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  • University of California to offer college classes to low-income high school students

    University of California to offer college classes to low-income high school students


    Student walk up and down the Promenade to Shields Library at UC Davis.

    Credit: Gregory Urquiaga / UC Davis

    The University of California is joining a national initiative to offer free online courses to students at low-income high schools across the country beginning next year.

    The university system is joining the National Education Equity Lab and beginning in the winter term of 2024 will offer two for-credit classes to students enrolled in Title I schools, a federal designation for schools with high numbers of low-income students, UC’s board of regents learned Wednesday. UC is hopeful that the program will allow students — who might not otherwise have access to college courses — the opportunity to take UC classes and get a taste of college.

    The classes are free to students, but the participating high schools will need to pay a fee of $250 per student to the equity lab to cover administrative and support costs.

    The specific classes that will be offered haven’t yet been determined, but they will be for college credit and are existing courses developed by UC faculty. Currently, 12 other universities participate in the national program. The classes available to students include a poetry course from Harvard, an environmental studies course from Howard University and a bioengineering course from Stanford.

    UC will be the second public university to join the partnership and also the second university from California, joining Stanford.

    The program will allow the university to expand access to low-income high school students who might not otherwise have a chance to take rigorous courses, said Rolin Moe, executive director of UC Online.

    “These courses are focused on establishing that love of learning and that opportunity to show people that they can succeed in college,” Moe added. “A student who gets to say, ‘I took a course from Berkeley,’ or ‘I took a course from Santa Cruz,’ what that means for somebody internally and intrinsically could be all the difference.”

    UC faculty will be responsible for creating the course syllabus and course materials as well as developing assessments. Teaching fellows, including UC undergraduate and graduate students, will help facilitate the courses by leading Zoom sessions, grading student work and answering questions. Teachers at the local high schools will also work with UC faculty to help facilitate the courses.

    Students across the country and in California can already access college courses through dual enrollment programs that are offered mainly by community colleges. One regent, Jose Hernandez, said during Wednesday’s meeting that he’s concerned UC is “late to the game” and that community colleges have already “cornered the market” when it comes to offering college courses to students still enrolled in high school.

    UC’s courses will be different from traditional dual enrollment courses, said Yvette Gullatt, UC’s vice president for graduate and undergraduate affairs, because they will be classes and subjects that students “can’t get in high school or community college.”

    She said the courses “resemble our university deep dive courses.  These are the things our faculty do so very well. This is their research in the classroom. This is their teaching. So this goes beyond our traditional A through G and our general ed and into those spaces where our faculty’s teaching and research come together.”

    The program will also be reaching different students.  The students who typically enroll in dual enrollment courses “tend to be a much more middle class constituency,” whereas the UC program will be targeted to low-income students, said Katherine Newman, UC’s provost and executive vice president of academic affairs.

    “And it’s that connection to the university world, the four-year university world that I think is going to make this particularly attractive,” Newman added.





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  • LAUSD considering a policy to limit charter co-locations, prioritize vulnerable students

    LAUSD considering a policy to limit charter co-locations, prioritize vulnerable students


    Credit: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    The Los Angeles Unified School District school board is considering a resolution that would exclude 346 schools serving its most vulnerable student populations from co-location arrangements with charter schools. Doing so could potentially undermine the integrity of Proposition 39, a statewide initiative that mandates public schools to share spaces with charter schools.

    The resolution, authored by President Jackie Goldberg and member Rocio Rivas and discussed at a meeting Tuesday, would require the district to avoid co-location offers on LAUSD’s 100 Priority Schools, Black Student Achievement Plan campuses and community schools.

    According to the proposal, LAUSD would also avoid charter co-location offers that “compromise district schools’ capacity to serve neighborhood children” or “grade span arrangements that negatively impact student safety and build charter school pipelines that actively deter students from attending district schools, so that the district can focus on supporting its most fragile students and schools, key programs, and student safety.”

    The proposed criteria would guide the placement of new charter schools as well as those opting to change location and increase oversight of charter school co-locations, including site visits before location offers are made, frequent assessments of the average daily attendance of charter schools as well as regular reporting of their facilities payments.

    Goldberg said that her goal was not to “undo” anything but rather to prioritize the needs of vulnerable students by making the co-location process more rational.

    “We should have just some accountability practices, a common sense policy,” said Gloria Martinez, treasurer of United Teachers Los Angeles, the teacher’s union. “I don’t necessarily see this as an erosion of charter schools to exist. This is not an attack on charter schools or communities or parents or students. This is simply saying ‘Our district schools are drowning, and what’s our life vest?”

    Eric Premack, the president and founder of the Charter Schools Development Center, disagrees, saying, “That display at the board meeting today was really stunning, that they were essentially offering an extended middle finger to the voters of California, to the taxpayers and to students and parents and families who have opted to go to charter schools.”

    Board members will vote on the resolution at Tuesday’s meeting. It would give Superintendent Alberto Carvalho 45 days to report back to the board with an updated co-location policy reflecting the resolution.

    Charter school co-locations have long polarized the Los Angeles community with proponents of the proposed policy maintaining that sharing campus spaces has led to hostile environments for the children and greater challenges with securing necessary resources.

    Charter proponents, on the other hand, say the resolution would cause even more of their campuses to be split up and prolong commutes for students who are already disadvantaged.

    Still, the resolution comes amid years of declining enrollment across LAUSD, which some say might be the real reason behind the efforts to curtail co-location.

    Charters in LAUSD: The Basics

    For the 2023-24 academic year, Los Angeles Unified authorized 272 charters — 51 affiliated with the district and 221 independent, according to a presentation by José Cole-Gutiérrez, the director of LAUSD’s charter schools division, which coordinates the district’s Proposition 39 program.

    By the first day of November each year, charter schools must file a facilities request to LAUSD as part of a process outlined by the proposition. Those requests must include the charters’ must include their average daily attendance, which is used to determine how much space they would be allocated.

    For its part, LAUSD must extend a final location offer to the charters by April 1, and the charters have a month to respond.

    For years, the district has had charters share campuses with its regular public schools. This academic year, there are 52 co-locations at 50 campuses, representing 6.7% of district sites.

    Los Angeles Unified has seen fewer facilities requests from charter schools in the past few years. In the 2015-2016 academic year, for example, the district received 101 facilities requests. That number shrank to 51 this year.

    ‘More to do with less’: Fighting for increased enrollment

    The resolution comes as Los Angeles Unified — and schools throughout the state — have been reckoning with decreased enrollment despite the expansion of transitional kindergarten. Districts are working harder to retain and increase their current student populations.

    “Parents have some choices, and they’re not shy about exercising them,” said Premack, the president and founder of the Charter Schools Development Center. “A lot of them have voted with their feet and gone to the charter sector for instruction to enroll their kids, and … the district sees that is costing them a lot of money.”

    Decreased enrollment has led to fewer charters making facility requests, leading to more physical space open for student learning, said Myrna Castrejón, president of the California Charter Schools Association, which opposes the proposed resolution and staged a rally outside LAUSD’s headquarters during the recent meeting.

    With enrollment at 538,295 in 2022-23, LAUSD suffered the second-largest percentage enrollment decline in the state — a nearly 16% drop from 639,337 in 2015-16.

    “The cream of the crop left the district and went to charter schools, so did the money, and so did the funds, now we have to do with less,” Rivas, who co-authored the resolution, said during Wednesday’s board meeting.

    She also said that charter management organizations have continually profited while eroding the money the district needs to support more vulnerable student populations.

    A study conducted by the University of Arkansas, however, found that regular public schools in LAUSD made $5,225 more per student than charters in the district, as of 2019-20.

    “We’re pitted against each other to fight for the very few crumbs we’re given,” Rivas said.

     Challenges with co-location 

    Parents and community organizations have long pointed to challenges with co-locating charters on regular LAUSD campuses, citing competition over spaces and contentious relationships between school communities.

    “Co-locating charters are a burden placed on the shoulders of school communities. Campuses become divided spaces with drastically diminished resources, often at the expense of our most vulnerable students and families. As a result of co-locations, we have witnessed appalling and unacceptable uses of space,” reads a news release issued by the Facebook group Parents Supporting Teachers.

    The group says some schools have had to hold speech therapy sessions in closets and auditoriums have been converted into administrative offices.

    During Tuesday’s public comment segment, speakers and board members in favor of the proposed changes also cited challenges with district schools being able to access music and dance spaces — along with PE areas and rooms needed for individual education plan meetings.

    Supporters of Los Angeles charter schools, however, emphasized that sharing spaces is not always associated with problems.

    “Nobody likes to share,” said Castrejón, the president of the California Charter Schools Association. “But there are actually really good examples of … really good synergistic co-locations that actually amplify and serve both schools.”

    Supporting campuses with higher needs  

    The new resolution would prevent Priority, Black Student Achievement Plan and community schools from sharing their campuses with a charter school. Board President Goldberg said during the meeting that the changes would offset “some of the worst impacts” of Proposition 39 on more vulnerable LAUSD schools and communities.

    This academic year, LAUSD approved 13 co-locations on the district’s 100 Priority Schools, 19 co-locations on Black Student Achievement Plan campuses and seven on community schools campuses.

    “We’re saying: Those schools where we are doubling our investment — and I don’t mean as far as dollars — but where we are doubling our efforts really to help those schools – we cannot subject them to being co-located and then having themselves … in a fight to be able to carry out that vision to be able to … hold on to rooms where we can actually carry out the needs of the community,” said Martinez, the treasurer of United Teachers Los Angeles.

    The resolution’s opponents, however, have noted that many charters located on LAUSD campuses are community schools.

    More than 70 of LAUSD’s independent charters have received State Community Schools Grants, according to Ana Tintocalis, California Charter Schools Association spokesperson.

    “Based on CCSA’s analysis of the district data, there are more independent charter schools in LAUSD that have received State Community Schools Grants than district schools,” Tintocalis said in an email to EdSource.

    Potential effects for charters 

    This academic year, 19 charter schools have been split over either two or three LAUSD campuses, and the proposed resolution is projected to increase that number.

    “In attempting to avoid sites with special designations, it is likely that there will be more multi-site offers, leading to a larger overall number of co-locations Districtwide,” reads the interoffice correspondence from the office of the chief strategy officer on “Operational, Policy & Student Impact Statements” for the resolution.

    “This may also lead to increased costs associated with renovation work to make sites ready for co-location, and would likely make it more challenging for the district when making ‘reasonable efforts’ to locate the charter school ‘near’ where it wishes to locate.”

    Splitting a charter school across multiple sites can negatively impact students’ morale and can lead to unsustainable commutes for parents, said David Garner, the principal of Magnolia Science Academy-2.

    “They were going to also offer us another school, which is Sepulveda Middle School, which is 6.9 miles away,” Garner said. “And 6.9 miles away is not a big deal if you have people that have cars. However, 88% of our students’ parents come from free-and-reduced lunch backgrounds.”

    Eighty percent of the 4,000 students enrolled in his schools come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

    Garner calculated that the commute from Sepulveda Middle School to Magnolia Science Academy-2 is 55 minutes each way by bus — which can add up, particularly in cases where parents have children at various locations, spread out across grade levels, with different bell schedules.

    “Let’s just say one of the kids is in, you know, one of our sites on (Birmingham Community High School’s)  complex, and then she has another two kids at the Sepulveda Middle School site,” said Garner.

    “That parent would have to take the bus to Sepulveda from our school (at Birmingham) for one hour just to drop her other kids, and then take a bus back one hour to pick up the kid from our school, and then the bus back one more hour to pick up her second kid, and then the bus home.”

    Ultimately, he said, schools — public, charter or private — should all be held to the same standards in supporting their students.

    “We all take to this industry because we care about the kids,” Garner added. “We care about their futures. We believe that education can be used as a means to social mobility, as a means to get out of some challenging circumstances and (give) them all the tools to be successful.”





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  • Students with discrimination complaints left in limbo, months after California civil rights office closed

    Students with discrimination complaints left in limbo, months after California civil rights office closed


    Credit: Carlos Kosienski/Sipa via AP Images

    K.D. was just starting to believe that the racial harassment her daughter had experienced at school for the last three years would finally be addressed.

    Students had called her daughter the N-word, referred to her as a “black monkey” in an Instagram post, made jokes about the Ku Klux Klan and played whipping sounds on their phones during a history lesson about slavery, according to a statement by her mother, identified in court records as K.D.

    “My daughter reported all of these incidents to teachers and was never told whether they were addressed, if at all,” K.D. stated in her declaration.

    K.D. did what many parents do when they believe a school district has violated their child’s right to an education free of discrimination: She filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in May 2023.

    In December, the office proposed a voluntary agreement to the school board of the district. The board requested more information.

    “We were so close,” said K.D., whose daughter is identified as M.W. in court records. “The board was like, ‘Hey, we just need this one last piece.’”

    While K.D. was waiting to hear back, the U.S. Department of Education announced in March that it was cutting its workforce in half. It planned to shutter and lay off staff at seven of its 12 regional branches for its Office for Civil Rights. One of those branches shuttered was in San Francisco, which handled all the cases for the state of California, including K.D.’s.

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with the Trump administration, allowing it to lay off 1,400 employees of the Department of Education, effectively putting the Office of Civil Rights in a state of limbo.

    When the mass terminations were first announced, it didn’t sink in for K.D. what this meant. The attorney on her daughter’s case told K.D. that the office was still waiting to hear from the school district’s board, which was not identified in the court records. If the case wasn’t resolved, the attorney promised to flag it when it was transferred to the Seattle office along with all the other California cases, but that would mean a much longer timeline.

    K.D. recalled: “Essentially, I would have to wait like six months to a year to even hear that someone’s picked up my case.”

    Four months later, K.D. still hasn’t heard from anyone at the Office for Civil Rights. She told EdSource that she’s been left with “a lot of questions” but “little hope.”

    ‘We were already drowning’

    Caseloads at the Office for Civil Rights reached a record high of 22,687 during the Biden administration, according to a 2024 report. That was an 18% increase from the previous year.

    “We were already drowning,” said a San Francisco Office staffer, a member of the AFGE Local 252, impacted by the reduction in force.

    Catherine Lhamon, former assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education under the Biden administration, said her department was always pleading with Congress for more staff to handle the increasing caseloads.

    “There is no universe in which we would have needed fewer people,” said Lhamon, who now serves as executive director of the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Edley Center on Law & Democracy.

    K.D. joined a national suit filed on behalf of other parents and students who have cases pending with the Office for Civil Rights, claiming that “gutting” the workforce and closing regional offices means that caseloads are two to three times higher for remaining staff, effectively halting investigations. It was unsuccessful in securing an injunction to stop the mass terminations.

    In court documents, the Department of Education reported that between March 11 and June 27, OCR received 4,833 complaints, dismissed 3,424, opened 309 for investigation, and resolved 290 with voluntary agreements.

    Lhamon said that represents a fraction of the work under the Biden administration.

    “What we see right now are performative case openings and very little case closings,” Lhamon said.

    The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals halted the mass firings, scheduled to take effect in June, through a preliminary injunction. The suit, joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, claimed the terminations were “not supported by any actual reasoning” about how to eliminate waste, but were “part and parcel of President Trump’s and Secretary McMahon’s opposition to the Department of Education’s entire existence.”

    In her successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon denied that the terminations were related to a desire to shutter the Department of Education. Her appeal claimed the preliminary injunction represents “judicial micromanagement of its day-to-day operations.” 

    But McMahon also said in an interview that the firings were “the first step on the road to a total shutdown of the department.” A presidential administration eliminating an agency established by Congress poses a “grave” threat to the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers, according to a dissent by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

    “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” Sotomayor wrote.

    Cases in limbo

    M.W.’s case was one of 772 in California pending before the Office for Civil Rights when the San Francisco branch was shuttered, according to a site that has not been updated since President Donald Trump took office. 

    Advocates say the office provides a venue to address a discrimination complaint, especially for those who haven’t had success appealing to their district or state and cannot afford to hire a personal attorney. 

    “No one’s going to OCR if they have any other option,” said Johnathan Smith, an attorney with the National Center for Youth Law, the Oakland-based nonprofit that represented K.D. in her suit. “The reason why K.D. turned to OCR was because she didn’t have options. And so for this administration to literally pull out the rug from under families, from children who are at their lowest point of need, is beyond cruel.”

    The Department of Education updated its list of recent voluntary resolutions, which include seven cases in California during Trump’s second term.

    There were also two letters addressed to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the California Interscholastic Federation, involving transgender athletes’ eligibility to participate in school sports.

    The other resolutions involve agreements regarding disability cases, including those at San Diego State University, as well as the Belmont-Redwood Shores, Cupertino Union, Inglewood Unified and Tehachapi Unified school districts. Letters about the resolutions were signed by attorneys with phone numbers that contain Washington, D.C., or Seattle-based area codes.

    It’s unclear whether most of the nearly 800 cases in California pending before the Office for Civil Rights when Trump took office have been addressed. The department did not respond to requests for comment.

    Most deal with disability: the right to a free and appropriate public education, harassment or discipline.

    The office also handles discrimination claims filed by students and parents or staff on the basis of gender, race, age, nationality or language. Over three-quarters of the pending cases in California deal with the TK-12 system — the rest are postsecondary.  The office investigates discrimination claims at the state level.

    “No state is immune for the need for a federal backstop against that harm,” said Lhamon. “We have had six-decade bipartisan recognition that it is true.”

    ‘Speaking her truth does matter’

    M.W. will be a junior when she returns to school in the fall. Her mother, K.D., told EdSource that her daughter continues to be bullied by students and the issue remains unaddressed by the school district. 

    “The driving force for me has been just like her, knowing that what she has to say and her speaking her truth does matter,” K.D. said. “I want her to know, no matter how long this has taken — or will take — that it does matter.”

    Schools are where students learn about academic subjects, but also how society functions. 

    “Schools are where we teach people how to participate in democracy,” Lhamon said.

    She worries that if the federal system for addressing discrimination breaks down, students will receive the message that discrimination is allowed.

    “If you are harmed and no one speaks up for you, what you take home is that it was OK,” Lhamon said. “That’s the worst part of the lesson.”





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  • How mariachi programs keep students like me culturally connected in college

    How mariachi programs keep students like me culturally connected in college


    Students pass beneath Sather Gate and onto Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley.

    Credit: Steve McConnell / UC Berkeley

    As a student of Mexican, Guatemalan and Salvadoran heritage at UC Berkeley, adjusting to life at a prestigious institution has been hard. Too often, my peers assume stereotypes about me and my parents — that I must have grown up poor, that my parents don’t have an education or speak English, that I must be loud and aggressive like the Latinos they see on TV. Sometimes, while walking on campus, I overhear conversations about the need to deport so-called “illegals.” Whenever professors mispronounce my name, it sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.

    Three years ago, I joined Mariachi Luz de Oro. For myself and student mariachis everywhere, our performance is a rejection of this kind of mistreatment and simultaneously a celebration of our heritage. 

    Today, student mariachis across the state persevere and celebrate Mexican culture at a time when it is being targeted by the Trump administration. The need for cultural preservation among young Latinos is more timely than ever. 

    Growing up, I was always on stage. But nothing ever stuck. From ballet at the age of 5 to piano at 9 to theater at 13 and even a cover band at 17, I eventually lost interest in every performing art I was involved in. 

    But as a college freshman in 2022, I finally found one that stuck — mariachi.

    Daniela Castillo performs for Mariachi Luz de Oro at UC Berkeley.
    Camila Villanueva

    In California, Latino students are more likely to have cultural ties to mariachi music. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, Latinos make up 40% of California’s population and 51.4% of Californians aged 24 years and younger. Mariachi programs help students achieve high levels of musicianship while also helping them stay connected to their culture, unlike music programs derived from European tradition, such as classical music or marching band.

    This is why I have continued mariachi. No other art form has mattered to me in a way that also speaks to my roots, from preserving the language to being able to sing songs at family events like funerals and weddings. 

    When I first found Mariachi Luz de Oro, I’d just moved 400 miles away from Gardena in Southern California, the only home I’d ever known. I remember calling my family and then crying once we hung up because I longed to be home so badly. 

    Mariachi helped cure that. It gave me a community, a learning space and a newfound sense of closeness with my family. I’ll never forget how excited my grandma was to give me a crochet vihuela pin she made for me to wear on my traje de charro, the mariachi uniform. Homemade videos of me performing and singing in Spanish help my parents miss me a little less. 

    When I first saw Mariachi Luz de Oro perform, I was volunteering at a local Latino community event. The violins swelled, and the trumpets blared as the singer’s Spanish lyrics resonated in my ears. I knew then and there that this was something I wanted to be a part of. 

    To my surprise, the group offered to lend me a spare vihuela, an instrument similar to a guitar, but smaller. I hadn’t heard of a vihuela before, nor did I know how to play it or any other mariachi instrument. Even though I had no experience, I felt that this was something I needed to do. That day, amidst the chaos of adjusting to my first semester of college, I decided to pick up a brand-new instrument.

    Today, I play and sing at nearly every performance we have. I am a member of the student board and helped organize this year’s third annual UC Berkeley Mariachi Conference. 

    The conference is a weekend-long event that started in 2023. More than 100 student mariachis from various middle schools, high schools and colleges across California are invited to campus. They get to perform in a showcase, build community, and participate in two days of classes taught by world-class mariachi instructors.

    Through the UC Berkeley conference, I have met many inspirational student mariachis, including Karen Orozco, a senior at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, who said that her participation in mariachi in high school prepared her for success. Orozco balances being a guitarist for the school’s mariachi group, Mariachi Los Alanos, and its all-girl group, Mariachi Las Mariposas. Orozco said that most mariachi members at her school plan to attend college and continue playing mariachi music.

    “It’s helped us see how much we can achieve,” Orozco said. “It gives us motivation in both academics and performing.”

    Orozco and I can both attest to the importance of mariachi programs. Although mariachi has taken a lot of hard work and time, I don’t have any regrets. It has helped me along my academic journey, while keeping me connected to my family and heritage at a time when keeping mariachi music alive is more important than ever.

    •••

    Daniela Castillo is student at UC Berkeley majoring in media studies with a concentration in global and cultural studies, as well as a double minor in journalism and ethnic studies, and a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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





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  • UC Berkeley chancellor tells Congress of commitment to protect Jewish students, but defends free speech

    UC Berkeley chancellor tells Congress of commitment to protect Jewish students, but defends free speech


    Rich Lyons, Chancellor, UC Berkeley, testifies during a House Committee on Education and Workforce Committee hearing on “Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology” on Capitol Hill on July 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

    Credit: Rod Lamkey, Jr. / AP Photo

    UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons testified Tuesday in front of a U.S. House committee that his campus has “more work to do” to prevent antisemitism, though he also defended free speech and said that pro-Palestinian viewpoints are “not necessarily antisemitism.”

    Lyons, along with the leaders of Georgetown University and The City University of New York, were called to face questioning at the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce hearing focused on antisemitism on college campuses.

    It was the latest of several such hearings held since late 2023 as some Republicans contend that Jewish students have been intimidated and threatened by U.S. campus protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza, and antisemitism is rampant in academia.

    In his opening remarks, Lyons said Berkeley “unequivocally condemns antisemitism” and that the campus has an “unwavering” commitment to its Jewish students and other community members.

    “I am the first to say that we have more work to do. Berkeley, like our nation, has not been immune to the disturbing rise in antisemitism. And as a public university, we have a solemn obligation to protect our community from discrimination and harassment, while also upholding the First Amendment right to free speech,” he added. 

    The Trump administration is currently investigating Berkeley and many other campuses over possible antisemitism and has threatened to withhold funding if it believes those campuses aren’t protecting Jewish students.

    Democrats, however, have said Republicans are insincere in their concerns and are weaponizing antisemitism to attack higher education. Democrats on Tuesday also criticized Republicans for ignoring other forms of hate on college campuses, such as Islamophobia. 

    Like many campuses across California, UC Berkeley was the scene of pro-Palestinian protests in spring 2024, when students there erected an encampment that stayed up for weeks. However, the encampment was dismantled in May after protesters reached an agreement with then-Chancellor Carol Christ, and the campus avoided violent conflicts that besieged some other campuses, including UCLA. 

    Lyons, who took over as chancellor last summer, faced less scrutiny Tuesday than CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. But Lyons did field generic and generally hostile questions from Republican members of Congress about antisemitism on the campus, as well as ones focused on faculty hiring policies and the foreign funding the campus receives. 

    Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, used most of his allotted five minutes to directly question Lyons, asking him why “antisemitism is so pervasive” at Berkeley.

    “Antisemitism is pervasive in the world. It’s pervasive in this nation, in society,” Lyons responded. “I think our universities are reflections of our society, especially a large public university.”

    During the same round of questioning, Lyons added that he believed that the increase in antisemitic incidents could be attributed to the war in Gaza, but also said that if somebody is expressing pro-Palestinian beliefs, that’s not necessarily antisemitic.”

    Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, a group of 82 Jewish faculty members at UC Berkeley in a letter to the House committee said they “reject the claim” that Berkeley has an antisemitic environment.

    “We write to affirm that we feel secure on campus and support the administration’s efforts to balance safety with respect for free speech,” they added, referring to the Berkeley administration.





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  • CSU tuition hike creates more debt, longer time to graduate for neediest students

    CSU tuition hike creates more debt, longer time to graduate for neediest students


    Credit: Baona / iStock_

    The graduation stage at all California State University (CSU) campuses are vibrant tableaus of dreams achieved. Each cap and gown tell a unique tale of persistence, ambition, and hope. But beneath the prestige and pride lies a sobering reality. For many students, obtaining a diploma also means accumulating debt.

    The CSU’s recent decision to increase tuition by 34% over five years, at an annual rate of 6%, might intensify these disparities, potentially impacting the trajectory of many students’ dreams and futures.

    While the CSU cites fiscal imperatives for the increase, it’s crucial to consider its effects on students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds. Higher education, once the beacon of hope and socio-economic mobility, is slowly being priced out of reach for many. Making this path more expensive threatens to sideline those who are meant to benefit from it the most.

    The data doesn’t lie, so let’s dive into it. Our recent collaborative report with The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) on the CSU system illuminates disturbing trends. While the CSU’s efforts to boost graduation rates are commendable, the cost of these achievements disproportionately impacts students from racially marginalized communities. We found that from the academic year 2021-22 a disconcerting 63% of Black bachelor’s degree recipients are grappling with student debt. In contrast, only about a third of their white and Asian peers face similar financial burdens. Moreover, only 48% of Black students secure their degree within six years. As these stats indicate, the increase in tuition could threaten the very essence of CSU, known for its diversity and inclusivity.

    The data tells a story that reaches far beyond mere statistics. Picture the path of a first-generation college student from a marginalized background. They step onto campus, buoyed by dreams and shouldering the weight of their family’s expectations. As they navigate the academic world, they confront both systemic obstacles and personal challenges.

    Yet, as graduation draws near, a looming debt casts a shadow over their achievements. Each loan statement they receive isn’t merely an invoice; it’s a stark reminder of the price of ambition, of wanting to change your life for the better.  These are dreams recalibrated or paused, not because of a lack of drive, capability, passion, or talent but for the sake of survival. Thus, the narrative shifts from higher education being a bridge to dreams to a poignant query: Is the investment truly worth its promise?

    Add to this the ramifications of the CSU’s recent decision. Annual tuition increases totaling 34% can lead to longer work hours, fewer academic credits, or even postponed semesters. Each subsequent loan statement, irrespective of graduation status, serves as a somber reminder of the tangible costs of dreams and the yearning for a brighter future. Such decisions don’t just delay dreams; they risk derailing them.

    At this defining moment, the CSU must introspectively reassess its foundational principles. The recent tuition hike decision has resonated like an unsettling alarm throughout the CSU community. While certain factions might view this as a necessary step to counteract fiscal deficits, for many students, it’s an added layer to an already challenging academic climb. To paint a clearer picture, on most campuses, our most economically disadvantaged students would need to clock in twenty or even upwards of thirty hours of paid work a week, in certain regions, just to afford the cost of attendance.

    Beyond individual concerns, society must recognize wider ramifications. Those students we’re most committed to elevating may increasingly feel academia’s gates slowly creaking shut. If financial burdens eclipse the dream of higher education, the entire society loses out. We risk sidelining tomorrow’s innovators, thinkers, leaders, and agents of societal change. The budding poet, poised to inspire an era, might remain silent; the aspiring scientist, on the brink of groundbreaking discoveries might opt for more immediate financial gains by taking a job instead. The community advocates, starting their journey in student leadership and deeply attuned to their community’s historical narratives, might never fully realize their potential to uplift and lead.

    This is a rallying cry for unity. As the CSU system charts its course, it is vital that policymakers, educators, students, and the wider community actively participate in this critical dialogue. We must also confront the sobering truth that members of our community will disproportionately bear the inequitable burden of a college degree. It’s crucial that we safeguard against making the pursuit of dreams financially untenable. After all, dreams cultivated within the halls of academia should ignite, illuminate, and elevate – not ensnare.

    •••

    Dominic Quan Treseler is president of the Cal State Student Association and a political science major at San Jose State University. 

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





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  • LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs

    LGBTQ+ students in conservative crosshairs


    Parents rights supporters attend a rally in Simi Valley on Sept. 26. the night before the Republican presidential primary debate.

    Credit: Courtesy of Rebecca Holz / California Policy Center

    LGBTQ+ students are the latest target in a campaign to promote conservative policies in California schools under the banner of parental rights. Over the last two months, seven school boards have passed policies that require school district staff to inform parents if their children are transgender.

    Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County, Murrieta Valley Unified and Temecula Valley Unified in Riverside County, Orange Unified in Orange County, Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County, and Rocklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District in Placer County all require that teachers and other school staff inform parents, generally within three days, if a student asks to use a different name or pronoun, or to take part in a program, or to use a facility associated with a gender other than the one they had at birth.

    Other school districts will follow, predicted Jonathan Zachreson, a Roseville City Unified board member and conservative activist. Almost every school district in Placer County, near Sacramento, is expected to consider the policy, he said.

    Proponents of the parental notification policies have said that parents have the right to know what is going on with their children at school and that minors do not have a right to privacy. Opponents say these policies could endanger already vulnerable students who should be able to decide when they want to come out to their parents.

    The flurry of parental notification policies are dividing communities, pitting teachers against students and creating fear and anxiety for LGBTQ+ students. Teachers in those districts find themselves choosing between their jobs and their relationships with students. Some worry if they follow the district policy, and break state law, they could end up in court.

    California’s parental notification board policies have their origin in Assembly Bill 1314, proposed by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, which was denied a committee hearing at the state Capitol in April. Since then, Essayli has worked with parents rights groups and attorneys to write a model board policy they would like school boards to use in their districts. Each community can customize the model policy to their standards, Essayli said.

    Zachreson, founder of Protect Kids California, is part of that effort. He ran for school board after creating the Reopen California Schools Facebook page for parents frustrated by school closures during the pandemic, and later by masks and vaccination mandates.

    “We will take it district by district,” he said of the parental notification policy.

    Culture wars result in frustration, hostility

    The parental notification policies have divided communities, leaving anger in their wake. On Sept. 6, hundreds of people overflowed the school board chamber at Rocklin Unified in Placer County. Speakers in support and opposition to notifying parents that their children are transgender gave heated and emotional testimony, both sides accusing the other of busing in supporters from outside the community.

    “Look at the division in this room and outside this building tonight,” said Travis Mougeotte, a high school teacher and president of the Rocklin Unified teachers union. “It’s hard to be excellent when we’re focused on things that have nothing to do with the classroom, that have nothing to do with education, have nothing to do with making our classrooms and schools safer and better, inclusive environments for our students.”

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    LGBTQ+ community rallies in solidarity, opposing the Social Studies Alive! ban in Temecula Valley Unified.

    One speaker in opposition to the board policy called it a solution in search of a problem, while others accused the board members of proposing it only to advance their political agenda.

    Board member Tiffany Saathoff disagreed. “I have had parents, I have had teachers, I have had staff members request this policy,” she said.

    LGBTQ+ students anxious about being outed

    These cultural conflicts come on top of a backdrop of anxiety and stress as students settle back into their classrooms after the Covid-19 pandemic, said Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at UC Berkeley.

    “I personally have a friend who would not be safe in his home if he came out to his parents as trans,” Asher Palmer, a Rocklin High School student who identifies as LGBTQ, said at the Sept. 6 meeting. “He would not be safe. His siblings would not be kind to him, and his parents would not be kind to him. … I hope you take my words into consideration and understand how unsafe children could become in their own households if this action is approved.”

    Many speakers highlighted the high rate of suicides among LGBTQ+ students. A national survey by the LGBTQ mental health nonprofit Trevor Project in 2022 found that 41% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered killing themselves in the past year. Transgender, nonbinary and people of color reported even higher rates. Less than 40% of LGBTQ youth felt emotionally supported by their families. About half of the 28,000 students surveyed said they felt their schools were gender-affirming, and those who did reported lower rates of attempting suicide.

    Rocklin resident Kurt Weidman spoke in support of the policy. “We believe we are protecting the children from those who destroy their innocence and exploit them for their own purposes,” he said. “On the whole, parents are the best protectors of children and have the natural right and duty for the care, custody and control of their children. Children in the main are naturally incapable of exercising self-governance until they reach the age of majority.”

    The day after the Rocklin Unified vote, many students and teachers wore rainbow ribbons to show support for transgender students. Teacher Mougeotte said that despite the outpouring of support, students in marginalized groups, such as transgender students, were quieter than usual that first day.

    A positive outcome of the debate was that students who may not have discussed gay rights before were having conversations about how the policy, how it affects their classmates and how it could affect other communities of students in the future, Mougeotte said.

    California Democratic leaders fight back

    Attorney General Rob Bonta says parental notification policies break state law and violate students’ civil rights and their right to privacy. He filed a lawsuit against Chino Valley Unified in San Bernardino County on Aug. 28. Bonta was granted a preliminary injunction to halt the parental notification policy to protect the safety of transgender and gender-nonconforming students while the court case proceeds.

    “The battle line has been drawn here,” Essayli told EdSource. “Somehow the government has decided they are the arbiters of information, and they decide what information parents can be trusted with and which they can’t.”

    Essayli said he would like to see the case get to the Supreme Court.

    “The court will reaffirm our rights and that kids are the domain of their parents and that the government cannot decide what information they can and cannot get,” he said.

    In another decision two weeks after the stay in the Chino Valley case, federal Judge Roger Benitez granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the Escondido Union School District from enforcing state guidance prohibiting school staff from informing parents if their children are transgender. It also forbids the district or state from disciplining the two teachers who are suing Escondido Union for requiring them to keep transgender students’ identities secret.

    Last week, Attorney General Bonta sent guidance to all California school superintendents and school board members reminding them of the Chino Valley Unified restraining order and that the state Department of Justice’s intent to enforce the law remains unchanged. A hearing in the Chino Valley Unified case is set for Oct. 13.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats in the state Legislature are pushing back against conservative board policies. Last week, the governor signed legislation that provides all-gender restrooms on school campuses and prohibits book banning and censorship of instructional materials. He also signed a bill requiring schools to train secondary school staff to support LGBTQ+ students and another that would establish a state advisory task force to identify and address the needs of LGBTQ+ students.

    Teachers widely disapprove of notification policies

    Teachers and union leaders have come out as major opponents of parental notification policies, saying they would drive a wedge between educators and students and endanger already vulnerable students. Some teachers in Rocklin Unified, including Mougeotte, say they simply aren’t going to do it.

    “Why are we creating an environment that’s unwelcoming to students?” Mougeotte asked the Rocklin board on Sept. 6. “No matter what happens here tonight, kids that walk into my classroom tomorrow will no longer feel as safe and protected as they did today, no matter what. That’s on you. That’s not on me.”

    Teachers at districts with these policies worry they could lose their jobs if they don’t comply. They are also concerned they could end up in court or have their credentials suspended if they disobey federal and state laws, and policies.

    Commission on Teacher Credentialing officials could not give a definitive answer about whether a teacher would risk suspension or loss of their credentials if they followed board policies that are at odds with state law. Each report of misconduct is assessed to determine whether it should be reviewed by the credentials committee, said Anita Fitzhugh, spokesperson for the commission. The committee would determine whether to recommend an action to the commission, she said.

    Parental rights galvanizing Republican Party

    Across the country, conservatives — initially energized by unpopular pandemic school closures and safety restrictions — are using LGBTQ+ issues and critical race theory to rally supporters. In California, the Republican Party — which has struggled to win state seats for 30 years — has also turned its attention to local races, recruiting, training and endorsing candidates for school boards.

    Parental rights is the overarching issue for the Republican Party, but right now it is focused on the parental notification issue, Essayli said.

    “This is an issue we want to run on in 2024,” he said. “Parental rights transcend culture, language and faith. We had every faith group at the board meeting last night. It’s an 80/20 issue. I welcome this fight. I want the voters to know going into next year.”

    Parent rights proponents say school districts should make decisions for their students and not the state. They say parents are being ignored locally, but at the same time, they are taking direction from well-funded lobbies in Florida, Fuller said.

    “That cuts into their credibility,” he said.

    Parental notification could be on the ballot next year

    Protect Kids California has submitted a statewide proposition to the Attorney General’s Office that would require all state school districts to report transgender students to their parents, no matter what the community in that district or its school board wants. If they manage to collect 550,000 signatures it will go on the ballot in November 2024.

    “Generally, we will default to local school boards, but the issue is that the data we are seeing is harming kids,” said Zachreson, a co-founder of the organization.

    The organization also will ask the public to sign petitions for proposed ballot measures that would prohibit people who were born male from competing in women’s sporting events and another that would prohibit health care providers from prescribing hormones that stop or delay puberty or alter a minor’s appearance for the purpose of changing genders.

    Fuller thinks the initiatives will gain traction.

    “Especially when you have big Republican donors,” he said. “If you buy enough people in front of grocery stores pushing petitions, it’s likely they will get this on the ballot. It will have some appeal on the surface level.”

    What will conservative school boards target next?

    Teachers are worried about what conservative-majority school boards will turn to next.

    “We are really concerned about book bans,” said Mike Patterson, a California Teachers Association board member and South Lake Tahoe High School teacher. “As teachers, we have some academic freedom. We need to stay within the state frameworks, but we still have some academic freedom when we teach. I’m sure they are going to go after academic freedom and want us to go back to scripted learning, which we did a decade ago and was an abject failure. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that is in our future.”

    Essayli is eying a California law that allows children as young as 12 years old to obtain medical treatment without parental consent in certain circumstances, such as obtaining birth control, treatment of communicable diseases, mental health treatment and treatment for drug or alcohol-related problems.

    But he’s focusing on the parental notification issue for now. “ The school board issue right now is sort of the flashpoint,” he said. “ It’s an issue that is easy to understand and articulate.”

     





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  • Teachers of recently arrived immigrant students to get help under new law

    Teachers of recently arrived immigrant students to get help under new law


    Oakland International High math teacher David Hansen teaches newcomer immigrant students fractions using the game of checkers.

    Theresa Harrington/EdSource

    As soon as Jenna Hewitt King asked students in her senior English class for newcomers to introduce themselves, she knew she was in over her head.

    “I saw this look of fear in their faces, like, ‘What? I have to talk out loud?’ There was a lot of whispering in their home language,” said King, who also wrote a commentary about the experience for EdSource. “We were both looking at each other like deer in headlights and you could sense this was not something that any of us were prepared for.”

    A bill signed over the weekend by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Bill 714, will begin to provide much-needed guidance and data for teachers like King, who often don’t have training or experience in how to teach newcomer students — defined as students between 3 and 21 years old who were born in other countries and have attended school in the U.S. for fewer than three years.

    King had expected to be able to teach the class in a way similar to how she teaches other senior English classes at San Leandro High School in Alameda County. Those students read three novels over the course of the year and write multiple essays.

    But the students in her newcomer class had recently arrived from other countries and did not know much English. Most of them spoke Spanish, and a few spoke Mandarin or Cantonese.

    King speaks only English and had no experience or training in teaching English language development to students learning English as a second language, let alone students new to the country.

    “I was just ridiculously ill-prepared. Teaching English in high school, we don’t teach phonics, we don’t teach language in the immense detail that elementary or English learner teachers do,” King said. “Most of last school year was me running around like a crazy person asking ELD teachers on campus, ‘What am I doing? What can you share with me?’”

    King’s experience is not an isolated one. Researchers and educators who work with teachers throughout California say it is common for teachers of newcomer students to feel unprepared.

    “What happens is that they’re basically thrown into the classroom and it’s either sink or swim,” said Efraín Tovar, who teaches seventh and eighth grade newcomer students at Abraham Lincoln Middle School in Selma Unified School District in the Central Valley and is also founder and director of the California Newcomer Network.

    Tovar said most school districts, charter schools and county offices of education do not have experts in teaching newcomers.

    Assembly Bill 714 will require the California Department of Education to put together a list of resources on best practices and requirements for teaching newcomer students. In addition, the law requires the state to consider including content on newcomers in the next revision of the English Language Arts and English Language Development curriculum framework and to include resources on newcomer students in any new instructional materials for grades one to eight.

    “As a teacher, I’m excited. It’s historic. It’s a light. It’s hope,” Tovar said. “Finally, newcomers are being brought to the forefront.”

    The bill also requires the state’s Department of Education to report the number of newcomer students enrolled and their countries of origin. There were about 152,000 newcomer students enrolled in California schools in 2020-21, according to data obtained from the state by Californians Together, but this data is not readily available to the public.

    Separating data on newcomers from other English learners is important, said Jeannie Myung, director of policy research at Policy Analysis for California Education, or PACE, an independent research center at Stanford University that focuses on education.

    “We know that what we don’t measure, we don’t really understand, and what we don’t understand, we can’t really improve,” Myung said.

    The bill originally would have also required the department to report newcomers’ scores on standardized tests, to be able to compare them to other groups of English learners. But that requirement was removed from the final version of the legislation.

    In 2021 and 2022, PACE brought together leaders from California’s departments of Education and Social Services, the Legislature, school districts and universities to discuss how to improve newcomer education, resulting in six reports on newcomers in the state.

    Myung said there is expertise and knowledge about how to best teach newcomers, and how it is different from teaching other English learners, but that information is not reaching most teachers.

    “California’s a local control state, and local control is often good in decision-making. But local control shouldn’t mean that every teacher in every classroom is repeating the wheel when it comes to how to educate newcomer students,” Myung said.

    Myung said an example of best practices is materials created for older newcomer students. Most texts available for English learners are created for younger students, but many newcomers are often teenagers, who would find a picture book about playing with a toy too juvenile. They need access to materials that are at their level of English but also deal with content at their age level, she said.

    In addition, teachers need to know how to help students who speak different home languages talk to each other in English.

    In King’s class at San Leandro High, she relied on Google Translate to communicate with her students. After realizing her students would not be able to read the novels she had planned for other seniors, she scrambled to find other materials. She found one novel written in short poetry with pictures, and she had her students watch a movie version of another novel and then read short excerpts of it rather than the whole text. This year, she is using some books in students’ home languages, but she is still struggling to figure out how to facilitate discussion between them.

    “If you can imagine having a group of newcomers where you have three, four, five, maybe up to eight languages represented in your classroom, that requires a special skill set,” Tovar said.

    Newcomer students also need support understanding their new communities in the U.S. and how they fit into them, said Magaly Lavadenz, executive director of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.

    “It’s not just about teaching them to learn English better, but how to better integrate into society and be a fully participatory citizen,” Lavadenz said.

    Lavadenz said it is crucial for schools to help newcomer students and families access social services they may need, like food, housing and mental health therapy.

    As a teacher in Glendale Unified in the early 1990s, Lavadenz said she saw many students who had fled war in Central America draw pictures of the violence they had witnessed. She saw that again while conducting a case study of San Juan Unified’s newcomer program, published by PACE. She said children were asked to draw the flags of their countries and one boy from Afghanistan described his drawing by saying, “Red is the color of blood spilling on the streets.”

    “These are things that children should not see, that we should not see as adults. They’re seeing this and they’re experiencing this, and those images stay with them,” Lavadenz said. “That experience opened my eyes about what the effects of trauma are on young children and how schools could be more ready.”

    King said AB 714 is a small but good step forward.

    “I still haven’t received any additional training,” she said. “Each time I ask, I’m told, ‘Yeah, find a training.’ I don’t know where to go or what to do.”





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  • We need all hands on deck to ensure students get the financial aid they need for college

    We need all hands on deck to ensure students get the financial aid they need for college


    Parent Raul Zuniga and his daughter Sandy, a senior at La Habra High in Orange County, receive help with financial aid forms from counselor Rosa Sanchez at a “Cash for College” workshop.

    FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY

    California is better off when more people have education and training to power our economy and support thriving communities. Financial aid that reduces or fully covers the cost of college or job training is an investment that benefits all of us.

    About $550 million in federal and state aid goes unused annually when thousands of eligible California students miss out on financial aid. Many are unaware of financial aid, don’t know how to apply or if they qualify, or fear sharing personal information because of their immigration status.

    A new law is helping to ensure that financial aid is not left on the table. Schools must help all high school seniors complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application unless the student formally opts out. Students submit one of these applications, depending on their residential status, to access the grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, student loans and other forms of aid available to help finance postsecondary education or training.

    Providing support for all students as they complete financial aid applications is an equity-driven game changer. This policy encourages students to plan for and attend college or job training programs and ensures that all students and families can make informed plans and decisions about their life after high school.

    Achieving universal participation in this student-centered systemic approach to financial aid requires planning and collaboration among K-12 school leaders, counselors, educators, student groups and community organizations. California’s All in for FAFSA/CA Dream Act campaign supports K-12 education partners as they work to achieve universal FAFSA/CADAA completion. Local progress can be tracked on the state’s Race to Submit dashboard. The data can help target assistance for students who may need extra support and encouragement to complete and submit a financial aid application. It also helps us to identify, learn from and share best practices with schools and districts across the state.

    Since universal participation was required, the number of California students applying for financial aid increased significantly. More than 60% of California’s high school seniors submitted financial aid applications by March 2, the deadline for students planning to attend a four-year college. By Sept. 5, the deadline for students heading to community college, the total FAFSA or CADAA completion rate for the class of 2023 climbed to nearly 75%. More than 24,000 financial aid applications were completed this year compared with the same time a year ago.

    The progress achieved with California’s universal financial aid requirement is due to the hard work of K-12 district leaders, high school principals, counselors and teachers, California Student Opportunity and Access Program counselors, Cash for College workshop coordinators, community-based organizations, and students and their families. They went all in to help more high school students than ever complete financial aid applications.

    In a few months, the U.S. Department of Education will release a revised federal aid application called the Better FAFSA. The good news is that the redesigned application will be easier to complete. The bad news is that the Better FAFSA application window will open two months later than in a typical year. This compressed timeline could most disadvantage students and families who need greater support to complete the aid application — and who have the most to gain from filling out the form.

    We will need all hands on deck at the state, district and high school levels to keep making progress and ensure that students don’t lose ground in this inaugural year of the Better FAFSA. The California Student Aid Commission will continue to support K-12 districts and high schools as they work to meet the universal FAFSA or CADAA requirement. We have confidence that with planning, collaboration with partners, clear communication and purpose, California can ensure that all high school seniors complete the FAFSA or CADAA, and California’s vision of increasing access to higher education for all students will become a reality.

    •••

    Catalina Cifuentes is chair and Marlene Garcia is executive director of the California Student Aid Commission.

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





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  • CSU students sound off on impact of upcoming tuition increase

    CSU students sound off on impact of upcoming tuition increase


    “I was considering a master’s program through Cal Poly,” Monreal said. “But with the tuition increase, I might just consider getting a master’s degree anywhere else.”

    For students like Monreal, who already manage student loans to take on college tuition costs, the 6% yearly tuition increases will have a profound impact on their education choices.

    As an older sister to several high school-age siblings, Monreal said that she would encourage them to take into consideration these tuition increases when applying to colleges.

    “I have younger siblings, and I think I would encourage them not to go to four-year college,” she said. “As a first-year, I would recommend any junior college so they can get some units under their belt at first, if the cost is increasing so much.”

    Gabriela’s story gathered by California Student Journalism Corps member Arabel Meyer





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