high amounts of student loans.
A new study released exclusively to EdSource from The Century Foundation found Californians have higher average student debt balances, risky graduate school debt, a unique reliance on parent-held debt and significantly high student debt among Black families.
California’s high cost of living makes debt inevitable for many students, but the risk is greater for students from lower-income families and communities of color eager to use education as a ladder into the middle class. Open-ended loans aimed at parents and graduate students are particularly burdensome, including those used to attend for-profit colleges.
Despite having a smaller share of student loan borrowers when compared with other states, California’s borrowers are in the top third among states, with an average of $37,400 owed, according to national data from June 2022. That figure includes all borrowers, regardless of whether they attended college in California. The state ranks 16th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for borrowers with high balances. This is despite having the fourth-lowest rate of student borrowers.
“One of California’s great successes is in college affordability and the fact that so many students go through college without debt,” said Peter Granville, a fellow at the foundation studying federal and state policy efforts to improve college affordability and author of the study. “Unfortunately, the Californians who do borrow take out some of the most risky debt around.” The foundation is a progressive, independent think tank that researches and promotes policy change to foster equity.
Besides the impact on individuals, student loan debt has become a larger problem for the American economy. Nationally, the current student loan debt totals $1.77 trillion.
“Student debt is something that is different from what it was 10 or 20 years ago,” U.S. Undersecretary of Education James Kvaal told higher education reporters earlier this month at UC Riverside. “People are borrowing more. They’re struggling more with those loans. It’s not just a problem for the 43 million Americans with student loan debt when they cannot afford to buy a house, start a new business or save for their own children or their retirement. It’s a problem for their families. It’s a problem for their communities. It’s a problem for our economy. It’s a fundamental crisis that we have to address in our country. We have to change how we’re financing higher education.”
Loan repayments restarting in October
With the Supreme Court rejecting President Joe Biden’s attempt to forgive $20,000 in loans for millions of borrowers, many are preparing to restart repayments in October. The situation underscores a larger student loan crisis in California and across the country. Millions of people, including those who never graduated from college and parents, are carrying student loan debt that they cannot afford and realistically may not ever pay back.
“Californians really struggle with repayment,” Granville said. “The state economy demands a college education, and I believe that demand drives up borrowing.”
And the situation is worse for graduates and families that borrow from the federal Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS loan programs that allow parents to borrow on behalf of their college students and graduate students to afford higher degrees, Granville said, adding that both programs offer high-interest, uncapped loans.
“These loans are probably the worst things to dangle in front of families with real genuine fears of being left behind economically,” he said. “But that leads to high balances that are difficult to manage.”
Graduate loan debt is larger in California than in the rest of the country, the study found. The state’s average annual Grad Plus loan is 25% higher than the rest of the country. In-state graduate students borrow on average $28,300 in loans each year compared with $22,400 nationally.
California places a premium on higher education in the state, Granville said. The average California worker with a graduate degree earns $108,500 – a 50% increase above the average income for bachelor’s degree holders.
The state also sees a disproportionate share of Black students borrowing student loans. In the 2015-16 academic year, 28% of Black in-state undergraduates borrowed loans compared with 21% of all undergraduates. At the graduate level, 81% of Black Californians took out student loans compared to 51% of all other graduate students.
“High borrowing among Black students in California locks in inequality that can last long into repayment,” Granville said. “Despite having a college degree and living in a higher income state, Black borrowers in California actually show worse financial security.”
Black women undergraduates borrow at the highest rates in any one year, with 31% taking loans in 2015-16 compared with 21% of all undergraduates, according to the study.
Granville said the data reflects the racial wealth gap.
“Black families have fewer financial resources than white families,” he said. “That leads to it being a lot harder to ask a Black family to self-finance education without debt. Homeownership also matters. You can take out a home equity loan for a much lower rate than a Parent Plus loan, for example.”
Latinos follow Black borrowers but with not as high graduate loan debt at 62%. But Latino families also have concerning trends. The majority of Latino borrowers in California don’t have a college degree, while only one-quarter of white borrowers don’t. The report explains that this could be due to a greater share of Latinos leaving college before they earn a degree or higher shares of parents borrowing on behalf of their children.
Granville said the state should examine whether all California families are “being potentially set up to fail.”
“Lawmakers should be looking at the colleges within California and asking, are colleges passing on high costs to students knowing that they can take out this uncapped loan debt?” he said. “I worry about how some loans are being sold to students by their colleges. Unless families are getting wise counsel, they may be unknowingly signing up for a pretty tough repayment experience.”
The racial wealth gap, along with California’s cost of living, makes it particularly challenging for Californians to pay their student debt, Granville said.
Repaying more than $200,000
In many ways, Richelle Brooks is a college success story. She’s also an outlier in the student debt crisis.
Credit: Courtesy of Richelle Brooks
Richelle Brooks
A first-generation college student, Brooks earned an associate degree from El Camino College, then went on to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Cal State Dominguez Hills. She graduated with her doctorate in 2018 from Cal State Los Angeles.
Now, as a Los Angeles-area high school principal, she mentors and educates low-income students and students of color. She’s also facing more than $237,000 of student loan debt. The mom of three can’t fathom repaying it all, even with her $120,000 annual salary.
Enrolling in community colleges even after graduating with her doctorate, as well as the three-year pandemic pause, allowed her to put off making payments. But that could be coming to an end.
Brooks, who advocates for student loan forgiveness, participates in one of the federal government’s income-driven repayment plans, which slowly escalates her monthly payments based on her income as a high school principal. Her first payment, which restarts in October, is for $700. But by June 2024 it will increase to $2,600 a month.
“I ran the numbers,” Brooks, 36, said. “It’ll be cheaper to stay in school the rest of my life than to pay that $200,000.” (Federal loan repayments pause while a person is enrolled in school.)
About $33,000 of Brooks’ debt is just from interest that accumulated over the years. But because of the interest, Brooks said that her ability to pay off the debt “doesn’t exist.”
“On paper, it sounds like I make a lot of money,” she said. “But they’re not taking into consideration that I live in LA and I have three kids.”
Brook’s partner is a military veteran and teacher. He doesn’t have student loans because of his military service, but the couple found they’re unable to purchase a home for their family because of Brook’s debt-to-income ratio, a situation that affects many student borrowers. Brooks also supports her mother, who lives with the family after facing homelessness.
California’s high cost of living makes it difficult for young people coming out of college without significant family resources to accumulate assets like a home, especially if they have student loan debt. In California, 78% of Black households with student debt and 74% of Latino households with student debt have less than $50,000 in savings and investments, compared with 57% of white households with student loans, according to The Century Foundation.
In addition to her work as a principal, Brooks said she’s taken on other jobs to make ends meet, including driving Uber, and that’s before the loan repayments begin.
“Whatever it takes to make sure my kids have what they need and the bills are paid,” she said.
Brooks’ two oldest children are in high school and affording college is a common discussion in their home.
“I do not foresee a way for me to pay off my debt and figure out a way to pay my kids’ college, and I do not want them to go into debt,” she said. “I talked to my daughter about joining the military, but it’s kind of terrifying too because she’s a little Black girl. … So I’m trying to figure it out.”
As an educator, Brooks could apply for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which she is considering once again. The program typically forgives the debt of people who work for a government or nonprofit employer, such as teachers, first responders and nurses. But forgiveness isn’t granted until after the borrower makes 120 or 10 years of payments.
Restarting repayments
Although Brooks’ debt amounts are larger than the average of most borrowers, her struggle to repay her college loans is common.
“In the popular imagination, there is this idea that student debt is a young people issue,” said Thomas Gokey, an organizer and co-founder of The Debt Collective, a union of advocates for publicly funded college, universal health care and guaranteed housing. “The truth is that the debt just doesn’t go away.”
People age, have children, grandchildren, and careers decades removed from graduation, and the “debt is still there,” Gokey said, adding that for many people, the monthly payments don’t cover the interest.
Some people have fully paid back their principle multiple times over, with the outstanding balance higher than the original balance. Other people may fall on hard times and can’t make payments, which leads to massive penalties, he said, referring to one case where a borrower defaulted on her student loan during the 2008 financial crisis and saw a $10,000 penalty added to her balance.
For undergraduates, even when their financial aid forms say they have $0 in expected family contributions, the cost of college attendance and tuition has increased to the point where aid doesn’t cover everything, he said. “The only option is Parent Plus loans to fill the gap. It’s just astonishing that a lot of parents will be paying off the loans for a longer period of time than they lived with or raised the children that they got the loan for.”
Granville said many, trying to get ahead, take on more loans after undergraduate loans.
“Students often turn to graduate education when they’re struggling with their undergraduate loans,” he said. “They may see the next degree as the thing that will give them the earning power to handle the debt that they have struggled with already.”
There is a misperception that a graduate degree means a person will be “really successful” and “make a lot of money,” Gokey said. “And that’s just not true if you’re a social worker,” he added, as an example of a lower salary job.
According to The Century Foundation’s data, a social worker with a bachelor’s degree earns on average $34,183 one year after completing their program, but has an average $15,599 in student loans. A social worker with a master’s degree earns an average of $54,223 one year after completing their program, but has on average nearly $80,000 in student loans. Licensed clinical social workers in California are required by the state to have a master’s degree in social work.
Gokey said that there’s no way to “financial literacy yourself” out of student loan debt.
Options and fixes
Although interest rates restarted in September and repayments resume in October, the federal government is giving borrowers a one-year grace period as it attempts to fix the loan system and offer solutions that significantly lower monthly payments.
“We really inherited a student loan system that was broken,” Kvaal said. “Before the student loan pause, we had a million students a year defaulting on their student loans.”
Kvaal said those defaults weren’t from people running from their responsibilities, but borrowers struggling with payments. Many of them were first-generation or students of color, he said.
Institution name
Type
Stafford (undergraduate)
Parent PLUS
Grad PLUS
Academy of Art University
For-profit
37%
30%
42%
Advanced Career Institute
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Allan Hancock College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Alliant International University-San Diego
For-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
American Academy of Dramatic Arts-Los Angeles
Non-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
American Career College-Los Angeles
For-profit
34%
21%
n/a
American Career College-Ontario
For-profit
37%
32%
n/a
American College of Healthcare and Technology
For-profit
51%
n/a
n/a
American River College
Public
44%
n/a
n/a
Angeles Institute
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Antelope Valley College
Public
43%
n/a
n/a
Antioch University-Los Angeles
Non-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
Art Center College of Design
Non-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Asher College
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Ashford University
For-profit
46%
37%
44%
Associated Technical College-Los Angeles
For-profit
49%
n/a
n/a
Associated Technical College-San Diego
For-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Avalon School of Cosmetology-Alameda
For-profit
41%
n/a
n/a
Aveda Institute-Los Angeles
For-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
Azusa Pacific University
Non-profit
25%
16%
42%
Bakersfield College
Public
43%
n/a
n/a
Bard College – MAT Program CA
Non-profit
24%
17%
n/a
Bellus Academy-Chula Vista
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
Bellus Academy-El Cajon
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Bellus Academy-Poway
For-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Berkeley City College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Bethel Seminary-San Diego
Non-profit
18%
22%
36%
Biola University
Non-profit
20%
22%
32%
Blake Austin College
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Brandman University
Non-profit
31%
n/a
39%
Brownson Technical School
For-profit
17%
n/a
n/a
Butte College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Cabrillo College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
California Aeronautical University
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
California Baptist University
Non-profit
31%
30%
43%
California Career Institute
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
California College of the Arts
Non-profit
26%
32%
47%
California College San Diego
Non-profit
44%
n/a
n/a
California Hair Design Academy
For-profit
26%
n/a
n/a
California Healing Arts College
For-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
California Institute of Integral Studies
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
California Institute of the Arts
Non-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
California Lutheran University
Non-profit
22%
26%
n/a
California Nurses Educational Institute
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
Public
12%
14%
24%
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Public
21%
22%
38%
California State University Maritime Academy
Public
17%
n/a
n/a
California State University-Bakersfield
Public
29%
n/a
n/a
California State University-Channel Islands
Public
22%
17%
n/a
California State University-Chico
Public
23%
22%
n/a
California State University-Dominguez Hills
Public
27%
n/a
32%
California State University-East Bay
Public
25%
22%
35%
California State University-Fresno
Public
24%
n/a
34%
California State University-Fullerton
Public
20%
27%
29%
California State University-Long Beach
Public
20%
22%
37%
California State University-Los Angeles
Public
23%
n/a
37%
California State University-Monterey Bay
Public
24%
17%
37%
California State University-Northridge
Public
22%
17%
37%
California State University-Sacramento
Public
24%
20%
36%
California State University-San Bernardino
Public
27%
22%
40%
California State University-San Marcos
Public
23%
n/a
n/a
California State University-Stanislaus
Public
23%
17%
36%
California Western School of Law
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Cambridge Junior College-Yuba City
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Career Academy of Beauty
For-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Career Care Institute
For-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
Career Networks Institute
For-profit
33%
n/a
n/a
Carrington College-Sacramento
For-profit
37%
20%
n/a
Casa Loma College-Van Nuys
Non-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
CBD College
Non-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Central Coast College
For-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Cerritos College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
CET-San Diego
Non-profit
40%
n/a
n/a
Chabot College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Chamberlain University-California
For-profit
26%
24%
30%
Chapman University
Non-profit
20%
18%
n/a
Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
37%
Cinta Aveda Institute
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
Citrus College
Public
33%
n/a
n/a
City College of San Francisco
Public
43%
n/a
n/a
Claremont Graduate University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Coastline Community College
Public
43%
n/a
n/a
Cogswell University of Silicon Valley
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
College of Marin
Public
51%
n/a
n/a
College of the Canyons
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
College of the Redwoods
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
College of the Sequoias
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
College of the Siskiyous
Public
45%
n/a
n/a
Columbia College – Los Alamitos
Non-profit
39%
n/a
38%
Columbia College Hollywood
Non-profit
39%
32%
n/a
Concorde Career College-Garden Grove
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Concorde Career College-North Hollywood
For-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Concorde Career College-San Bernardino
For-profit
35%
n/a
n/a
Concorde Career College-San Diego
For-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
Concordia University-Irvine
Non-profit
22%
27%
27%
Contra Costa College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Cosumnes River College
Public
45%
n/a
n/a
Cuesta College
Public
30%
n/a
n/a
Culinary Institute of America at Greystone
Non-profit
24%
33%
n/a
Cypress College
Public
30%
n/a
n/a
De Anza College
Public
34%
n/a
n/a
Design’s School of Cosmetology
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
DeVry University-California
For-profit
42%
29%
40%
Diablo Valley College
Public
27%
n/a
n/a
Diversified Vocational College
For-profit
51%
n/a
n/a
Dominican University of California
Non-profit
20%
n/a
37%
East Los Angeles College
Public
33%
n/a
n/a
Empire College
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Feather River Community College District
Public
41%
n/a
n/a
Federico Beauty Institute
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
FIDM-Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising-Los Angeles
For-profit
30%
32%
n/a
Fielding Graduate University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
37%
Folsom Lake College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Foothill College
Public
35%
n/a
n/a
Fremont College
For-profit
43%
n/a
n/a
Fresno City College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Fresno Pacific University
Non-profit
28%
n/a
38%
Fuller Theological Seminary
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Fullerton College
Public
36%
n/a
n/a
Glendale Career College
For-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Glendale Community College
Public
27%
n/a
n/a
Golden Gate University-San Francisco
Non-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Golden West College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Grossmont College
Public
30%
n/a
n/a
Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts
For-profit
25%
n/a
n/a
Harvey Mudd College
Non-profit
8%
n/a
n/a
High Desert Medical College
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Holy Names University
Non-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Homestead Schools
Non-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Hope International University
Non-profit
30%
n/a
n/a
Humboldt State University
Public
29%
22%
37%
Humphreys University-Stockton and Modesto Campuses
Non-profit
41%
n/a
n/a
Hussian College-Los Angeles
For-profit
53%
n/a
n/a
Institute for Business and Technology
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
Institute of Culinary Education
For-profit
19%
n/a
n/a
Institute of Technology
For-profit
43%
n/a
n/a
InterCoast Colleges-Santa Ana
For-profit
40%
n/a
n/a
International School of Beauty Inc
For-profit
42%
n/a
n/a
International School of Cosmetology
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Irvine Valley College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
John F. Kennedy University
Non-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
La Sierra University
Non-profit
33%
27%
n/a
Laguna College of Art and Design
Non-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Laney College
Public
47%
n/a
n/a
Laurus College
For-profit
53%
n/a
n/a
Life Chiropractic College West
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
47%
Life Pacific University
Non-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Loma Linda University
Non-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Long Beach City College
Public
36%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles Center
Non-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles City College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles Film School
For-profit
47%
37%
n/a
Los Angeles Mission College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles Pierce College
Public
40%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles Southwest College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Public
39%
n/a
n/a
Los Angeles Valley College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Loyola Marymount University
Non-profit
17%
24%
n/a
Lu Ross Academy
For-profit
26%
n/a
n/a
Make-up Designory
For-profit
19%
22%
n/a
Marshall B Ketchum University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
32%
Marymount California University
Non-profit
35%
n/a
n/a
Mayfield College
For-profit
39%
n/a
n/a
Mendocino College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Menlo College
Non-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Merritt College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Miami Ad School-San Francisco
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
Non-profit
14%
n/a
n/a
Milan Institute of Cosmetology-Fairfield
For-profit
49%
n/a
n/a
Milan Institute-Fresno
For-profit
46%
n/a
n/a
Milan Institute-Palm Desert
For-profit
45%
n/a
n/a
Milan Institute-Visalia
For-profit
34%
n/a
n/a
Mills College
Non-profit
26%
n/a
n/a
MiraCosta College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Moler Barber College
For-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Monterey Peninsula College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Moorpark College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Moreno Valley College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Mount Saint Mary’s University
Non-profit
28%
17%
n/a
Mt San Antonio College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
MTI College
For-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Musicians Institute
For-profit
35%
32%
n/a
National Career College
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
National Holistic Institute
For-profit
28%
n/a
n/a
National University
Non-profit
32%
n/a
39%
New York Film Academy
For-profit
35%
n/a
n/a
North Adrian’s College of Beauty Inc
For-profit
46%
n/a
n/a
Northcentral University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
37%
North-West College-Pomona
For-profit
24%
n/a
n/a
North-West College-Van Nuys
For-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
North-West College-West Covina
For-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Notre Dame de Namur University
Non-profit
26%
32%
47%
NTMA Training Centers of Southern California
Non-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Occidental College
Non-profit
14%
n/a
n/a
Orange Coast College
Public
29%
n/a
n/a
Otis College of Art and Design
Non-profit
27%
32%
n/a
Pacific College
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Pacific College of Health and Science
For-profit
42%
n/a
47%
Pacific Oaks College
Non-profit
30%
n/a
n/a
Pacific Union College
Non-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Pacifica Graduate Institute
For-profit
n/a
n/a
47%
Palo Alto University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
47%
Palomar College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Palomar Institute of Cosmetology
For-profit
22%
n/a
n/a
Pasadena City College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-East Bay
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-Fresno
For-profit
41%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-Modesto
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-Pasadena
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-Sacramento
For-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-Sherman Oaks
For-profit
27%
n/a
n/a
Paul Mitchell the School-Temecula
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
Pepperdine University
Non-profit
20%
22%
39%
Pima Medical Institute-Chula Vista
For-profit
29%
20%
n/a
Pitzer College
Non-profit
17%
n/a
n/a
Platt College-Los Angeles
For-profit
34%
n/a
n/a
Point Loma Nazarene University
Non-profit
19%
27%
n/a
Premiere Career College
For-profit
29%
n/a
n/a
Reedley College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Relay Graduate School of Education – California
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
37%
Riverside City College
Public
34%
n/a
n/a
Sacramento City College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Saddleback College
Public
30%
n/a
n/a
SAE Expression College
For-profit
42%
n/a
n/a
Saint Mary’s College of California
Non-profit
19%
37%
32%
Salon Success Academy-Corona
For-profit
42%
n/a
n/a
Salon Success Academy-Upland
For-profit
36%
n/a
n/a
Samuel Merritt University
Non-profit
8%
n/a
36%
San Diego Christian College
Non-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
San Diego City College
Public
41%
n/a
n/a
San Diego Mesa College
Public
33%
n/a
n/a
San Diego Miramar College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
San Diego State University
Public
21%
16%
38%
San Francisco Art Institute
Non-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
San Francisco Institute of Esthetics & Cosmetology Inc
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
San Francisco State University
Public
24%
22%
35%
San Joaquin Delta College
Public
46%
n/a
n/a
San Joaquin Valley College-Visalia
For-profit
42%
22%
n/a
San Jose City College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
San Jose State University
Public
18%
14%
33%
Santa Ana College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Santa Barbara Business College-Bakersfield
For-profit
45%
n/a
n/a
Santa Barbara Business College-Santa Maria
For-profit
34%
n/a
n/a
Santa Barbara City College
Public
36%
n/a
n/a
Santa Clara University
Non-profit
9%
27%
n/a
Santa Monica College
Public
33%
n/a
n/a
Santa Rosa Junior College
Public
31%
n/a
n/a
Saybrook University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
37%
Shasta College
Public
39%
n/a
n/a
Sierra College
Public
40%
n/a
n/a
Simpson University
Non-profit
20%
n/a
n/a
Solano Community College
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
Sonoma State University
Public
21%
14%
37%
South Baylo University
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
South Coast College
For-profit
42%
n/a
n/a
Southern California Health Institute
For-profit
39%
n/a
n/a
Southern California Institute of Technology
For-profit
23%
n/a
n/a
Southern California University of Health Sciences
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
47%
Southwestern College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Southwestern Law School
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Spartan College of Aeronautics & Technology
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
Stanbridge University
For-profit
20%
n/a
n/a
Stanford University
Non-profit
12%
n/a
17%
SUM Bible College and Theological Seminary
Non-profit
47%
n/a
n/a
Summit College
For-profit
37%
n/a
n/a
The Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Anaheim
Non-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
The Master’s University and Seminary
Non-profit
12%
n/a
n/a
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Touro University California
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Touro University Worldwide
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
32%
Trident University International
For-profit
32%
n/a
33%
Trinity Law School
Non-profit
31%
n/a
38%
UEI College-Fresno
For-profit
50%
37%
n/a
UEI College-Gardena
For-profit
46%
22%
n/a
United Education Institute-Huntington Park Campus
For-profit
45%
37%
n/a
United States University
For-profit
42%
n/a
n/a
Unitek College
For-profit
21%
17%
n/a
Universal Technical Institute of California Inc
For-profit
37%
22%
n/a
Universal Technical Institute of Northern California Inc
For-profit
38%
22%
n/a
University of Antelope Valley
For-profit
31%
n/a
n/a
University of California-Berkeley
Public
13%
14%
30%
University of California-Davis
Public
12%
13%
37%
University of California-Hastings College of Law
Public
n/a
n/a
n/a
University of California-Irvine
Public
15%
14%
37%
University of California-Los Angeles
Public
15%
18%
33%
University of California-Merced
Public
20%
18%
n/a
University of California-Riverside
Public
22%
19%
n/a
University of California-San Diego
Public
13%
12%
31%
University of California-San Francisco
Public
n/a
n/a
32%
University of California-Santa Barbara
Public
16%
19%
28%
University of California-Santa Cruz
Public
20%
18%
32%
University of La Verne
Non-profit
30%
27%
41%
University of Phoenix-California
For-profit
43%
35%
42%
University of Redlands
Non-profit
27%
27%
38%
University of San Diego
Non-profit
16%
24%
n/a
University of San Francisco
Non-profit
19%
22%
41%
University of Southern California
Non-profit
16%
25%
n/a
University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences
For-profit
n/a
n/a
32%
University of the Pacific
Non-profit
19%
22%
n/a
Vanguard University of Southern California
Non-profit
26%
27%
n/a
Ventura College
Public
37%
n/a
n/a
Victor Valley College
Public
46%
n/a
n/a
West Coast Ultrasound Institute
For-profit
32%
n/a
n/a
West Coast University-Los Angeles
For-profit
25%
30%
32%
West Hills College-Coalinga
Public
47%
n/a
n/a
West Hills College-Lemoore
Public
42%
n/a
n/a
West Los Angeles College
Public
32%
n/a
n/a
Western University of Health Sciences
Non-profit
n/a
n/a
n/a
Westmont College
Non-profit
12%
n/a
n/a
Whittier College
Non-profit
29%
32%
n/a
William Jessup University
Non-profit
24%
n/a
n/a
Woodbury University
Non-profit
37%
27%
n/a
Source: College Scorecard
One fix the department has worked on is the loan forgiveness program for borrowers working in public service, which would help educators like Brooks. Prior to the pandemic, even people who were eligible for forgiveness were denied, Kvaal said, which is why fewer than 7,000 people saw forgiveness. Since the Biden Administration announced changes to the program, so far up to 660,000 people have had their loans forgiven through public service.
The Biden administration’s new repayment plan can also significantly cut loan payments or reduce them to $0, Kvaal said, adding that, so far, 4 million people have enrolled in the plan.
Kvaal said the administration is looking at other options.
“The president has asked us to offer loan forgiveness to as many people as possible and as quickly as possible,” Kvaal said. “We’re telling students it’s time for them to repay. At the same time, we’re doing everything we can to reform the student loan program to make sure that students have access to the loan forgiveness that they have earned … and that people are taking advantage of the most affordable payment plan that has ever been created.”
Kvaal said the Education Department is also looking into the amount of debt that comes out of for-profit programs, online graduate programs and the Parent Plus loan program.
Granville, from The Century Foundation, also has national recommendations. For example, Congress should lower the interest rate on student loans. According to The Debt Collective, Congress sets the interest rates for federal student loans. Those rates are tied to the 10-year Treasury note. Because the Federal Reserve has recently been increasing rates, the treasury bond rate has increased and so has the rate for new student loans.
The current fixed rates for new undergraduate loans are at 5.5%, for graduate, 7.05% for professional unsubsidized loans, and 8.05% for Parent Plus and Grad Plus loans.
At the state and local level, Granville said that loan counseling needs to significantly change. Much of the responsibility for understanding student loans is often put on 18- and 19-year-olds, who may be the first in their families to go to college, Granville said.
“The first answer is more grant aid for students so that we can reach a debt-free financing system, not just because it helps students as individuals, but because it helps the state,” he said. “We also haven’t done a great job setting up students for success despite all of their own personal investment in education. We can rectify that situation through more generous repayment plans, but we also need to make sure that we’re giving students high-quality options so they don’t need as much debt in the first place.”
For Brooks, the high school principal with student debt, the ultimate solution is free education.
“If you go to college, you’re stricken with debt,” Brooks said. “If you don’t go to college, then you don’t have a livable wage or enough money to survive. You have to do something.”
And college tuition in California, prior to the mid-1980’s was free, she said.
“I’m of the mindset that education is a public good and it serves everyone to have a highly educated populace,” Brooks said. “It should be free altogether.”
The difficulty California borrowers have repaying student loans is reflected here with data from the U.S. Department of Education and included in the Century Foundation report, “The Student Loan Borrowing Undermining California’s Affordability Efforts,” by Peter Granville. Once you look up the institution by name, you will also see its type and the estimated share of each category of borrowers – Stafford undergraduate, graduate and parents – who are in default, delinquent or not making progress three years into repayment. Included are only those institutions with at least 200 borrowers. The percentages are estimated rates because the federal agency reports the data ranges that were assigned to numeric values.
Student debt relief advocates gather outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 28, 2023, ahead of arguments over President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan.
Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
This month, payments on student loan debt for millions of borrowers across the country restarted after the three-year pandemic pause. California has some of the lowest tuition rates in the nation, but the state’s residents carry higher than average student debt balances, risky graduate school debt, and have a unique reliance on parent-held debt, according to a recently released report from The Century Foundation.
Here’s what borrowers need to know if they already have student loans:
When do repayments restart?
The pandemic-era pause on federal student loan payments has ended. Repayment for most borrowers resumed Oct. 1. Interest has already restarted accruing, as of September. However, if you’re currently enrolled in school or recently graduated, then for most federal student loan types, you have a six- to nine-month grace period from the moment you graduate, leave school or drop below half-time enrollment. And for most loans, interest accrues during your grace period.
The U.S. Department of Education is giving borrowers a one-year “on ramp” to repayment through September 30, 2024, that prevents people from falling into delinquency or default if they miss payments. Interest will still accrue, but any missed payments won’t lead to negative credit reporting.
What repayment plans are available?
Standard: Payments are a fixed amount that ensure your loans are paid off within 10 years, or 10 to 30 for consolidated loans.
Graduated: Payments are lower at first and then increase, usually every two years, and are for an amount that will ensure loans are paid off within 10 years or 10 to 30 years for consolidated loans.
Extended: Borrower must have more than $30,000 in outstanding direct loans. Payments are fixed or graduated and will ensure loans are paid off within 25 years.
Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, formerly the REPAYE plan
Monthly payments will be 10% of discretionary income, which the department defines as the difference between annual income and a percentage of the poverty guideline for a borrower’s family size and state of residence.
Payments are recalculated each year based on updated income and family size.
Spousal income or debt is considered if the borrower files a joint tax return.
Any outstanding balance is forgiven if the loan isn’t repaid after 20 years for undergraduate study or 25 years for graduate or professional study.
Pay-as-you-earn repayment plan (PAYE)
Must be a new borrower on or after Oct. 1, 2007, or received a loan on or after Oct. 1, 2011.
Monthly payments will be 10% of discretionary income but never more than what you could pay under the 10-year standard repayment plan.
Payments are recalculated each year based on updated income and family size.
Income-based repayment plan (IBR)
Must have high debt relative to income.
Monthly payments will be either 10% or 15% of discretionary income, but never more than what you could pay under the 10-year standard repayment plan.
Payments are recalculated each year based on updated income and family size.
Spousal income or debt is considered if the borrower files joint tax returns.
Any outstanding balance.
Income-contingent Repayment Plan: Monthly payments are the lesser of what you would pay on a repayment plan with a fixed monthly payment over 12 years and adjusted based on income, or 20% of your discretionary income, divided by 12. Parent PLUS borrowers are eligible if they consolidated the debt into a direct loan.
What about my interest rate?
Interest rates remain unchanged from what borrowers had prior to the pandemic pause. However, you may see a different rate if you chose to enter a new repayment plan or consolidated your loans.
Interest rates are set by the Department of Education and tied to the 10-year Treasury note. Federal student loans borrowed after 2006 have fixed rates.
Why does the government charge interest on student loans?
“One argument would be we want people to have incentive to pay back the loans, hence their interest rates,” said Peter Granville, a fellow at The Century Foundation studying federal and state policy efforts to improve college affordability. Other arguments include appealing to Congress to get rid of interest rates, or moving to debt-free college altogether, he said.
“Having debt is an emotionally weighty circumstance to be in, and nobody wants to take on debt, but we do it to finance the education that people need,” Granville said.
Does the federal government make money off student loans?
It’s unclear. Last year, a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found the Department of Education miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program. The department initially estimated that it would generate $114 billion from federal direct student loans; however, the GAO discovered that as of 2021, the program cost the government $197 billion. Part of the shortfall is due to the cost of the three-year pandemic pause, but most of it is because the department failed to consider the percentage of borrowers who would choose to enroll in income-driven repayment plans, the GAO concluded.
The GAO further explained it’s difficult to estimate future costs because borrowers’ incomes, family sizes and payment decisions change over time. It’s also difficult to examine past costs because there is a lack of historical data when new changes are introduced to student loan programs.
The Congressional Budget Office in 2022 projected that the only loan program the government would see revenue from is the Parent PLUS program. The government loses money or subsidizes undergraduates, graduates and Grad PLUS loans.
Tiara Moultrie, a fellow at The Century Foundation focusing on higher education accountability, said there is concern among those analyzing student loans that the government will lose more money on student loans as more people enroll in income-driven repayment plans like the new SAVE plan. The CBO estimates that by 2027, the total percentage of borrowers in an income-driven plan would increase by about 12% annually. Typically, for every $1 invested in an income-driven covered loan, the government loses 17 cents.
Currently, out of 43.4 million borrowers, 8.5 million are in an income-driven repayment plan.
What if I have trouble repaying my loan?
Contact your loan servicer to discuss options. You may choose to change repayment plans as a way to lower monthly costs, request deferments, or enter forbearance, which allows you to temporarily stop making payments.
What is the department’s relationship to loan servicers?
Loan servicers like MOHELA, Nelnet, EdFinancial and ECSI are private contractors hired by the department to service loans. They are assigned to handle billing, payment plans, and advise and assist borrowers with their student loans at no cost to borrowers.
Your servicer may have changed during the pandemic from one company to another because their contract with the department wasn’t renewed, or a new servicer was awarded a contract. These contracts typically last five years until renewal or cancellation. Sometimes a change happens when a borrower enters a new repayment or forgiveness program — for example, only one servicer handles Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The servicers should notify borrowers if there is a change.
Can I discharge my loans in bankruptcy? Yes, but it depends on the terms of the bankruptcy court’s decision. Those terms may include full discharge, a partial discharge, or full repayment but with different terms like a lower interest rate.
How can I get my student loan forgiven, canceled or discharged? There are a variety of ways to get a federal student loan canceled. For example, teachers are eligible for up to $17,500 in forgiveness through the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program. Government employees, nurses, police officers, nonprofit workers and other people who work in public service may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. For those with a disability, there is the Total and Permanent Disability Discharge program. Finally, borrowers who participate in income-driven repayment plans are eligible for loan forgiveness if they’ve been in repayment for 20 or 25 years.
Loans are also discharged or forgiven if your college or school closed while you were enrolled or shortly after you withdrew, or, if your college misled you or engaged in some other misconduct. Such forgiveness plans are known as closed-school discharge and borrower defense.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced $9 billion more in student debt relief for borrowers under Public Service Loan Forgiveness, disability forgiveness, and other income-driven repayment plans.
What happens to my loans if I die?
Loans will be discharged after the required proof of death is submitted.
What happens to my parent’s PLUS loan if my parent dies, or if I die?
The loan will be discharged if your parent dies or you, the student, dies.
For students applying for loans
How do I apply for student loans?
You may be offered student loans as part of your college’s financial aid offer. Loans can come from a variety of sources, such as private banks, organizations and the federal government.
What types of federal student loans exist?
Undergraduate students who demonstrate financial need can receive Direct Subsidized Loans. Direct Unsubsidized Loans do not require students to demonstrate need. They are available to eligible undergraduate, graduate and professional students.
Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Your college will tell you how to accept all or part of the loan offered. However, before receiving money you are required to enter loan entrance counseling and sign a Master Promissory Note.
There are also Direct PLUS Loans:
Grad PLUS loans are given to graduate or professional students to help cover expenses. Borrowers do not need to demonstrate financial need, but they are subject to a credit check. People with poor credit histories must meet additional requirements.
Parent PLUS loans are given to parents of dependent undergraduate students to cover expenses. Borrowers do not need to demonstrate financial need, but they are subject to a credit check. People with poor credit histories must meet additional requirements.
How much can I borrow?
Undergraduate students can receive direct subsidized and unsubsidized loans from $5,500 to $12,500 per year, depending on the year they are in school and their dependency status.
Graduate and professional students can borrow up to $20,500 each year for unsubsidized loans. PLUS loans are uncapped and determined by the student’s school to cover any expenses not covered by other financial aid.
Students at La Salle Avenue Elementary listen to a class presentation. The school is one of 53 schools in the first tier of the Black Student Achievement Plan.
KATE SEQUEIRA/EDSOURCE
The Los Angeles Unified School District is considering broadening the language associated with the Black Student Achievement Plan in an attempt to avoid investigation by the U.S. Department of Education, a move supporters fear could steer the focus of the program away from Black student achievement and wellness.
The potential change in the Black Student Achievement Plan comes after Parents Defending Education, a conservative group with a track record of challenging schools’ efforts to promote equity, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education in July, claiming the program violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it specifically supports Black students.
“We are just starting to see the positive impact of BSAP, creating a positive and welcoming learning environment and greater access to culturally and racially responsive coursework and field trips due to dedicated BSAP staff members and community partners,” said school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin in a statement to EdSource.
“With continued investments and support — not diluted or threatened programming —I look forward to seeing our Black students achieve in the ways that we all know is possible.”
While program supporters say the complaint by Parents Defending Education is largely unsubstantiated, they fear any efforts to alter it in response could have consequences for students in Los Angeles and beyond.
An LAUSD spokesperson said in an email to EdSource that the mission and operations of the program will not change and that “the district is ensuring that the associated language aligns with the law and practice by clarifying that BSAP operates in accordance with the District’s Nondiscrimination policy, based on applicable federal and state laws.”
The Education Department has already warned districts to avoid programs that focus on one student group. In August, a month after Parents Defending Education filed the complaint, the department released a guidance letter to school districts in response to an uptick in complaints.
“Schools may violate Title VI when they separate students based on race or treat individual students or groups of students differently based on race,” the guidance reads. “Schools also may violate Title VI when they create, encourage, accept, tolerate, or fail to correct a racially hostile educational environment.”
The letter also adds that “a school-sponsored or recognized group or program with a special emphasis on race, such as a student club or mentorship opportunity, that is open to all students, typically would not violate Title VI simply because of its race-related theme.”
The complaint
The complaint lodged by Parents Defending Education claims LAUSD’s Black Student Achievement Plan discriminates against students of other races. EdSource reached out to Parents Defending Education requesting an interview but did not receive a response.
The program “directly responds to the unique needs of Black students but not students of other races,” the complaint alleges.
“The District makes clear that the program is designed ‘to address the longstanding disparities in educational outcomes between Black students and their non-Black peers.’… And the District notes that the program is meant to address ‘[t]he perennial trend of black student underperformance; and to achieve ‘racial equity.’”
The complaint against LAUSD includes two pieces of documentation: screenshots of the district’s Black Student Achievement Plan website as well as an overview of the program.
But supporters of the district’s plan say the complaint lacks teeth — especially as it does not include a claim that anyone suffered or was discriminated against because of the program.
Amir Whitaker of the ACLU of Southern California’s Senior Policy Counsel said he doubts the U.S. Department of Education will choose to investigate the district.
Parents Defending Education’s goal, he said was about creating “hysteria about the complaint.”
Parents Defending Education, which describes itself as a “national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas,” has levied complaints against educational agencies throughout the country, including in Pennsylvania, Maine, Vermont and Oregon.
“I think a lot of other districts and states are really reluctant to kind of engage in something that’s very race specific because of the ways in which we as a country …are not comfortable with having race conversations, despite the disproportion of Black students who are in special education … the number of Black students who are suspended, the high rates of Black students who are chronically absent,” said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA.
“So I wish we had just as much energy and anger around those data as we do around the fact that we think that (a law) might be violated.”
Program’s impact
The Los Angeles Unified School District board approved the Black Student Achievement Plan in February 2021 after widespread community calls to action and in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the racial reckoning that followed.
The Black Student Achievement Plan cut the district police budget by more than 30% and vowed to uplift Black student achievement, create “culturally responsive curriculum” and fund a team of counselors, climate advocates and psychiatric social workers at 53 top-priority schools that collectively educate a third of LAUSD’s Black student population.
“The ultimate beauty is that commitment to BSAP will … not only serve the Black students that have been disproportionately underserved for far too long. It has lots of implications on the district just improving as a whole,” said Christian Flagg, the director of training at Community Coalition, a foundation that aims to “upend systemic racism” and played a key role in the plan’s establishment.
In 2011, a decade before the plan was established, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — which also received the Parents Defending Education complaint — conducted an investigation into LAUSD.
The investigation found discrepancies in the treatment and experience of Black students in comparison to their peers, including the percentage of students admitted to the Gifted and Talented Education program, availability of technological resources, newness of textbooks, prevalence of teacher absenteeism and rates of discipline.
In response to the investigation, LAUSD offered to enter an agreement to resolve the concerns.
A survey of 2,300 students across 100 LAUSD campuses found that since the Black Student Achievement Plan rolled out, 87% ofBlack students had benefited from the program. Still, nearly half the students also said their schools do not have enough resources for Black students.
Lindsey Weatherspoon, a senior at Venice High School who said she has benefited from the Black Student Achievement Plan, credits her campus BSAP counselor for helping her and her peers attend events at which some Historically Black Colleges and Universities made on-the-spot admissions offers to seniors.
Weatherspoon said she strongly hopes LAUSD will “stand strong in their decision to have BSAP and fund BSAP, and it’s not a situation where BSAP gets cut back.”
“I hope, in fact, it gets expanded continuously to more schools, and the program constantly evolves because BSAP is not just something that happened overnight. It’s been years in the making. And it’s been the labor of love of several groups and community members and students and teachers pushing to get this program made.”
The BSAP counselor, she said, gives students more personalized counseling and creates opportunities for Black students to spend time together, which is essential because “it’s really easy to feel disconnected from other Black students when you barely see any.”
Weatherspoon said, “The thought that it could … be degraded from its original purpose or its original use is just mind-blowing and heartbreaking.”
Moving forward
The Black Student Achievement Plan being compromised, either as a result of board action or the complaint itself, could lead to greater consequences for both the district and for the nation, the program’s supporters say.
Channing Martinez, co-director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, said that the program is “not saying that Latinx students or white students or other students don’t deserve equal access to opportunity, but it is saying that Black students have not had equal access.”
He added that while the district may be concerned about Parents Defending Education’s complaint, LAUSD could also face lawsuits or complaints from organizations supporting the program if they dilute the program.
“In 2020, you had George Floyd, and it was pretty easy in the board’s mind to defund the school police as a measure of saying that they’re going to stand with Black students, but this year we don’t have George Floyd. But that doesn’t mean that the lives of Black students don’t matter,” Martinez said.
“It does really put us in a really tight spot in which we want to believe in the Black Student Achievement Program. But at the same time, it almost feels as if we are stuck in this program, and that they are using this program to say ‘Look, we’re doing something for Black students.’”
Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed an “equity multiplier” that would grant $300 million in ongoing funding to the state’s poorest students in an effort to uplift Black student achievement. But some critics of the proposal said it would not do enough to specifically support Black students.
Howard, the UCLA education professor, described the nature of the complaint by Parents Defending Education as racist because there has been little opposition to other programs designed to support different groups of students who are more vulnerable, including students with disabilities and those struggling with homelessness.
Programs like the Black Student Achievement Plan are hard to come by, Howard said. And if the complaint succeeds, he is concerned it could deter other schools throughout the state and nation from developing similar programs.
“Essentially, it says we’re fine with Black failure. We’re fine with Black underperformance. We’re fine with Black students consistently not experiencing schools in a way that their peers do,” Howard said. “That’s to me the bigger takeaway message. And why do we feel so comfortable with that?”
Nearly 100 parents, former students and educators filled the Sept. 20 Clovis Unified school board meeting to voice their opinions on the prospect of a parental notification policy.
Credit: Lasherica Thornton / EdSource
Recent Clovis Unified school board meetings have been filled with posters bearing contrasting messages. “Support parental notification in schools. Stop keeping secrets from parents” as well as “Stop forced outing.”
With those starkly different messages in the background, nearly 100 people spoke at the Sept. 20 board meeting, joining a debate that’s sweeping the state: parents’ right to know how their children identify at school versus students’ right to privacy about gender identity and expression.
The contentious discourse came to Clovis Unified not because of a proposed school board policy — as has been the case in other school districts, including Chino, Temecula, Anderson Union High, Murrieta Valley and Rocklin — but because of a Student Site Plan, an optional form that, some say, could undermine students’ right to privacy by outing them to their parents. The district says it uses the form to gauge students’ needs for access to facilities such as restrooms and locker rooms.
Under a 10-year-old law known as Assembly Bill 1266, students in California have the right to access school facilities that are consistent with their gender identity, regardless of what’s listed on their school record.
The district spokesperson said that while the form could help facilitate a conversation with parents, students can opt out of completing it.
“While there is no hard and fast ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” about whether parents must be notified for students to access facilities aligned with their gender identity, said Kelly Avants, spokesperson for the district, “in general, we would work with the student about parental notification.”
Internal Clovis Unified guidance for administration details notifying parents if students want to access a facility aligned with their gender identity, but officials would not deny them access because of AB 1266.
“Access will be provided while informing those with educational rights (typically parents/guardians for minors),” according to the district guidance documents.
“They’re notified whether or not the SSP (Student Site Plan) is in place,” said Drew Harbaugh, chapter president for PFLAG Fresno, an organization that supports and advocates for LGBTQ+ people and their families, including many Clovis Unified parents.
What’s on the Student Site Plan form?
The Student Site Plan asks students for their legal and chosen names, pronouns, gender assigned at birth, gender identity and gender expression.
Students provide information on their programs and activities and indicate whether they want to access restrooms and locker rooms by their gender at birth, gender identity or a gender-neutral space, such as the nurse’s office.
Parents or guardians must consent to or participate in completing the form.
“The SSP is our district’s process by which a student and parent have the opportunity to sit down with school staff and arrive at a plan to support the student,” the guidance documents say.
Though the process for facility usage has changed over time to meet state laws and requirements, the Student Site Plan was first established in the school district last school year, Avants said. According to the district’s internal document, the form replaced the Gender Acknowledgement Plan, which had involved parents, but only at the student’s discretion.
Clovis Unified, Avants said, created the form in an attempt to address the “complexities of meeting the unique needs of individual students and families.”
What’s the process for accessing facilities if students do not complete the form?
For students who want to access different facilities but do not want to complete the form, they’d inform the school, Avants said. Trained school staff and the student then discuss how to accomplish that.
Using a gender-neutral space doesn’t require parental notification. However, “parents must be informed,” district guidance says, if a student seeks the use of a facility that’s different from the gender assigned at the student’s birth or what’s listed on records. Such students are granted access in either event, the guidance states.
“The student is allowed access in accordance with AB 1266 and California Education Code, but not at the expense of or superseding parents’/guardians’ educational rights to be informed,” the district guidance states.
So, “the guidance still directs staff to out them,” even though students have the right to access their preferred facilities, Harbaugh said.
If telling their parents causes students to be concerned about their safety, the district guidance spells out how staff should report suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services — if evidence exists. While the guidance directs staff not to complete the Student Site Plan in that scenario, it instructs staff to offer the student a meeting with the school’s psychologists or safety team about those concerns and to help the student communicate with their parents or guardians. The guidance also tells staff to attempt to facilitate the Student Site Plan with students and parents, if that’s appropriate.
Legislation isn’t ‘well-established’
AB 1266 is “silent” on practical application and implementation, Avants said, so the Student Site Plan attempts to balance facility access, parent rights to information, student needs and parental involvement.
“We do look at every child individually and work to make sure they’re supported and safe at school,” said Clovis Unified Superintendent Corrine Folmer, emphasizing the “balance” of the site plan.
“It’s not an area of law that’s well-established,” said Maiya Yang, Clovis Unified in-house counsel, adding that current lawsuits are proof of that.
Avants said other districts’ policies seem to be “a black-and-white treatment of a nuanced topic.”
And comparing Clovis Unified to those districts that have adopted parental notification policies is a “miscategorization of our process,” she said. “Our process is individualized, customized (and) looks at every child individually.”
Even though Clovis Unified hasn’t proposed a policy, people are already advocating for or against the prospect of one.
On one side of the issue, many Clovis Unified parents and other members of the school community urged the school board to adopt a parental notification policy to involve parents in the decision-making of their children’s education and to provide them access to all information that affects student well-being.
“My rights matter,” said Ashley Williams, parent of two Clovis Unified students. “I’m a parent, and my rights to my children trump people’s concerns” about possible abuse by parents and self-harm of students who are outed.
Many other parents, former students and educators say the school district should allow students to come out in their own way, when they’re ready, while protecting students who don’t feel safe to do so.
“While I value the parent-child relationship and would hope children feel safe to share this part of themselves with their parents, it remains a reality that that is not the case for many CUSD students,” said Clovis Unified teacher Laramie Woolsey.
Woolsey said many of her students told her about their sexuality and gender identity, rather than their parents.
“Many of these students struggled with suicidal thoughts because they imagined that death would be easier than being someone other than who their parents wanted them to be,” Woolsey said. “Why did these students come to me and not to their parents? Because they knew I was a safe person to talk to who wouldn’t judge them, invalidate them or otherwise harm them.”
“ I earned their trust.”
In Clovis, there is no policy and won’t be one anytime soon
At a Sept. 13 meeting, where two dozen people also spoke and the Sept. 20 meeting, neither the site plan form nor a proposed policy was on the agenda, so board members could not address community members on the topic.
But Clovis Unified School District and its board do not and will not have a policy until there is legal clarity, Avants said.
“They (the school board members) have said, publicly several times, they have no interest in putting on their agenda a policy that is under legal challenge,” Avants said. “We’ll visit this when there’s more legal clarity.”
Concerned community members, such as Harbaugh, say that the district’s insistence that the Student Site Plan is not a board policy makes it impossible to address the subject.
“By not making it a policy, they take away any options we have for recourse,” Harbaugh said. “But if they’re still putting it in place regarding these students … whether or not they’re calling it a policy, they’re implementing it as a policy.”
Because legislation is developing and evolving, Yang, the district’s general counsel, said it will take several years for local, state and federal courts to give school districts guidance on handling situations where the rights of students and parents conflict.
“Unfortunately, for school districts like us that are trying to navigate this very important issue,” Yang said, “we don’t have a lot of guidance.”
The lobby at UC Riverside’s new Student Health Center.
Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside
A newly built $36 million student health clinic at UC Riverside aims to provide a wide array of medical and mental health services in an attractive building that showcases views of nearby mountains. The two-story Student Health and Counseling Center includes a food pantry, a pharmacy, an outdoor balcony for meditation and waiting rooms that look like hip hotel lobbies.
And beyond serving Riverside students, it may become a national model of how campuses are investing more resources to keep their students physically and emotionally well in the post-pandemic era, experts say.
The 40,000-square-foot clinic will provide “one-stop shopping for wellness” that integrates physical and mental health services, said Denise Woods, UC Riverside’s associate vice chancellor of health, well-being and safety. During a recent tour, she said she expects that the building will make it easier for a student to tap into multiple types of services.
The new UC facility replaces a 60-year-old building that is half its size and was built when the student population, now about 27,000, was much smaller. Paid for by UC bonds and other funds, the clinic centralizes services that had been scattered around campus and moves them closer to dormitories for students’ convenience.
Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside
The new Student Health Center at UC Riverside.
Nadia Colón, a fourth-year psychology and law and society double major who is a student senator, said many students have been looking forward to the new building, which opened last month. “I think it will be perfect for students who need medical or counseling help,” she said. The old, smaller building has some good services, but “the new building, from what I have seen, is updated and has more resources.”
The medical health clinic and pharmacy are on the first floor along with a satellite food pantry for students who need food or household supplies to get through the week. Mental health counseling rooms are on the second floor, with extra soundproofing so passersby cannot hear therapy sessions.
Helps with recruiting
Experts say the new health center is an example of how colleges and universities are emphasizing students’ medical and psychological wellness much more than in the past, particularly after the challenges posed by the pandemic and the emergence from it. In the long run, they say, such attention pays off for the schools, helping to recruit new students and improving graduation rates and alumni relations.
“For a long time, we’ve known that physical and mental health and well-being are an important part of academic success, retention and graduation. It’s been shown that when students are physically and emotionally well, they perform better,” said physician Michael Huey, former interim chief executive officer of the American College Health Association and former executive director of Emory University’s health and counseling services.
More universities are renovating or replacing old health facilities and grouping services under one roof, he said. For students seeking medical or counseling assistance for the first time without their parents’ guidance, encountering a “modern, spacious, clean and professional-appearing center” helps them get past initial fears, Huey added. And ensuring privacy in counseling rooms helps to ease the stigma some young people might feel about reaching out for emotional help, he said.
New health centers can also bolster new enrollment, according to Richard Shadick, who is a board member of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors and director of the counseling center at Pace University in New York City. “I think having a new building that addresses the needs of students, the physical and psychological needs of students, is a great idea. More and more families are looking at the wellness services provided by schools when making a decision about where the students go to college. It’s become rather common for that being a selling point for a college or university,” he said.
Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside
The pharmacy at the Student Health and Counseling Center.
National surveys by the American College Health Association show a significant drop this past spring in the rate of undergraduates who rated their health as very good or excellent compared with 2020: 47% compared with 55%. However, it shows that the most common health ailments are not life-threatening at their age, such as allergies, back pain, sinus infections and colds.
On the psychological side, more students are coming to college already having experience with mental health counseling or medication. Research by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health, which is located at Penn State, showed that about 60% of students who use college counseling services had been in prior mental health treatment, compared with 48% about a decade ago. Social anxiety among students is on the rise, fueled by social media and concerns about coming back to in-person classes after isolation during the pandemic, according to the center.
Credit: Larry Gordon / EdSource
Dr. Kenneth Han, UC Riverside’s chief medical officer in the new clinic.
At UC Riverside, the new center’s layout placing counseling on a separate floor provides privacy, but the easy proximity to the medical floor also can help physicians and counselors to work closely together and with patients if need be, said Kenneth Han, UC Riverside’s chief medical officer.
“It’s not just about a specific ailment. It’s so much more than that for (a student) to be successful. How are things going in with your classes? With your friends? With your professors? I can see you for your diabetes, your cough, your cold. And we will talk about all those things,” he said.
Last year, about 1,840 students a month came for medical visits and about 590 for counseling and psychological care, the campus reports.
The center handles mainly routine illnesses and injuries like flu, urinary tract infections, stomach pain and sprains and offers vaccinations and birth control. It sends students to local hospitals for emergencies and surgeries.
Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside
The Student Health and Counseling Center has 25 exam rooms, more than twice that of the old building.
For example, the center’s doctors will not reset bones and will stitch wounds only if away from the face or hands, officials said. It is open weekday daytime hours, although a nursing phone line is available around the clock, seven days a week, and students may be referred to off-campus urgent care centers on nights and weekends.
Fourth-year student Allison Escobar, a psychology major from Redwood City, said she thinks the new building will attract more students. Recently she worked there as part of a team preparing the center for its opening. It is a big improvement over the old one, which she said “had a lot of things wrong with it.” Here, she said, students especially appreciate the improved and soundproofed counseling rooms. “Students care about their privacy during what they are going through. A lot of consideration for privacy is a huge thing,” she said.
Counselors respond to mental health emergencies
Set to launch within months, a new emergency response team of mental health professionals — rather than campus police — will be first responders to most mental health emergencies such as a suicide threat or depression. In response to systemwide UC policies enacted two years ago, all UC campuses have formed or are starting similar teams.
Credit: Larry Gordon/EdSource
The van of the new crisis response team at UC Riverside.
That is now the preferred alternative to dispatching uniformed police in patrol cars whose presence sometimes escalates a situation, although police are available to counter any violence, officials say. The Riverside campus experiences about four such emergency episodes a month on average.
The new emergency intervention team will have offices in the health center, and its blue van is parked just outside, painted with a rainbow logo declaring “UCR Health, Well-Being & Safety, Supporting Student Success Holistically.”
“We want the right people to address the right issues,” Han said. “If there is an underlying mental health issue, we don’t necessarily need to have security get involved.”
Bringing in the outdoors
The clinic was designed by the HGA architectural firm, which has several offices around California, and was built by Turner Construction. Kevin Day, the project’s design principal architect at HGA, said it was important to provide views of the Box Springs Mountain Reserve, a large park next to campus, through the lobby’s glass walls and big windows as well as to have an outdoor courtyard and balcony with shade. Appointment windows on both floors look like contemporary theater box offices, and the interiors are painted in cool pastel shades.
Connecting the clinic to the natural landscape “becomes a part of the healing process. It is really about creating a welcoming environment,” Day said. Knowing that coming to a medical appointment can be stressful, his team’s goal was to design a building that would help “lower the blood pressure.”
The building takes into account the recent pandemic. The 28 counseling rooms are much larger than usual to provide safe distances between therapist and patient. Several of the 25 urgent care and primary care exam rooms have special ventilation systems to limit the spread of air-borne illnesses.
Credit: Stan Lim / UC Riverside
A Student Health and Counseling Center exam room.
The soundproofing for counseling rooms is a switch from the old building, where therapists sometimes had to use noise machines to block conversations from the public. All those rooms have windows, for a brighter atmosphere. Plus, the center is developing a mobile check-in system so students who do not want to wait in a public lobby can go directly to their appointments when notified via text.
Online counseling became more popular during the pandemic, and that will still be offered as an option. However, many colleges and universities across the nation reported overall declines in demand for all counseling services during the pandemic even as mental health problems increased. Numbers have rebounded at many schools but not to the pre-pandemic level. UC Riverside hopes to build up those visit numbers as students get familiar with the new building.
Unless they opt out and use family or other coverage, UC Riverside students pay about $2,100 a year for campus health insurance as part of their registration fees and receive most medical services without any additional costs. All students, regardless of insurance status, can get free, unlimited counseling sessions, although most usually need only four to six visits; that is funded through the mandatory $410 annual student services fee.
A student in Oakland’s Skyline High School Education and Community Health Pathway sculpts a clay model of the endocrine system.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
Could collaboration between TK-12 schools, colleges and industries improve educational equity and opportunity for the most high-needs learners? California is betting that the answer is yes and is backing that belief up with a $250 million investment in the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program.
The success of California’s nearly 6 million public school students, 60% of whom are low-income, depends on the ability of educators and employers to provide seamless pathways to degrees and careers. This is no small feat and requires a big investment of time, energy and resources.
In 2020, amid the pandemic, 15 education organizations in the Central Valley, including school districts, community colleges and four-year institutions, joined forces to improve dual enrollment and skill-building opportunities and create more equitable pathways to college. The Fresno-Madera K-16 Collaborative has already launched thousands of learners on a path to and through college. Building on the initial success of this effort, the California Department of General Services has invested $250 million in the Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program to fund career-oriented pathways and Recovery with Equity recommendations. Nine regional collaboratives received four-year funding in June 2022, and a second-round application to fund additional collaborative regions just closed on Oct. 3.
Too often, innovations in education and workforce development occur in silos, with little support to build a community of practice or align strategy. The goal of the K-16 grant program is to break down these silos and get regional entities working together to advance educational equity and workforce resilience. However, because such regional efforts are relatively new, little research and few resources exist to support them.
From our work supporting educational and workforce partners, here are a few lessons learned:
Focus on learners and equity. Partners in a regional collaborative are drawn together for one common goal: to advance equity of opportunity for learners. As such, keep learners at the center of all discussions. One suggested principle to guide the collaborative: Consider each student, no matter their age, location, or pathway as our collective responsibility, and use this orientation as a north star in decision-making.
Ensure balance. The composition of an educational collaborative matters. Representation and equity are essential in making high-stakes decisions — especially regarding dissemination of funding. To ensure the buy-in of partners, consider educational segments, geography and distribution of partners across education and industry. While postsecondary partners often have larger support structures, resources and student populations, the participation of TK-12 districts and county offices of education is crucial to the success of K-16 collaboratives. Thus, TK-12 partners may need additional financial backing to ensure equitable representation and influence.
Build deep and authentic employer engagement. Strong industry partnerships will drive pathway development in high-needs areas and enhance career education and work-based learning for students. Accomplishing this in a collaborative setting can be challenging. Because the worlds of public education and private industry have historically been separate, businesses/employers must be active participants in meetings and discussions. Talent pipeline management, an approach to workforce development, which positions employers as end customers of education supply chains, may be useful in such collaborations.
Dedicate staffing. A collaborative must have its own staffing to be effective and sustainable. Initiating a collaborative staffed only by volunteers presents challenges, as members, usually employed full-time, have limited availability. Dedicated staff can maintain momentum and handle daily operations, securing the collaborative’s success. Acknowledging members’ limited availability is essential. Providing support and, if feasible, incentives for participation can enhance engagement.
Design the funding model to be both equitable and sustainable. How the collaborative divvies up funds is a momentous decision that influences its ability to advance its priorities. Consider where funds will have the greatest impact. For example, while most rural high schools have far smaller head counts than urban high schools, they face greater challenges competing for grant funds and building career programs because of their geographic isolation and limited resources.
Wherever possible, leveraging existing funding toward a common purpose can remove silos and maximize sustained collaborative impact. For example the Community Economic Resilience Fund is a $600 million state grant program designed to promote sustainable, climate-friendly economic development and equitable pandemic recovery. Funds support regional communities in developing coordinated road maps for economic development, with an emphasis on the creation of high-quality jobs in sustainable industries. The CERF regions and timeline intentionally align with those of the K-16 Collaboratives grant program, and the two regional efforts should complement and support one another.
Finally, the K-16 Collaboratives Educational Grant Program expires in 2026, so designing the funding model to be sustainable is critical. In determining how to direct funds, think not only about what pilot initiatives will be sustainable but can provide proof of concept for replication and scalability through future investments.
An adage says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
In a recent panel on diversifying the health care workforce, Freeman Hrabowski, a former educational adviser to President Barack Obama, argued that the single most important policy change he would make would be, “more incentives to have people at different levels of education understanding both the strengths of other levels and the challenges they face. … We need policies that will have more substantive collaboration across levels.”
At every TK-16 school in California, there are bright spots of innovation and individual educators working tirelessly to make sure their students don’t fall through the cracks. Regional collaboration can harness and scale the impact of these individuals to advance systems change.
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Annie Sterling is a program manager at Capitol Impact, a Sacramento-based social impact consulting firm, and previously served for more than a decade as an English language arts and social studies teacher in California public schools. Natalie Lenhart, Lex Carlsson and Alex Taghavian of Capitol Impact contributed to this op-ed.
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.
I have been a part of the Daily Titan staff since I was a freshman, and every week, we distribute a new print edition to City Hall, the public library and the police department.
The Fullerton City Council just made that illegal.
I’m in my second semester as editor-in-chief of the Daily Titan, Cal State Fullerton’s editorially independent student newspaper. I previously served on the paper’s editorial staff for two years.
On May 6, the Fullerton City Council voted 3-2 to reaffirm a policy that would ban nongovernmental publications from distribution on city property.
The council also voted to add a “community newspaper rack” to the library — a space that the Daily Titan can share with the community newspaper Fullerton Observer and any other entity that wishes to publish.
The best justification that City Council members provided for their decision-making was the potential for litigation from a local blog that had asked if it could distribute its papers on city property.
As editor-in-chief, I can’t help but interpret this as an attack on press freedom in Fullerton.
The Daily Titan regularly covers important items related to the city of Fullerton in addition to our campus coverage. In the past year, we’ve reported on a City Council candidate’s arrest, a parklet program that the city decided to eliminate despite public outcry, and the nearly $10 million deficit the city is staring down — to name a few.
I run a student paper, but my staff and I recognize the growing trend of news deserts — geographic areas with limited or no access to reliable, diverse and independent news.
Since Fullerton isn’t regularly covered by news outlets that meet that criteria, the Daily Titan steps up to help residents be informed. A growing number of college and high school newspapers across the country are doing the same thing.
And despite this setback with City Hall, we won’t stop doing our job.
The reporting of student journalists is now impacting communities like the local dailies of yesteryear, according to an article published in Poynter in April.
The article details how universities now build their curriculum around the notion that student journalism is more impactful than ever. Student journalists are stepping up and covering cities like paid reporters once did.
And while the Daily Titan doesn’t operate as a newswire service like the other university publications detailed in the article, we’re able to serve many of the same purposes.
The Daily Titan holds Fullerton city leaders accountable for their actions. Those same city leaders are making decisions as if we don’t matter.
At the April 1 council meeting, when the newspaper ban was first discussed, multiple City Council members used the term “free speech area” to describe where a proposed community newspaper rack would be in the library.
Their colloquial terminology for the proposed newspaper rack is laughable.
The mere notion that city property should have free speech restricted to a certain area is anti-democratic, and the lack of clear and just leadership from council members is disappointing. If we don’t like your policies, should we only sit at a certain table to discuss them?
Multiple City Council members — one who is also a professor at Cal State Fullerton — claim to support student journalism after the policy was enacted.
From my perspective, no, they don’t.
Supporting student journalism doesn’t mean breaking the status quo for an unclear reason.
Supporting student journalism doesn’t mean limiting the reach of important, unbiased news coverage.
Many student journalists first joined the Daily Titan to learn how to hold community leaders accountable through reporting and writing. The publication provides a platform for us to learn in a way we can’t in a classroom.
While we’re still doing that — and don’t plan to stop anytime soon — the Fullerton City Council succeeded in teaching us another lesson, a harsher one.
A lesson in how governments can work to suppress diverse voices.
A lesson in how student journalists can fall victim to petty City Council conflicts.
And a lesson that, given the Trump administration’s disdain for the press, is all too familiar.
Take the Associated Press (AP) for example: The wire service had to go to court to reinstate its ability to be admitted to White House press conferences after President Donald Trump didn’t like how AP refused to change a stylebook entry for the Gulf of Mexico.
As journalists, we can continue to fight for our right to exist. It’s a jarring reality that litigation might be the most effective way to accomplish that.
What citizens can do is pay attention to the City Council and think critically about its actions. And remember what’s happened in the past four years the next time they vote.
Remember that journalism needs to be protected and uplifted to support a free and fair democracy.
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.
Two years after California schools reopened their classrooms to in-person instruction following the Covid-19 pandemic, students continue to struggle – both academically and emotionally.
Both of these factors are deeply connected and recovery requires a team effort, according to panelists at the EdSource round table Nov. 15 discussion, “Reenergizing learning: Strategies for getting beyond stagnant test scores.”
Getting California’s learners back on track, panel members agreed, involves the work of school administrators, teachers, parents and the students themselves.
“Students came back, not just with some of this delayed learning, but they lost a lot of opportunities for socialization, which has led to different kinds of behavior in school that make readiness to learn more difficult,” said Heather J. Hough, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education.
Keeping students engaged
With chronic absenteeism soaring across the state from 12.1% in 2018-19 to 30% in 2021-22, the panelists said it is critical for schools to go beyond targeting specific causes for absenteeism – and create a culture where students feel excited to go to school.
“Kids need to feel a sense of belonging, a sense of being valued and cared about,” said Yolie Flores, president and CEO of Los Angeles-based Families in Schools.
“…..But I don’t see as much of a focus on [social, emotional] side of the learning. And I wonder if it’s because we still don’t really understand how children learn and what sparks that fire to want to learn.”
Members of the panel discussed programs that are used to gauge students’ concerns so they can be addressed. The San Ramon Valley Unified School District, for instance, holds more regular screenings to measure students’ sense of belonging through a partnership with UC Berkeley, in addition to the statewide California Healthy Kids Survey.
The district is also piloting a diagnostic tool that provides immediate feedback to teachers on students’ thoughts about belonging in their specific classrooms.
Further south, Adalberto Hernandez said at George Washington Elementary School in Madera Unified School District, students recite affirmations: “I am loved; I am valued; I matter,” they declare each morning.
John Malloy, the superintendent of San Ramon Valley Unified, added that schools and educators need to do a better job of getting to know students’ needs as well as their “strengths, interests and passions.”
A big part of why kids decide to come to school, Hough said, depends on answers to certain questions: “How does this fit into the future that I envisioned for myself? Am I getting the right kinds of training for my college or career goals, or the life that I want to live?”
Malloy added that the most impactful strategy “is listening to our students, creating the conditions for them to share their voice and their wisdom, whether it’s kindergarten or 12th grade.”
Support for teachers
Students aren’t the only ones affected by the pandemic: teachers need to be equally supported, because their jobs have gotten harder in the past couple years, panelists said.
“Teachers have been tasked with the job of accelerating learning, but they’re facing much more difficult student needs and, maybe in some cases, students who aren’t in school,” Hough said, adding that there’s widespread vacancies because of problems in filling various school positions.
Parental involvement
Parents, however, are not fully aware of the academic struggles their children may be going through – even though they can play a major role in their child’s achievement.
Flores, the president and CEO of Families in Schools, said a nationwide Learning Heroes survey of families found that 92% of families believe their children are on track in reading and math.
“There’s confusion between what they see from the state. There’s confusion from the report cards that generally say that their kids are getting A’s and B’s, and yet they’re not reading at grade level,” Flores said.
“So what needs to happen is much more clarity and targeted information to families so that they can understand specifically how their children are doing.”
Some parents may want to be more present at their child’s school but may be limited by their work schedules, making involvement challenging. Even in cases where parents may take the time to visit their children’s classroom, they don’t always know what to look for in terms of effective instruction.
“It’s nice when parents are involved, but in a community like ours, we’re not depending on that for student success,” Hernandez said. “We communicate. We involve them. We invite them, and we do events like the Calenda traditional celebration in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and we had great parent involvement after hours. But during the school day, it’s on us.”
Classroom approach
Getting students to learn – and not just memorize material – is also vital, according to the panelists.
“I’ve been taught to take tests, but I’m not sure I know how to learn,” Malloy said a student told him during a Student Voice Circle, and that the statement has stuck with him, and that his district has since broadened their vision for success.
“If kids are thriving, it means that they are true, independent learners when they graduate from us,” Malloy said. “They have a confidence in their ability to think and to create.”
One strategy to help students really learn, panelists said, is to focus on teaching a few concepts thoroughly rather than covering a broader range of topics on a more cursory level.
If done properly, tutoring also helps, Hough said.
“What makes tutoring effective,” Hough said, “is that those tutors are trained, that they’re being asked to do things that are aligned with the instructional strategies that the teacher is using, so that that’s….reinforcing what they’re learning in school.”
Within this area, there are hammocks, slacklines, trees, ample seating and, of course, the pond itself, all providing students with a mental health boost. 
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