Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe asked why Trump and Melania are attending the funeral of Pope Francis, since the two men disagreed about almost everything. He thinks it is Trump’s way of consoling his Catholic base. The Pope and Trump exchanged harsh words. The Pope was a man of faith who called on the faithful to welcome immigrants. Trump hates immigrants. The Pope called for mercy and compassion. All Trump can give is hatred and vitriol.
Cullen writes:
There’s a great scene in “The Godfather,” when all the other Mafia bosses attend Don Corleone’s funeral.
Ostensibly, the Godfather’s rivals are there to show respect, but there’s the unmistakable reality they are not mourning a death so much as relishing an opportunity.
The image of Donald Trump sitting near the body of Pope Francis conjures the image of Don Barzini nodding to Corleone’s family as he calculates in his head how many of Corleone’s soldiers and contacts he can peel off now that the Godfather is dead.
Why, on God’s green earth, would Donald Trump deign to attend Pope Francis’ funeral? To show respect? To mingle with other world leaders? To get his mug on television?
In the aftermath of the pope’s death, Trump was uncharacteristically gracious, posting on social media that Pope Francis was “a very good man.”
Trump called that very good man “disgraceful” in 2016 after the pope dismissed Trump’s proposal to build a wall between the US and Mexico. The pope said that anyone who only thinks about building walls instead of bridges “is not Christian.”
Trump, whose base includes millions of evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics, hit back, saying, “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
For all the kind words he showered on the pope in the immediate aftermath of the pope’s death, it’s hard to imagine Trump disagreed with the less than charitable assessment offered by Roger Stone, the Trump advisor who avoided 40 months in prison after Trump commuted his sentence for lying to Congress to protect Trump.
Stone, displaying the compassion of a viper, said this of the pope: “His papacy was never legitimate and his teachings regularly violated both the Bible and church dogma. I rather think it’s warm where he is right now.”
So gracious.
But, give Stone this much: at least he was honest.
Trump’s platitudes ring hollow indeed. But the death of Pope Francis offers Trump and MAGA Catholics the prospect, however unlikely, of replacing a progressive voice in the Vatican with someone more ideologically in tunewith the more conservative voices within the church in the US.
Either way, Trump, who describes himself as a non-denominational Christian, won the Catholic vote, decisively. The pope’s criticism of Trump when it came to the environment, the poor and especially immigration doesn’t appear to have dissuaded the majority of American Catholics from voting for Trump.
The 9-member US Supreme Court that has been deferential to Trump’s unprecedented claims and exercise of executive power is comprised of six Catholics, only one of whom, Sonia Sotomayor, is liberal and regularly rules against Trump. (You could argue there are six conservative “Catholics” justices, given that Justice Neil Gorsuch, now an Episcopalian, was raised and educated as a Catholic, and voted with the five other conservative Catholic justices to overturn Roe v. Wade.)
Thomas Groome, a professor of theology at Boston College, acknowledges that conservative Catholics in the US have been a boon to Trump, and suspects Trump show of respect to Pope Francis and the institution is keeping with his transactional approach to pretty much everything: that the conclave of cardinals who will elect a new pope will reward Trump with someone who thinks more like him.
Highly unlikely, says Groome.
“Francis appointed about two-thirds of the cardinals who will select his successor,” Groome said. “Trump may be hoping he’ll get a reactionary, a right-wing pope. But I don’t think that will happen.”
Groome said he was more concerned about Trump’s reaction when the president realizes that, following Vatican protocol, he won’t get the best seat in the house at St. Peter’s Basilica.
“My understanding is he’s been assigned to sit in the third row,” Groome said. “He’s not going to like that.”
Still, gripped by Christian charity, and influenced by an enduring belief in redemption, Groome holds onto the remote, infinitesimal chance Donald Trump could, on the way to Rome, have a Road to Damascus conversion, that some of Pope Francis’ empathy could somehow rub off on him.
“St. Paul fell off his horse,” Groome said. “Maybe Donald Trump will, too.”
Wendell Norris Marquez teaches pre-AP Spanish to seventh graders at Lively Middle School in Austin, Texas.
Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
On a recent Monday morning in Wendell Norris Marquez’s classroom in Austin, Texas, students were getting ready to read a story in Spanish by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But first, they discussed the differences between a story and a novel, and between a story and a legend.
“Los cuentos son ficción (Stories are fiction),” said one student. “But are legends real?” asked Norris Marquez.
No, the students decided. They may have started based on something real, but then they changed over time as they were told and retold.
This is a sophisticated literature class. But these students aren’t in high school. They’re in seventh grade. And they’ll be taking the AP Spanish exam before they graduate from middle school.
“When I describe this class, I tell people it’s not really what you think in the back of your head as a language course, because in elementary, the kids already learned Spanish, so by the time they get to us, they’re already fully bilingual,” Norris Marquez said. “So it is about taking them to the next level. We learn literary genres, we talk about metaphors, we analyze poems, and we write essays.”
This kind of advanced Spanish class is only possible at the middle school level because most of Norris Marquez’s students have been attending dual-language programs with instruction in both Spanish and English since preschool or kindergarten.
It turns out that bilingual education is much more common in Texas than in California.
“Anybody who studies bilingual education, English learners, dual-language students, eventually stumbles across this reality that Texas has this long and linguistically rich, multilingual, multicultural K-12 history, and California doesn’t,” said Conor P. Williams, senior fellow at The Century Foundation and author of a report called “Making California Public Schools Better for English Learners: Lessons from Texas.”
According to the report, Texas enrolls 38% of English learners in bilingual education programs — more than double the 18% California enrolls.
Williams also found that Texas’ English learners have consistently done better than California’s on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in both reading and math.
“On every single administration of the test, Texas is better, over and over and over,” he said.
It’s not clear whether Texas’ English learners are doing better because of bilingual education. Multiple other factors could influence scores. Still, Williams points out that the findings are consistent with research that shows that bilingual education helps students achieve fluency in English and do better on academic tests over time.
“The research suggests that English learners in bilingual schools will score a little lower in English acquisition and in academics for a couple of years, but by roughly fourth grade, they should be outperforming English learners in English-only,” Williams said. “So you would expect to see that by about fourth grade, Texas, with its large number of bilingual programs, would start to really outperform California. You would expect that to be especially true by eighth grade. And that’s sort of what we see.”
Money and a mandate
Texas requires school districts to offer bilingual education if at least 20 children in the same grade speak the same language other than English at home, a mandate that dates back to 1973.
By contrast, California voters passed a law in 1998, Proposition 227, that required English learners to be taught in English-only classrooms unless their parents signed a waiver. That law remained in place for 18 years, until voters overturned it in 2016. The almost two decades of English-only instruction set the state back, officials say.
“The passage of Proposition 227 deeply impacted bilingual teacher education programs, resulting in fewer teachers earning bilingual certification over the past two and a half decades. Bilingual teacher education programs are still recovering,” wrote Alesha Moreno-Ramirez, director of multilingual support at the California Department of Education, in an email.
After Proposition 227 was overturned, California published two documents that set out a vision and goals for expanding bilingual education, the English Learner Roadmap and Global California 2030. But Williams says these documents have no teeth.
“There hasn’t been commensurate investment, accountability and oversight to make sure that these goals and vision documents matter,” Williams said. “Neither can make any school district do anything. It’s all voluntary.”
Texas passed a law in 2019 that sends additional funds to schools for all students enrolled in dual language immersion, and even more for English learners enrolled. By one calculation, Texas schools receive $924 more per year for every English learner in dual-language immersion. The state also has a long history of bipartisan support for bilingual education, and the top education official reportedly sends his own children to a bilingual school.
In Austin alone, there are 57 elementary schools offering dual-language programs, in Spanish, Mandarin and Vietnamese. More than half of the district’s English learners, referred to as “emergent bilingual” students, attend these programs.
At Perez Elementary, Spanish and English can be heard in classrooms, hallways, and out on the playground. One corner of the school library is dedicated entirely to books the students wrote themselves in both languages. Alongside a book that one child wrote about Roblox, a game creation platform, is a poignant story about a family’s journey to the U.S. from Honduras.
Yadi Landaverde teaches fourth grade at Perez Elementary School in Austin.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
In a fourth grade classroom, as students prepared for a math lesson in English, teacher Yadi Landaverde walked them through how to say some terms in English and Spanish — right angle, obtuse angle and protractor, for example.
Landaverde, who has been teaching for 10 years, said that explicitly teaching the differences and similarities between languages is especially important for students who recently immigrated to the U.S. and are not as familiar with English. This year, she said, she has eight recent immigrants in her class. Landaverde was born in Mexico and grew up in South Texas. Growing up, she only had English instruction in school. But she’s seen the benefits of dual-language immersion with her students.
“As long as the first language is strong, students do tend to score higher on state tests,” Landaverde said. “I’ve seen that.”
Her students were eager to share why they love bilingual education.
“Being in a dual-language program is just the best thing you could do in school because you are learning two languages, and that feels like a superpower for everybody,” said Emil, 10. Austin Independent School District officials asked EdSource not to publish students’ last names to protect their privacy.
His classmate Luis, also 10, emigrated from Venezuela two years ago, but first attended an English-only school in New York, where he didn’t feel like he could communicate with anyone.
A fourth grade dual-language classroom at Perez Elementary in Austin, Texas.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
“I couldn’t understand nobody and I couldn’t talk to nobody. One time I got home, and I was crying because nobody talked to me,” he said. When he moved to Texas and began attending Perez, he said, he was immediately welcomed.
“Now in class, I can speak Spanish normally without nobody saying that they don’t understand me,” he said. “And when I don’t know … something in English, I can just ask my friend that speaks more English than me and say, ‘What does this word mean?’”
Mathilda, who has been in the dual-language program at Perez since pre-kindergarten and speaks Spanish at home, said it has helped her keep both languages strong.
“My cousins in California cannot speak Spanish, so I need to teach them to learn Spanish ’cause they don’t go to a program for bilingual,” she said.
Middle and high school classes
In Austin, 13 middle schools and five high schools have bilingual programs in which students take at least two classes a semester in Spanish. One is a language or literature course, and the other is a content class, like science or math. Many schools also have electives available in Spanish, like film history or web design.
Down the hall from Norris Marquez’ class at Lively Middle School, Antonia Vincent teaches AP Spanish to eighth graders.
“At the beginning, they don’t even believe that they can do an AP class, and they don’t understand, most of them, what is an AP class,” Vincent said. “But at the end, we have good results, and they are very proud of themselves.”
Antonia Vincent teaches AP Spanish to eighth graders at Lively Middle School in Austin.Credit: Zaidee Stavely/EdSource
The majority of students in the dual-language classes in middle and high school in Austin are students who have been enrolled in bilingual education since elementary school. But some are also recent immigrants.
Advanced classes in Spanish can be empowering for recent immigrant students, Vincent said.
“Some of them, in the beginning, they are very shy,” Vincent said. “And this class empowers them because they feel that we listen to them, so they are building their confidence.”
One immigrant student wrote Vincent a letter saying, “Thanks to your class, I know that I can express myself, and that is empowering me to continue and to take this opportunity in my other classes.”
The classes also have benefits for students who are not English learners. Caroline Sweet, the dual-language instructional coach at Perez Elementary School, sent both her children to dual immersion programs. Her oldest son, now in 10th grade, attended Perez and then continued in dual immersion at Lively Middle School and Travis High School.
“His advanced Spanish courses in high school are so hard that when I look at those texts, I’m like, I do not know what that medieval poem means,” Sweet said. “But I think it’s just kept him pretty astute and paying attention to language and then just kind of really flexible in his brain.”
Patchy progress in California
Dual-language immersion programs like the ones at Perez Elementary and Lively Middle School do exist in California. Los Angeles Unified, for example, has more than 230 dual-language programs that span transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. But advocates for English learners say the investment of resources by the state has been piecemeal.
“Access to bilingual programs varies wildly depending on the district, the community, and available resources,” said Martha Hernandez, executive director of Californians Together, a nonprofit organization that advocates for English learners statewide.
Advocates and state officials agree that the biggest challenge is a lack of teachers with bilingual credentials.
Moreno-Ramirez, from the California Department of Education, pointed to recent investments to show that the state is supporting school districts to expand bilingual education.
In 2021, California invested $10 million for grants to expand dual-language immersion programs. In 2022, the state put another $10 million toward grants for helping train teachers in “effective language acquisition programs” for English learners, including bilingual proficiency. Most recently, the state invested $20 million in a program to help more teachers get bilingual credentials.
These investments have been helpful, but insufficient, said Anya Hurwitz, executive director of SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Language), a nonprofit organization that promotes bilingual education.
“If we want to see multilingual education scaled in California, it’s got to be invested in,” Hurwitz said. “Money alone is not the answer ever to almost anything in life, yet we can’t pretend that it’s not an important ingredient.”
Williams agreed.
“227 is a real thing, no question. But 227 ended almost a decade ago,” said Williams. “At some level, if you’re going to be a progressive leader on this, it’s been a decade, it’s time, you can’t blame that anymore.”
Louise Simpson, superintendent of Mark Twain Union Elementary School District in Angles Camp, near Yosemite, is frustrated by state rules restricting how small rural districts like hers can spend expanded learning funding.
That was such a well-intentioned and important program for so many districts. It’s known by the acronym ELOP, and it was designed to make additional learning and enrichment opportunities in the school day. But it brought some really burdensome requirements with it, including a 9-hour day and 30 extra days of school.
And while that sounds really great, what’s happened for our small rural districts, is the reality of creating a program just isn’t feasible. And I’ll tell you why:
First, my kids are on the bus for more than an hour each way. They already have a big long day, and adding academics after school for enrichment is not super feasible for two reasons: One is we have a very difficult time finding qualified staff to run it. And the second one is, with the bus-driver shortage, we just don’t have the transportation.
So, many kids that would benefit from this program really don’t have the opportunity, and they are being left behind.
Our budget situation is so, so dire with steep declining enrollment, and we need to use the money that we’re already allocated for super-effective programs.
I came out of retirement this year because this little system was struggling, and only one in 10 kids are proficient in math and only one in four can read — and that’s unconscionable.
And I can fix it, but I need some help using the money that’s already been given to me to use during the day. We have a really cool program that we built with the Sierra K-16 Collaborative Partnership involving peer tutors. It allowed me to get $320,000 to fund an intervention teacher and pay 20 high school kids to come in and tutor my kids. And it’s working, but those funds expire in a year.
I need that ELOP money to be made flexible so that I can teach our kids the core foundational skills they need to be successful. That includes being able to use it during the school day. So many folks can’t find a way to make this funding effective that they’re actually giving it back, and that’s not okay.
We need to come to some agreements where it can be working for everyone. Let me take and share with you what unrestricting these funds could really do for kids.
This is our peer tutoring program. It’s funded in conjunction with Sierra K16.
(short video of tutors working with students)
I hope you’ll join me in reaching out to all of our legislators and asking them to provide small rural districts flexibility in how we use those funds.
However, as I began to review the materials, I realized how groundbreaking this course could be for students. It became clear that it was a worthwhile challenge.
Now, nearly six months into teaching this course online to high school students around the state, I’m further convinced of its value. My students applauded the use of music to bridge the past and present and immersed themselves in research to complete their final projects. One student said the final project “felt culturally enriching,” while another said it gave them “a profound understanding of history as a whole.” The course also challenges us as educators and sparks vital conversations among students.
It’s understandable that the debate around AP African American Studies has made teachers reluctant to offer to teach the course. But California is at the forefront of introducing more inclusive coursework into its high schools, including the 2021 mandate that all students complete an ethnic studies course as a part of graduation requirements, a requirement that AP African American Studies would satisfy. This curriculum is essential, but it also raises the question: How do we prepare teachers — especially those who aren’t history specialists — to deliver it effectively?
Teaching any new course comes with its own learning curve, but this one presents unique demands. Unlike established courses where lesson plans are well-worn, this one is brand new.
The interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum invites teachers across subject areas to lean into their own expertise while exploring new subject areas. It also allows for a diversity of perspectives, enriching the learning experience for both teachers and students. As an English teacher, I found the course’s focus on argumentation, critical reading and writing skills familiar, even as I navigated less familiar topics like African empires and diaspora.
When I developed the course with UC Scout, a University of California program hosted at UC Santa Cruz that provides free online A-G and AP curriculum to California public school teachers, we had the advantage of a methodical course development process that included collaboration with subject-matter experts, instructional designers and visual media experts. Together, we crafted video lessons and learning materials that brought this interdisciplinary course to life. But many brick-and-mortar teachers are navigating this course in real time without the support I had.
Fortunately, the College Board has provided a robust set of materials, and there’s also a vibrant community of educators online sharing resources and strategies as well as offering additional support for one another on social media and on the AP Community forum. These spaces are invaluable for exchanging ideas and troubleshooting.
Still, this course demands more than typical preparation. Its sensitive and complex material — including slavery, segregation, war and migration, among others — requires a level of intentionality that goes beyond the basics. For example, we knew some images included in the course, especially from the Reconstruction era, should be handled with greater sensitivity. We included content warnings, alternatives (transcriptions) and image blurring to ensure our students felt as much comfort as possible while learning history that can be uncomfortable and upsetting. For considerations like this, and others that may arise while teaching this course, teachers need not only resources, but also ongoing professional development and support from their schools to succeed.
For teachers diving into this course — or those considering it for next year — here are a few lessons I’ve learned:
Leverage existing resources: There are free resources, like the course offered by UC Scout, that can assist program development and provide a strong foundation that can save teachers time as they build out lesson plans.
Collaborate and connect: Engaging with other teachers, whether through formal AP communities such as AP Summer Institutes or Pre-AP Community or informal networks, like the AP African American Studies Facebook group, is critical. Becoming an AP reader is also a great opportunity to engage with other teachers of the course. These conversations often yield insights that can make teaching this course more effective.
Seek administrative support: School leaders play a key role in supporting teachers by providing training, allocating resources and fostering a culture that embraces new courses like this one.
Much like my first semester students found, the course content can be life-changing in its potential to recast and dispel cultural and racial misconceptions. It strengthens their sense of identity. What an amazing privilege to lead students in this endeavor.
Teaching AP African American Studies has reminded me of an essential truth about education: It requires continuous reflection and growth. While this is my first time teaching this course, I already see areas to strengthen for next year. That’s the nature of teaching — constant evolution to better meet the needs of our students.
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Karsten Barnes is a high school English teacher at UC Scout. He teaches AP African American Studies, a course he helped develop, online to California students whose schools don’t currently offer the class.
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.
The article was updated on March 3 to clarify the period of the school year covered by the two interim financial reports and to include the status of West Contra Costa Unified.
Oakland, San Francisco and Hayward have joined four smaller districts on the five-alarm fire list of the state’s most financially stressed districts — those flirting with insolvency.
They join 32 districts on a second, cautionary list where there’s smoke but no fiscal flames — yet. The second list, released last week, includes Sacramento Unified, several small rural districts where a small drop in enrollment can pose a financial threat, and two San Jose elementary districts, Alum Rock and Franklin-McKinley, which are closing multiple schools in the fall. Not on the list so far this year is West Contra Costa Unified, which is struggling to stay afloat and received a special “lack of going concern” designation the past three years.
The 39 districts combined are more than last year and four times as many as in 2022-23, when state and federal revenues overflowed. Still, the updated total accounts for only about 4% of the state’s districts.
Michael Fine, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, a state agency whose job is to monitor districts’ finances to prevent insolvency, blamed the financial pressures on declining enrollments and the termination of record federal Covid aid for schools.
Both factors are forcing districts to make difficult choices that will affect students. Some districts are offering retirement buyouts and/or laying off teachers, counselors and other staff because staff salaries constitute about 80% of overall costs. Many districts on the list also bear the cost of vacillation — a failure to act sooner to cut costs before deficits mount, Fine said.
“From my standpoint as an advocate of best practice, there should be nobody on the list because the two predominant factors are predictable,” Fine said. “Why weren’t they dealing with these a year ago, two years ago, and three years ago?”
Those questions are appropriate for Oakland Unified. Since pre-pandemic 2018-19, its enrollment has fallen 7% — by 2,608 students to 33,916. The district received a total of $280 million in emergency Covid relief in 2021 and 2022, but that expired on Sept. 30, 2024, as that aid did for all districts.
With many of its elementary schools housing around 300 students, Oakland Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Tramell proposed plans to close small schools, potentially saving millions of dollars, and, in December, to merge 10 elementary schools into five. The school board rejected the plans. In 2023, following a seven-day strike, the district, aiming to reduce the exodus of teachers to better-paying area districts in a high-cost region, gave teachers a 10% raise and a $5,000 one-time bonus. All of those factors have led to a mammoth $95 million deficit out of a $960 million budget.
“It didn’t feel like we had a deficit growing because we had all the one-time money,” Johnson-Trammell told The Oaklandside last week. “We have to continue to give raises. It’s not a crisis. We made investments, and we have to figure out a way to pay for it.”
California’s early warning system
Each year, between passing their annual budgets, all school districts must file two reports to FCMAT that summarize their current financial health and project ahead. Oakland and the other six most-distressed districts filed a “negative” status in their first interim report. This means they likely won’t be able to meet financial obligations, including payroll, in the current or next fiscal year. The 32 other districts filed a “qualified” status, meaning they’re on track to run out of money in the next two fiscal years.
Districts self-certify their reports. They filed their first interim report on Dec. 15, covering the four months, through Oct. 31, since the July 1 fiscal year began. The second interim report, filed March 15, covers the year through Jan. 31, enabling districts to factor in revenue estimates from the governor’s initial budget, including the projected cost-of-living increase they rely on. March 15 is also the deadline for notifying employees if they could be laid off — key evidence of how districts are dealing with a potential revenue problem.
How are negative-status districts responding?
Oakland had certified as “qualified” for 14 straight reports before filing a negative status in the latest report.
“Oakland is not a surprise; it’s been struggling,” Fine said. “It hasn’t taken the necessary corrective action that it has needed. The district adopts lots of plans and lots of documents, but then carries few of those out.”
However, last week, Oakland’s school board passed a plan to eliminate 97 positions for teachers, administrators and noncertificated jobs, including tutors, case managers and attendance monitors. More ideas are on the table.
Across the bay, San Francisco Unified has been in turmoil, reflected in the recall of two board members and the resignation of its last superintendent. It initially filed a negative financial status in 2023-24.
Last month, to resolve a $113 million deficit, equal to about 10% of the district’s budget, San Francisco’s board voted to approve preliminary layoff notices for 395 teachers, social workers and counselors, 164 teachers aides, and 278 administrators and other staff. Retirements and resignations will likely result in fewer layoffs.
Hayward wasn’t on the state’s radar for financial troubles, Fine said, but a new superintendent and chief business officer “inherited some issues and did the right thing” by self-certifying negative. “They would be an example of a district that will most likely turn the corner,” he said.
Most of the seven districts will work their way off the negative list, he said. Two that probably won’t are Plumas Unified and Weed Union Elementary, Fine said.
“We’re very, very concerned about Plumas,” Fine said. “They have already borrowed to a point they can’t pay back, and there has been some finessing of the data to make it look better than it is.” The only district in Plumas County, it has four schools, about 1,700 students and a $42 million budget.
Weed Union is an unusual case. The one-school district with a $7.5 million budget is the first in a decade to operate without an approved budget, having been rejected by the Siskiyou County Office of Education and the California Department of Education. Its problem, said Fine, is that it is overextended on a facility upgrade, and the burden of paying for it will overwhelm the district’s operating budget.
If insolvent, what then?
A district that runs out of money will get a state loan but lose its autonomy, and a state-appointed trustee will oversee the district’s operations. The district will honor existing contracts, but the trustee will have veto power over new contracts and other decisions that the school board makes. The district will bear the cost of the state’s oversight and legal fees and interest on a 20-year loan.
“It gets worse before it gets better,” Fine said. “Receivership takes away local control.” In the 34 years since the Legislature created FCMAT and the oversight process, only eight districts have needed a bailout loan. The most recent is Inglewood Unified, which received $29 million in 2012. Oakland would be the first two-timer. It’s still 18 months away from paying off the $100 million it received in 2003 and 2006.
Is this the most precarious year for districts?
Far from it. In the second interim report in 2011-12, 176 districts filed a “qualified” status and a dozen were “negative” – together, about one in five districts. Amid plummeting state revenues in the wake of the Great Recession, the state cut $6 billion and delayed payments to K-12 districts. The average district had not set aside nearly enough money in reserve for a crisis. This year, the average district has set aside 22% of its operating budget in reserve, more than three times as much.
The difference is “night and day,” said Fine. “During the Great Recession, the state made cuts to district revenues. Today, the issues are all local.”
Cerritos College students honing their skills in ironworking during hands-on training.
Credit: Courtesy Cerritos College
A college degree or certificate is a proven pathway to higher earnings, job stability and economic mobility. Yet, nearly half of California’s adults have not pursued higher education due to barriers like cost, rigid schedules and a lack of local options.
California set an ambitious goal: By 2030, 70% of working-age adults should hold a college degree or certificate. However, instead of making it easier to achieve this, public universities are blocking one of the most promising solutions — community college bachelor’s degree programs.
Cerritos College is leading the way with its first-of-its-kind field ironworker supervisor bachelor’s degree, which was developed with the California Field Ironworkers. The program creates a direct path from apprenticeship to high-paying supervisory roles. Designed for working professionals, it offers flexible online coursework that fits the schedules of full-time ironworkers.
With over 1,300 supervisor job openings annually in Los Angeles County alone, this program helps close critical workforce gaps while fostering regional social and economic mobility. First-line supervisors with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $34,000 more in their annual salary than those with a high school diploma or associate degree. At under $11,000 in total tuition costs — less than half the price of even the most affordable public universities, our students can recoup their investment in as little as four months, making this program a powerful tool for upward mobility.
Beyond the numbers, programs like these change lives. Rocio Campos, an ironworker and mother, defied societal expectations to pursue a career in construction. While balancing work, family and education, Rocio gained the training and resources to grow her career in ironworks through the field ironworker apprenticeship program at Cerritos College. She aims to earn a bachelor’s degree in ironworker supervision once the program receives full approval, giving her a chance to advance into a supervisory role.
Community college bachelor’s degrees are game-changers, especially for underrepresented communities. At Cerritos College, 73% of students in the ironworker apprenticeship program come from diverse backgrounds, and active recruitment efforts are bringing more women into this historically male-dominated field. These programs don’t just increase wages; they provide economic mobility by helping workers build stability, advance their careers, and lift their families into greater financial security.
Several community colleges have received provisional approval to launch bachelor’s degree programs in health care, technology and public safety — fields where California urgently needs skilled professionals. However, many of these proposals remain under review because of objections from public universities, particularly within the CSU system. Despite meeting workforce demands and serving students who might not otherwise pursue a four-year degree, these programs face unnecessary roadblocks. The final approval ultimately rests with the California Community Colleges board of governors, but these initiatives risk being delayed indefinitely without broader policy support.
California cannot rely on four-year universities alone to meet its growing workforce needs. Expanding community college bachelor’s degree programs will strengthen industries, create more opportunities and solidify California’s leadership in workforce innovation. It’s time for policymakers, industry leaders and educators to support these programs and invest in the future of our state.
•••
Jose Fierro is the president/superintendent of Cerritos College in Norwalk. Cerritos College serves as a comprehensive community college for southeastern Los Angeles County.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
In the rapidly growing field of home tutoring, both parents and students rely on platforms likeTheTuitionTeacher (TTT) to connect them with qualified and trustworthy tutors. However, one crucial aspect that ensures the success and safety of these connections is verification. Verification plays a vital role in maintaining the credibility, quality, and safety of the tutoring process. In this blog, we’ll explore why verification is essential for platforms like TheTuitionTeacher and how it benefits both tutors and learners.
1. Ensures Tutor Credibility and Qualifications
When you hire a tutor, the most important thing you want to ensure is that they have the right qualifications and experience. TheTuitionTeacher’s verification process confirms the tutor’s educational background, certifications, and teaching experience. This assures parents and students that the tutor is well-equipped to teach the required subject, creating a sense of trust.
Verified tutors also reflect higher credibility, which helps the platform maintain a strong reputation as a reliable place to find skilled educators. By undergoing a thorough verification process, tutors establish themselves as genuine and competent professionals.
2. Guarantees Safety and Security
One of the primary concerns for parents when choosing a home tutor is the safety of their children. Allowing a stranger into the home can be risky without proper background checks. TTT’s verification process addresses this concern by conducting checks to ensure that the tutors are reliable and trustworthy individuals.
Verification helps prevent any possible fraudulent activities and assures the safety of students. It minimizes the chances of unethical behavior, providing peace of mind to both parents and students. This layer of protection is essential for creating a safe learning environment in home tutoring settings.
3. Builds Trust Between Tutors and Students
Verification plays a crucial role in establishing trust between tutors and students. When a tutor is verified by TheTuitionTeacher, students and parents feel more comfortable interacting and learning with the tutor. They can confidently engage with a tutor knowing that their skills and background have been thoroughly vetted by the platform.
This trust-building process is essential, as effective learning requires open communication and a strong tutor-student relationship. Verification enhances the credibility of the platform and ensures that both tutors and students can engage without hesitation.
4. Helps in Maintaining Quality Standards
A platform like TheTuitionTeacher thrives on quality. Verification helps ensure that only those tutors who meet specific criteria are allowed to offer their services. It helps filter out tutors who may not have the necessary skills, thus maintaining a high standard of tutoring services.
By verifying tutors, TTT ensures that students are matched with experienced, qualified professionals who can genuinely help them improve academically. This process is vital for the overall success and credibility of the platform.
5. Minimizes Mismatch and Miscommunication
Without a proper verification system, there could be a mismatch between what a tutor offers and what a student requires. By verifying tutors, TheTuitionTeacher ensures that the tutor’s expertise matches the subject or class the student needs help with. This prevents miscommunication and saves time by ensuring that the student is paired with the most suitable tutor right from the start.
Conclusion
Verification is an integral part of TheTuitionTeacher platform because it guarantees safety, credibility, and quality in the home tutoring process. For parents and students, it brings peace of mind knowing that their tutor has been vetted, ensuring a safe and productive learning environment. For tutors, verification boosts their credibility and trustworthiness, opening up more opportunities to connect with students. Ultimately, verification is essential in maintaining the overall quality and reliability of the platform, benefiting both tutors and learners.
If you’re looking for a verified tutor or want to join as a tutor yourself, TheTuitionTeacher provides a safe, trusted platform for home tuition in Lucknow.
Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, and Johann Neem, a professor of history of education at Western Washington University, discussed the meaning and purpose of public schools in a forum organized by the History of Education Quarterly.
Why care about public schools? Why resist the “school choice” movement for charters and vouchers? Why stand up for public schools? Why do public schools matter?
Burris and Neem’s dialogue will answer your questions. It’s a well-informed discussion about why public schools are central to our democracy, not merely a consumer choice.
In an increasingly competitive academic environment, it’s easy to fall into the trap of equating education with grades alone. While good marks can open doors to opportunities, true education encompasses far more. Home tuition, often viewed as a tool for academic improvement, has the potential to nurture emotional intelligence, self-discipline, and a love for learning. It’s time to reimagine home tuition as a holistic development platform rather than just a grade-boosting machine.
The Limitations of a Grades-Only Approach
Grades represent only a narrow aspect of a student’s abilities. They rarely reflect creativity, critical thinking, or emotional intelligence. Focusing solely on marks can create undue pressure and lead students to lose interest in subjects they might otherwise enjoy.
Why Home Tuition Should Be About More Than Grades
Here’s why home tuition should go beyond just academic performance:
Learning at One’s Own Pace: Home tuition allows for personalized teaching that adapts to the student’s speed and understanding. Tutors can clarify doubts, revisit tough topics, and accelerate lessons as needed. This builds confidence and mastery over memorization.
Developing Critical Thinking Skills: A good home tutor incorporates real-world examples, encourages discussions, and promotes logical reasoning. These practices help develop problem-solving and analytical thinking.
Encouraging Curiosity and Independent Learning: The right tutor acts as a mentor, sparking curiosity and a love for learning by encouraging questions and deep exploration of topics.
Building Self-Esteem and Motivation: Personalized attention allows tutors to motivate students and turn mistakes into learning opportunities, helping build confidence and resilience.
Enhancing Communication Skills: One-on-one sessions allow students to express themselves more freely and build effective communication habits that benefit them in academic and professional settings.
Teaching Life Skills: Home tuition can be a platform for teaching important life skills like time management, accountability, and goal setting.
Parental Involvement: Regular feedback from home tutors allows parents to stay updated on both academic and personal development.
How TheTuitionTeacher Goes Beyond Grades
TheTuitionTeacher is a home tuition platform that understands the value of holistic education. Here’s how they stand out:
Personalized Tutor Matching: Students are matched with tutors who suit their learning style, academic needs, and personality.
Emphasis on Conceptual Clarity: TheTuitionTeacher promotes understanding rather than rote learning, helping students build strong conceptual foundations.
Progress Tracking: Parents receive regular feedback and reports to track academic and personal growth.
Empowered Tutors: Tutors aren’t just educators—they are mentors trained to support emotional and intellectual development.
Flexible Learning Options: With online and offline classes available, TheTuitionTeacher adapts to each student’s schedule and preferences.
Conclusion: Redefining the Role of Home Tuition
While grades are important, they are not the sole measure of a student’s potential. Home tuition should foster a well-rounded individual by nurturing curiosity, resilience, emotional intelligence, and communication skills. TheTuitionTeacher is pioneering this shift by offering personalized, supportive, and holistic tutoring that puts the child’s overall development at the center.
Lynn Chan-Nguyen and Faith Ballesteros, two resident assistants at Sacramento State, at the Public Employment Relations Board office in Sacramento. They back unionization for about 1,400 RAs at CSU campuses.
Credit: Courtesy of the California State University Employees Union
Takeaways:
The union wants to absorb 1,400 or more resident assistants, who do everything from organizing karaoke nights to navigating health crises. They want more guidance about responsibilities.
Cal State opposes the bid,claiming it“would have detrimental effects for students.”
Student RAs typically don’t get paid, but receive benefits like free or reduced-cost housing.
To be a resident assistant (RA) in a college dorm is to be many things at once. The person who hosts university-approved events — and cleans up after nonsanctioned revelry. The person who builds community among students— and mediates between feuding roommates. The designated friend — and emergency first responder to a freshman spiraling into a mental health crisis.
That’s why the students behind the currentpush to unionize an estimated 1,400 resident assistants in the 23-campus California State University system argue they deserve better workplace protections and stronger guidelines defining their positions. If their bid succeeds, RAs would add to the more than 17,000 other student workers who joined the CSU Employees Union last year.
But CSU is opposing the move. In a letter to state labor authorities, a CSU representative said allowing RAs to join a union would “would have detrimental effects for students” and argued RAs should be considered “live-in student leaders,” not employees.
An RA’s role can include everything from organizing karaoke nights to making sure students know how to apply for food stamps. At CSU, they help manage dorms that encompass more than 67,000 beds. RAs receive no salary but get benefits like free housing or access to a campus meal plan.
“Sometimes we are (students’) therapists, and we’re essentially sitting there and connecting with students, one on one, and we’re talking them through really difficult times,” said Yasamean Zaidi-Dozandeh, an RA at CSU Dominguez Hills. “Sometimes we’re their doctors. We’re sitting there calling 911 for them.”
And it’s a position that can vary widely depending on the dorm’s size and the students it serves. An RA in one building might sleep peacefully while another is jolted awake by middle-of-the-night calls.
The union points out other reasons resident assistants could benefit from labor protections. Because RAs live in dorms, they risk losing their housing if dismissed unfairly, it says. Students interviewed for this story said RAs would be more willing to voice concerns to housing administrators, too, with union backing.
A successful union drive would put Cal State students in the company of RAs who have already organized at Boston University, Wesleyan University, Grinnell College and Georgetown University, among others. Though some colleges have voluntarily recognized such bids, others have resisted. The American Council on Education similarly argued against resident assistant unions in a 2016 amicus brief in a case before the National Labor Relations Board involving RAs at George Washington University.
“RAs often are required to be available around the clock to attend to emergencies. If universities and colleges had to bargain about the ‘hours’ of RAs, it is entirely possible that any agreed-upon hours limits would conflict with real-life emergencies,” an attorney representing the council and other higher education organizations wrote. “Could an RA rely on a union contract’s hours limitation to refuse to assist a depressed student in the middle of the night?”
The board ultimately gave George Washington’s resident assistants the go-ahead to form a union, though a union election planned for 2017 was later canceled.
At CSU, the employee union wants to absorb RAs into its existing unit of student assistants, who include part-time workers at places like campus health centers and libraries. Early last month, the union filed papers arguing that resident assistants share a “community of interest” with student assistants, meaning they have similar working conditions and job duties. CSU is currently negotiating its first contract with student assistants.
In opposing the bid, CSU says the housing and meal credits RAs receive are effectively financial aid, not wages. It argues that converting RAs to employees will jeopardize “peer-to-peer relationships” with student residents. It warns that RAs would need to pay taxes on in-kind perks that can reach nearly $30,000 in value. And it says blending RAs into the existing student assistants unit would “overly complicate ongoing negotiations.”
Finally, CSU argues that one of the reasons some RAs favor a union — a lack of consistency in their duties — is a better reason to reject the union’s claim that they share a community of interest with student assistants. “There are no set ‘duties’ or expectations nor set hours for RAs as a whole. In fact, the only uniform characteristic of RAs is that they live on campus alongside other students,” the letter says.
CSU’s opposition means that RAs will likely have to wait for a few more steps to unfold before state labor officials make a decision on the petition. A union spokesperson said the union disagrees with CSU’s response and expects a hearing before state labor officials to be set.
‘No clear distinction in what our role is’
Lynn Chan-Nguyen decided to work as a resident assistant for one reason: “I really could not afford to go to school without the job.”
Chan-Nguyen, a third-year student at Sacramento State majoring in nutrition, grew up an hour’s drive south in Stockton. If not for the meal plan and housing she gets by being an RA, she probably would have stayed closer to home and taken classes at a local community college rather than enrolling at Sacramento State.
But Chan-Nguyen has found noneconomic reasons to love being an RA, too. She enjoys hosting activities like ice cream socials, which help the upper-division, international and transfer students in the apartment-style housing where she works make new friends.
Still, parts of the position she could do without, like cleaning up vomit or trying to defuse physical altercations. “There’s just no clear distinction in what our role is,” she said. “And a lot of the times, when people do get hired, or when people are first starting off from the job, it is not defined what we’re going to be doing.”
First-time resident assistants only start to grasp how emotionally taxing the role can be during a two-week training at the start of the school year, Chan-Nguyen said.
It’s then that RAs realize they might face a life-or-death test of their counseling skills if called on to help a resident experiencing suicidal ideations or a similar health crisis. A 2019 study found that RAs who encountered a resident engaging in self-harm experience higher levels of burnout than RAs who didn’t have those interactions.
CSU Monterey Bay students move into campus dorms in August 2021.Credit: Monterey Bay/Flickr
Resident assistant Zaidi-Dozandeh at Dominguez Hills, who supports the union drive,said her first-year on-campus housing experience prompted her to become an RA.
The university’s housing department mishandled an escalating conflict among the students in her three-bedroom apartment, Zaidi-Dozandeh said. As an out-of-state student, however, she felt she had no choice but to return to university housing the following year. She shared her concerns with a staff member — who suggested she use that passion to become an RA.
Zaidi-Dozandeh, a fourth-year computer science major, enjoys connecting student-residents to resources like the school’s food pantry. But the work of an RA can also be vaguely defined, she said, creating miscommunication, inconsistencies, and, ultimately, a worse experience for students who live on campus — a problem as CSU campuses experience enrollment declines.
“The question really is, why are these students leaving housing,” she said, “when in some cases they really don’t have anywhere else to go?”
