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  • Texas: Governor Abbott Hands Out Millions to Voucher Schools with No Oversight or Accountability

    Texas: Governor Abbott Hands Out Millions to Voucher Schools with No Oversight or Accountability


    ProPublica published an eye-popping review of the lack of financial accountability in Texas for private schools. When Abbott’s billion-dollar boondoggle is launched, hundreds and hundreds of religious schools will share in the bounty.

    Free cash!! Free cash!! Open the Church of Satan K-12 Academy and watch the dollars roll in. No one cares how many students are enrolled or even if the list of students is a fake. Governor Abbott trusts you!

    Governor Abbott knows that most of the vouchers will be claimed by students who are already enrolled in private schools. He doesn’t care. He knows that kids who leave public schools to attend a private school fall behind. He doesn’t care.

    He wants the state to pay the tuition of all children, regardless of whether they attend a snake-charming religious school or the most elite private school in Dallas or Houston.

    Governor Abbott wants YOU to step right up and claim your Free cash!!

    ProPublica wrote this:

    For about eight years, a Houston private school has followed a unique pattern when appointing members to its governing board: It has selected only married couples. 

    Over 200 miles away, two private schools in Dallas have awarded more than $7 million in combined contracts to their board members.

    And at least seven private schools across Texas have issued personal loans, often reaching $100,000 or more, to their school leaders under terms that are often hidden from public view.

    Such practices would typically violate laws governing public and charter schools. But private schools operate largely outside those rules because they haven’t historically received direct taxpayer dollars. Now, as the state moves to spend at least $1 billion over the next two years on private education, lawmakers have imposed almost none of the accountability measures required of the public school system.

    If held to the same standards, 27 private schools identified by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune through tax filings likely would have violated state law. The news organizations found, and three education law experts confirmed, more than 60 business transactions, board appointments and hiring decisions by those schools that would have run afoul of the state rules meant to prevent self-dealing and conflicts of interest if they were public.

    “It’s frankly astonishing to me that anyone would propose the massive sort of spending that we’re talking about in these school voucher programs with, at best, minimal accountability,” said Mark Weber, a public school finance lecturer at New Jersey’s Rutgers University who opposes vouchers. “If I were a taxpayer in Texas, I’d be asking, who’s going to be looking out for me?” 

    Texas has long stood as a holdout in the national push for voucher programs, even as other conservative states embraced them. Gov. Greg Abbott gave school voucher proponents a major win this year, signing into law one of the largest and costliest programs in the country. In doing so, Abbott’s office has argued that the state has “strict financial requirements,” saying that “Texas taxpayers expect their money to be spent efficiently and effectively on their behalf, both in private and traditional public schools.”

    The law, however, imposes no restrictions to prevent the kinds of entanglements that the newsrooms found. 

    The contrast is sharp. Public or charter school officials who violate these rules could be subject to removal from office, fines or even state jail felony charges. 

    Private schools face none of those consequences.

    Supporters of the voucher program argue that oversight of private schools should come not from the state, but from their boards and the marketplace.

    “If you transform the private schools into public schools by applying the same rules and regulations and procedural requirements on them, then you take the private out of the private school,” said Patrick Wolf, an education policy professor at the University of Arkansas. Wolf, who supports vouchers, said that if parents are unhappy with the schools, they will hold them accountable by leaving and taking their tuition dollars with them.

    Typically, neither parents nor the state’s taxpayers have access to information that shows precisely how private schools spend money. Only those that are organized as nonprofits are required to file public tax forms that offer limited information. Of the state’s more than 1,000 accredited private schools, many are exempt from submitting such filings because they are religious or for-profit institutions, leaving their business conduct opaque. It is unclear if private schools that participate in Texas’ voucher-like program will have to detail publicly how they use taxpayer dollars.

    “The public system is not always perfect, but when it’s not perfect, we see it,” said Joy Baskin, associate executive director for policy and legal services at the Texas Association of School Boards, which represents public districts across the state. “That kind of transparency doesn’t exist in private schools.”

    The Chinese Baptist Church in Houston, where Trinity Classical School has a campus (Danielle Villasana for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune)

    “Just Isn’t Right”

    Conflicts of interest in education were on the minds of legislators this spring. At an education committee hearing in March, Texas state Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Republican from Rio Grande City, along the southern border with Mexico, introduced a bill that would bar businesses with close ties to board members from applying for school district contracts. Such deals were previously permitted as long as school leaders publicly disclosed conflicts and abstained from voting.

    But Guillen, who did not respond to requests for comment, argued those rules were abused, pointing to recent scandals in two districts that led to state investigationsand, in one case, resulted in federal charges.

    He described his bill as a “commonsense” proposal that would ensure “no one in a position of power can exploit the system for financial benefit.” The Legislature passed the bill, which was signed into law by Abbott.

    Notably, the measure excluded private schools. In public testimony, no one brought them up, and there was no debate about them even as lawmakers advanced a proposal that would direct state money to them.

    The newsrooms found at least six private schools that awarded contracts to companies with ties to their board members.

    Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep, a Catholic high school serving primarily low-income students of color, awarded more than $5 million to a construction firm owned by one of its board members for “interior finish” work between 2017 and 2021, tax filings show. The school did not respond to questions about the payments. Raul Estrada, who was on the school board when his firm received the payments, said he recused himself from any votes or decisions related to the contract. He added that the company’s work provided “substantial savings” to the school but did not provide specific figures.

    Just 30 miles north, board members at the Shelton School, which specializes in teaching students with learning differences such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments over the last decade. Tax records show one trustee was awarded over $465,000 for landscaping, and another collected more than $1.2 million for “printed education material.” The board members whose firms received the contracts did not respond to requests for comment. Suzanne Stell, the school’s executive director, said the board members who received contracts were not involved in the decisions. Stell also said that the contract for printed material included training for educators.

    Our investigation also found dozens of instances of nepotism or relatives serving on boards together at private schools, some of which were started and are led by families.

    Trinity Classical School in Houston, for example, has long maintained a family-led chain of governance on its school board exclusive to married couples, appointing a new pair each time one cycled off. The board deviated from that pattern only once, when it selected Neil Anderson, the school’s leader, according to tax filings. None of the current board members responded to interview requests, nor did Anderson or the school.

    Such arrangements have been prohibited since 2012 in charter schools, which are restricted from appointing more than one family member to serve as a trustee at the same time. Anderson’s appointment would also not be allowed in traditional public schools, where employees are barred from serving on their school’s governing board.

    At the elite Greenhill School in the Dallas area, where tuition can exceed $40,000 a year, the previous leader, Scott Griggs, hired his son to coach the boys’ volleyball team and teach middle school math. While allowed in private schools, state nepotism laws prevent public and charter schools from hiring close relatives of superintendents and trustees, with few exceptions. Griggs told the newsrooms that he’d already announced his retirement when he asked the board in 2017 to approve hiring his son, who did not respond to requests for comment.

    The following year, the college prep academy provided a personal loan of nearly $100,000 to its current head of school, Lee Hark, for a down payment on a home. The school did not disclose the terms of the agreement in its tax filings, including whether it charged interest or what would happen should Hark default. Hark declined to comment.

    Private schools are generally free to use money as they choose, but a 150-year-old provision of the Texas Constitution bars public schools from lending taxpayer dollars. The state does not require private schools to publicly disclose whether taxpayer money would be used for such arrangements under the voucher program.

    In a written statement, a Greenhill spokesperson said the school operates with “sound financial principles” that meet or exceed “all standards of accountability for independent schools.” She said the school charged interest on the loan and it has since been paid off, but did not provide records.

    Many of the private schools examined by the news organizations, including Greenhill, said that they are still deciding whether to participate in the voluntary voucher program.

    The lack of accountability for private schools has sparked concern from public school parents like Sarah Powell, a mother of two near Dallas. She was among thousands who urged lawmakers to reject voucher legislation earlier this year.

    “You’re either part of the system or you’re not,” Powell later told the newsrooms. “You can’t have the resources and not any of the regulations. It just isn’t right.”

    The Greenhill School, where tuition can surpass $40,000 per student, in Addison, just outside of Dallas (Shelby Tauber for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune)

    Repeating History

    State funds flowing to public and charter schools are monitored by the Texas Education Agency, which requires annual independent audits and assigns ratings that gauge each school’s fiscal health. Districts that repeatedly underperform risk sanctions, including forced closure.

    “Looking back on it today, I think it was necessary,” Bob Schulman, a longtime education attorney, said about many of the reforms.

    Even as oversight of charter schools has been strengthened, gaps remain. Earlier this year, a ProPublica and Tribune investigation found that a charter network with 1,000 students was paying its superintendent nearly $900,000 annually, making him among the highest-paid public school leaders in the nation. Yet the school did not disclose the superintendent’s full compensation to the state and later rebuffed calls to lower his salary from lawmakers and the advocacy group representing charters. The school board defended Cavazos’ salary, saying it was merited because of his duties and experience.

    The state, however, will not directly regulate private schools under the new voucher program, which will begin next year. Instead, supervision will largely fall to one of 20 private organizations, which schools must pay to obtain and maintain the accreditation required to receive public funds.

    A review by the newsrooms of these organizations’ standards found they are generally far less rigorous than the state’s. Most do not require annual financial audits, which some accreditation organizations say can be too costly and time-consuming, and many do not mandate policies to prevent nepotism and conflicts of interest.

    If a private school loses accreditation from one group, it can simply apply to another.

    That total, however, is likely an undercount even within the sample of schools the newsrooms reviewed. Reporters identified dozens more conflicts listed in tax forms, for example, but the schools provided sparse information about what they were. Because of that, there is no way to determine if the conduct would have violated state laws if it had occurred at a public or charter school. The newsrooms reached out to each school about the missing information, but none answered questions.ġ

    Texas lawmakers laid the groundwork for publicly funded schools with limited state oversight when they authorized charter schools in the 1990s as an alternative to traditional public education. At the time, they exempted charter schools from many regulations, betting that greater flexibility would lead to innovation and stronger academic performance.

    But over the past three decades, the state has steadily increased restrictions on charter schools in response to concerns about financial mismanagement and academic performance. Charter schools, for example, were initially exempt from the state’s nepotism and conflict-of-interest laws, but lawmakers gradually changed that after reports exposed leaders enriching themselves and their families. The state implemented another round of stricter rules after newspapers uncovered lavish spending on perks such as Spurs tickets and lucrative land deals.

    Schulman, who has represented Texas charter schools for decades, said that some leaders abused the limited state oversight for years, making it more concerning that lawmakers launched a voucher program with even fewer regulations.

    “I’m very disturbed,” Schulman said. “But I’m hopeful that it will be a quicker turnaround than it was for the charters.”

    How We Reported This Story

    For this story, reporters reviewed nonprofit tax filings for 90 of the 200 highest-enrollment private schools listed in the Texas Private Schools Accreditation Commission database. Those filings were not available for the other 110 schools, as for-profit schools or those tied to houses of worship are not typically required to make tax documents public. For the schools that filed these records, reporters reviewed available annual reports dating back to at least 2015.

    Reporters identified more than 60 instances involving conflicts of interest, nepotism and financial transactions with related parties at 27 schools. Three education lawyers confirmed our findings.



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  • The power of arts education: A conversation with Letty Kraus

    The power of arts education: A conversation with Letty Kraus


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    Letty Kraus knows her way around the arts ed world. She started teaching dance at the ripe old age of 15, while she was still in high school.

    First she convinced her old middle school to let her teach a dance class for kids after school. Then she started landing jobs at performing arts summer camps. 

    Letty Kraus

    When she grew up and became a history teacher in the early ’90s, there were no history jobs open, so she went back to teaching dance. She has also consulted on educational programs for the California Department of Education.

    Now Kraus uses her passion for the performing arts as director of the California County Superintendents’ statewide arts initiative.

    She recently took some time out to chat with EdSource about the impact and complexities of Proposition 28 and what joys and challenges she sees ahead with this groundbreaking program in arts and music schools.

    When did you first discover the arts?  

    My parents made sure I had private music instruction and dance lessons. In school, musical theater brought music and dance together. I enjoyed harmonizing and discovered that I liked comedic parts since getting a laugh was the ultimate positive feedback. I was always told that I would never be a lead actress or a good enough dancer to go anywhere with a career, but nobody ever questioned my ability to make people laugh, so I made the most of that. 

    How did that arts exposure impact your path in life?

    Participating in theater and dance productions in high school, and later in the community, laid the foundation for becoming a professional adult — not in the arts, but in my career.

    Arts productions taught me everything — discipline and practice, preparation, being reliable and accountable to others, teamwork, empathy and how to navigate through challenging situations. These are the most important values for me in what I do, and they came from the arts. Personally, I relax by attempting to play my piano, and I love to immerse myself in trying to learn watercolor when I have time off. 

    Some people think of dance as an esoteric discipline, but isn’t physical activity critical to keeping kids happy?

    You are absolutely right about kids needing to move. Unfortunately, I think schools tend to gravitate to visual arts and music, but what we are advocating for with school districts is to take an inventory of what they are offering, identify where there are opportunities to expand, and that includes in each arts discipline. So, there is great potential to expand dance programs. However, there is a challenge in that we will need more credentialed dance teachers. There are few programs given that the dance credential, and also the theater credential, was only recently reinstated in California.

    Do you think Proposition 28 can change the way people see the arts?

    My hope for changing the perception of the arts with Prop. 28 is that the public gains a greater understanding of the arts as core curriculum. Arts is not just a loose, creative, fun “activity,” throw out the paint and let the kids play. There is a very serious approach to arts instruction. Allowing kids to experience, explore and study in depth helps them access college, career, and be productive and happy in civic life. Kids need this from TK (transitional kindergarten) all the way through to 12. Arts are fun, and they are serious, and you can have a career in the arts if you choose.

    How did we let the arts get cut from the public schools, and how hard will it be to build it back?

    Well, as we all know, Prop. 13 (passed in 1978) changed everything and produced generations with varying experiences in the arts. Privilege comes into play as well. Some folks have benefited from private lessons. Others have not. Some find their way to the arts in spite of that. Prop. 28 offers a tremendous opportunity to build it back, and one that we know the public supports. But we will have to support our schools and districts to engage in the work and thoughtfully plan for how to grow programs. 

    What should parents know about the new funding coming to their school?

    They should know that the intent of Prop. 28 is that parents are part of the planning process for how to expand programs. They should be helping schools think about what kinds of culturally responsive offerings there should be. Parents and families are important partners.

    What do you think people outside the arts most need to know about how arts ed can touch children’s lives? Perhaps especially now, post-pandemic? 

    With everything that has happened, I can’t think of a more important time for students to have the arts so they can exercise creativity and develop skills that empower them to express themselves in multiple ways, make positive connections and develop agency over their futures.

    As the philosophical foundations of our 2019 arts standards note, arts are part of societal fabric. They are part of our well-being, means of connection, help make creative personal connections, a path for community engagement and also a profession. Essentially, they offer an outlet for student voice.

    Do you worry about the lack of arts educators out there right now? 

    Absolutely, but I know that my colleagues and the state superintendent are all committed to exploring multiple ways to address this problem. If we can be smart about it and leverage the Prop. 28 waiver, which is still in development, this would actually be the least of my Prop. 28 worries right now. We have problems with how the teaching profession is perceived, but hopefully, we have enough people working on this that we will make some gains.

    What is your biggest concern with the rollout? 

    The delay of guidance or absence of guidance around supplement vs. supplant, baseline data, and waivers will have a chilling effect and LEAs (local educational agencies) will have to return funds because they are not clear on the rules. Ultimately, this exacerbates existing inequities in our system related to access to arts education.

    What issues would you like to see addressed by the waiver?

    In my opinion, if the guidance developed was approached thoughtfully by CDE (the California Department of Education), it could offer some flexibility as schools scale up their Prop. 28 implementation efforts. For example, schools may want to add staff to teach the arts but may lack a facility for that. They might propose a short-term waiver of the 80/20 requirement, so they could address that need.
    Also, in some rural settings, there have been arts positions posted that have remained unfilled. If a school cannot hire a credentialed or certificated staff to provide arts education, rather than return the Prop. 28 allocation, that waiver could allow for providers from community arts organizations. The Prop. 28 language says that a waiver could be provided “for good cause.” Good cause should include what is going to bring more arts education to the students that need it the most. 

    What is your mission with the California County Superintendents’ arts initiative?

    The California County Superintendents believe that all California students from every geographic region and at every socioeconomic level deserve in-depth arts learning as part of the core curriculum. The statewide arts initiative works at all levels to strengthen and expand arts education in California public schools and increase student access to sequential, standards-based arts education through a full complement of services utilizing the statewide county office of education infrastructure. One of its key purposes is to build educator capacity.





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  • As California community colleges struggle with transfer, some find success

    As California community colleges struggle with transfer, some find success


    When Allyson Najera enrolled at Irvine Valley College in 2021, she worried her higher education outlook was bleak.

    Najera was admitted to and planned to attend San Diego State University that year, but her family couldn’t afford it, and she instead enrolled in community college with the intention of transferring. She knew of family members who went to a community college and never transferred to a four-year university.

    “I was very scared that was going to happen to me,” she said. “I remember crying the first time I went to campus.”

    Yet two years later, Najera is getting ready to start her first term at UCLA, where she was successfully admitted as a sociology major. She credits her experiences at Irvine Valley: working with committed counselors, getting academic research opportunities and enrolling in an honors program that had a strong track record of transferring students to UCLA. Her time at community college was “the exact opposite” of what she initially expected it to be.

    Courtesy of Allyson Najera

    Allyson Najera

    Najera isn’t the only transfer success story from Irvine Valley. In a state where transfer is often confusing and difficult for students, some community colleges, including Irvine Valley, are doing it better than most. Among Irvine Valley students who completed at least 12 units and left their community college, one-fourth of them transferred to either a University of California or California State University campus, according to a 2022 analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California. Along with Pasadena City and De Anza (in Cupertino), that was the highest mark in the state, where the average was about 17% of those students.

    In some cases, officials acknowledge, the colleges have inherent advantages, like geographical proximity to four-year universities. But officials also say their specific programs and efforts also deserve credit, like proactive transfer centers, strong academics and extracurriculars that keep students motivated.

    “Obviously, UC Irvine is just a few miles away. There’s CSU Fullerton, even Long Beach State. They’re all within driving distance,” said Loris Fagioli, Irvine Valley’s director of research and planning. “Compare that to some community colleges that are more rural and remote, and it’s much tougher for the students they’re serving to transfer.”

    “But then again, there are other community colleges that also have those advantages and they aren’t doing as well,” he added.

    Transfer culture

    At Glendale Community College, there’s an emphasis on convincing students that community college isn’t an alternative pathway, but the predominant pathway to getting a four-year degree, said Ryan Cornner, the college’s president. At Glendale, about 23% of students who earned at least 12 credits successfully transferred to UC or Cal State.

    “More than half of CSU graduates started at a community college. Almost one-third of UC graduates started at a community college,” he noted. “Building an effective transfer is convincing students that this isn’t a second chance or backup; this is a legitimate pathway to get to the university you want to attend.”

    One way they do that at Glendale is with a proactive transfer center. Rather than waiting for them to schedule appointments, counselors are constantly checking in with students who have declared an intent to transfer and making sure they’re staying on track.

    When students do seek out an appointment at Glendale, it’s easy to get one, said Mike Borisov, who is transferring this fall to UC San Diego.

    Borisov earned the credits he needed for transfer by taking classes at both Glendale and Los Angeles Valley colleges. He found it was much easier to get in front of counselors and seek help at Glendale.

    “LAVC is a great campus, but transfer counselors weren’t as helpful as the ones at Glendale. It was harder to meet in person because they were always booked up, while at Glendale, it’s more intimate and the counselors really know their students,” Borisov said.

    Glendale even offers a one-credit class focused on the transfer process, designed to help students better understand it, all while they earn a transferable that is transferable to the state’s four-year universities.

    “It’s really just meant to familiarize students with the transfer process: what the requirements are for transfer, the application timeline, how to prepare successfully for the application, how to write personal statements well,” said Bridget Bershad, a counselor at Glendale.

    Making sure students have that knowledge, whether it’s through a class or meeting with counselors, is imperative because the transfer landscape is “extremely complex,” said Fagioli, the Irvine Valley official.

    Fagioli said Irvine Valley’s transfer center is similarly proactive, regularly reaching out to students to make sure they know what they need for transfer.

    “Because as soon as you change a major, as soon as you switch from wanting to transfer to Fullerton to another CSU, all these requirements change,” he said. “So you need very good and knowledgeable people who are up to date with all the nuances.”

    In a recent EdSource survey of current and former community college students, more than half said the process of transferring to a four-year university is difficult. Many of them cited access to counseling as a roadblock; only about one-third of respondents said it is easy to schedule an appointment with a counselor.

    At some campuses, their record on transfer attracts the students. De Anza College has one of the highest transfer rates in the state and is particularly successful at sending students to the top UC campuses, namely Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.

    Students come from outside De Anza’s Santa Clara County home base, said Marisa Spatafore, associate vice president of communications.

    “And they say they want to transfer, that they want to go to UCLA or Berkeley,” Spatafore said. “And the tagline our college is known for — ‘Tops in Transfer’ — that’s based in reality. And students understand that.”

    Getting students involved

    Beyond making sure students can navigate the transfer process, campus officials said it’s also key that students have opportunities to get involved on campus so they feel a connection to their college community and stay motivated. In some cases, their extracurriculars can even bolster their applications to UC and Cal State campuses.

    De Anza College, for example, has 18 learning communities designed to connect students to a network of classmates, faculty and advisers who share something in common. There are communities for current and former foster youth, male students of color and students identifying as LGTBQ+. There’s even one for students who need extra help in math to connect them to counselors and tutors.

    “We’re really trying to meet students where they are with these communities so that they develop a community with other students and with the faculty members, to really support their unique needs,” Spatafore said. “Even if they’re not a cohort going through the same exact classes, they still reap the benefit of that personal support, that personal attention and working with other students.”

    At both Irvine Valley and Glendale, officials emphasized the strength and size of their honors programs offered to students. Students who are accepted into the programs get special access to honors courses and get an honors recognition on their official transcripts, which can help when applying to competitive four-year universities. Students in the honors program across majors at Irvine Valley, for example, are essentially guaranteed to be admitted to UCLA if they complete the program, said Fagioli.

    Najera was admitted to the honors program at Irvine Valley, and so she was able to do her own research project on how the social media platform TikTok glamorizes eating disorders among female powerlifters between the ages of 12 and 25.

    She even presented that research at several conferences, including ones at Stanford University and Pepperdine University.

    “I think that’s something that’s very unique with Irvine Valley College. I remember going to the UC Berkeley transfer day, and a lot of students from different community colleges told me they’ve never had experience with research because their community college didn’t offer that opportunity,” Najera said.

    In addition to bolstering her college applications, she said it was also important to “get my feet wet” with research because it gave her a clear direction and made her realize she wanted to attend a university where she’d have more research opportunities. That was a big reason she focused on going to UCLA, where she hopes to conduct research at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. She chose UCLA over UC Irvine and Tufts University, a private college near Boston.

    “This experience at IVC has taught me to never have a closed mindset or let any sort of stigma get in the way,” she said. “Now I actually understand that I have a purpose in my life. IVC helped me with finding that direction.”





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  • Step Into The Future With Prescriptive Analytics

    Step Into The Future With Prescriptive Analytics


    Step Into The Future With Prescriptive Analytics—Infographic

    In today’s fast-paced world, making the right decision at the right time is everything. Prescriptive analytics goes beyond just predicting the future—it guides you toward the best possible outcome. Using AI, Machine Learning, and real-time data, it analyzes patterns, anticipates challenges, and recommends actions that drive success.

    Imagine a world where risks are minimized, opportunities are maximized, and every choice is data-backed and precise. Whether in finance, healthcare, retail, or manufacturing, prescriptive analytics empowers businesses to stay ahead of the curve, ensuring smarter, faster, and more impactful decisions. Don’t just react to change—shape it. With this technology, you hold the power to optimize operations, enhance customer experiences, and achieve peak efficiency.



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  • Cal State trustees decide this week on 6% tuition rate hike, but with a sunset provision

    Cal State trustees decide this week on 6% tuition rate hike, but with a sunset provision


    Students, faculty and staff protest a potential tuition increase across the California State University system.

    Credit: Michael Lee-Chang / Students for Quality Education

    California State University trustees will decide this week on whether students will see a 6% tuition rate increase over the next five years. 

    But ahead of their Wednesday vote, the nation’s largest public university system has already tweaked the proposal: Any tuition rate increase will sunset after five years and be reevaluated for the 2029-30 academic year.

    The proposal would go into effect in the fall 2024 semester and affect the system’s 460,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The first increase would be $342 for full-time undergraduate students. 

    Last year, CSU assembled a work group to examine sustainable funding in the 23-campus system and found the costs of operating the university system exceeded its revenues. The work group also found that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s multiyear financial compact, made with the CSU to increase enrollment and improve graduation rates in exchange for annual 5% funding increases, did not fully meet the system’s funding needs, said Steve Relyea, chief financial officer for the Cal State system, during a recent call with reporters. 

    “The absence of tuition increases in 11 of the past 12 years has prevented the CSU from having sufficient resources to help keep up with rising costs,” he said. 

    The new tuition proposal would generate $148 million of new ongoing revenue in its first year, said Ryan Storm, the system’s assistant vice chancellor for budget. Over five years, the system would see about $840 million in new funding.

    The increase would also allow CSU to invest more dollars into financial aid. About 60% of undergraduate students would not be affected by the tuition increase because their tuition is covered by grants, scholarships and waivers. Eighty-one percent of undergraduate students receive some form of financial aid.

    “The additional revenue would be invested in the budget priorities that reflect the values and the mission of the university,” Storm said, adding that those priorities include academic and student service support for basic needs and mental health services, improving Title IX practices, improving maintenance and building new facilities, and improving compensation to attract and retain faculty and other CSU employees. 

    Cal State is currently facing a $1.5 billion funding gap, in addition to demands from its faculty and employee unions to improve compensation and wages. Students who are vehemently against the rate increase will rally and protest the proposal during the board meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. 

    The California Faculty Association, which represents the system‘s professors, is against a tuition rate increase even though it has reached an impasse in contract negotiations to improve wages. Currently, CFA is demanding a 12% increase in compensation, while Cal State is offering 5%. The association is also advocating for a semester of paid parental leave and workload relief. It also wants to be involved whenever faculty have contact with campus police. 

    “We’re not buying the austerity message that the CSU is sending out,” said Charles Toombs, president of the faculty association. “We know that the CSU has plenty of money in reserves and in investments, so we know they can fund not only our salary increases in our proposals but also the salary proposals that the other unions are demanding. We just don’t buy that they need to put our salary increase on the backs of students.” 

    But Cal State only has about 33 days of funding — or about $766 million — in its reserves, and the board’s policy is that the system has about three to six months of funding, which it doesn’t, said Relyea, CSU’s chief financial officer. 

    He underscored that the system needs the new tuition revenue to increase salaries. About 70% to 80% of any university’s budget is driven by faculty and staff salary and benefits, Relyea said, adding that the tuition rate increase is “driven by wanting to and needing to compensate faculty and staff at a fair rate that represents the market.” 





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  • Improve community college transfer with dual admissions, clearer pathways, say college leaders

    Improve community college transfer with dual admissions, clearer pathways, say college leaders


    Fresno City College campus.

    Credit: Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource

    Creating a more streamlined transfer pathway and expanding initiatives such as dual enrollment and dual admissions could help increase the number of California students who successfully transfer from community college to a university, officials from the state’s public higher education segments said Tuesday.

    “The key is that across all three of our systems, that we have a more unified process for designing pathways and programs together … so that these pathways naturally flow from the community college system into the CSU, into the UC,” Aisha Lowe, an executive vice chancellor for California’s community college system, said during a panel discussion hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California.

    The panel, which also included representatives from the University of California and California State University systems, came on the heels of a PPIC report that found that few students who wish to transfer from a community college to a UC or Cal State campus are successful in doing so. 

    The report also found that there are big racial and regional disparities in transfer students. For example, Black and Latino students as well as students from the San Joaquin Valley and Inland Empire are less likely than their peers to transfer successfully.

    But the state is taking steps that officials expect will improve the transfer process, which critics say is overly complex. Students considering transferring to a UC or Cal State often have to contend with different course requirements, depending on the campus, even in the same major.

    Currently, top lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom are in agreement on the framework of a new pilot transfer program between the community colleges and UC, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, told EdSource on Monday. Under Assembly Bill 1291, transfer students earning an associate degree for transfer would get priority admission, first to UCLA in select majors and later to additional campuses. Proponents say that solution will help streamline the transfer process because students earning an associate degree for transfer can already get a guaranteed spot in the Cal State system.

    UC has not yet formally endorsed the new bill, but McCarty said UC was involved in the negotiations that resulted in the legislation.

    Yvette Gullatt, UC’s vice president for graduate and undergraduate affairs, said during Tuesday’s panel that UC sees the associate degree for transfer “as an opportunity to enhance transfer, particularly” at community colleges where few students successfully transfer.

    “There’s always opportunity to explore more ways that ADTs can benefit students at UC, and you’ll hear more from us soon about some ways we plan to do that,” she added.

    California is also in the process of expanding both dual enrollment, in which high school students take college courses, and dual admission programs, which guarantee high school graduates a future spot at a UC or Cal State after they first attend a community college.

    The new statewide chancellor for the community college system, Sonya Christian, has said she wants every ninth grader to enroll in a college course through dual enrollment.

    Lowe said Christian’s plan could help improve the likelihood that students eventually attend a community college and transfer to a UC or Cal State campus by “getting them on that pathway” earlier in their academic career.

    “​​Helping them to get some of their transfer requirements done while they’re still in high school, exposing them to financial aid and the FAFSA and that process while they’re still in high school,” she added. “So we’re working on rolling out a comprehensive program around dual enrollment because we think that that’s going to continue to be an important lever.”

    At the same time, new pilot programs in dual admission at both UC and Cal State are going into effect this fall. The programs are open to students who weren’t admitted to the system where they are applying for dual admission. Both segments will guarantee eligible students a spot in their chosen major and at their chosen campus, so long as they meet all their requirements. Not all majors are available and, in the case of UC, not all campuses are participating. More information about the programs can be found here for UC and here for Cal State.

    Laura Massa, interim associate vice chancellor at Cal State, said during Tuesday’s panel that about 2,500 prospective students already have created an account on the portal for that system’s dual admissions program.

    Dual admission has the potential to be a “very promising practice,” said Marisol Cuellar Mejia, one of the authors of the PPIC report and moderator of Tuesday’s panel, in an interview.

    “It makes things more streamlined because from the beginning you know exactly where you are going, and then you avoid any duplication of courses or anything like that,” she said. “We are curious to see what it’s going to look like with these pilots.”





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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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  • A conversation with Martin Blank, national community schools leader, about California’s big bet

    A conversation with Martin Blank, national community schools leader, about California’s big bet


    Students at UCLA Community School pass by one of several outdoor campus murals on their way to class.

    Credit: Allison Shelley/EDUimages

    EdSource asked Martin Blank for his perspective on California’s massive investment in community schools in the context of the community schools movement that he was instrumental in creating.

    For 20 years after he co-founded it in 1997, Blank directed the Coalition for Community Schools, a national organization that advocates for policies that support the implementation of quality community schools. He also served as president of the Institute for Educational Leadership, the coalition’s home.

    Marty Blank

    After serving as a VISTA volunteer in the Missouri Bootheel region, Blank, an attorney, was a senior staff member at A.L. Nellum and Associates, the nation’s first African American-owned consulting firm.

    He is a co-author of “The Community Schools’ Revolution: Building Partnerships, Transforming Lives, Advancing Democracy,” which was published this year, and other books on community schools.

    In our interview, which was edited for length, Blank discussed the key elements for a successful school and his hopes for California’s initiative, the California Community Schools Partnership Program.

    Through two-year planning and five-year implementation grants, more than 2,000 schools could become community schools to broaden services to meet children’s multiple needs and schools’ connections with the community. More than a place, the book says, a community school “is a set of partnerships built on a foundation of mutually beneficial relationships between schools and communities.”

    With growing gaps in wealth and an increase in poverty, is it important that schools take a larger role than traditionally people have thought schools should take?

    Yes, the school should have a larger role, but that role should be as an ally with an array of partners with expertise and people who want to help kids thrive.

    The idea that schools could take on a larger role and do everything is mistaken. You open up the school to the community, you open up the potential for greater family engagement, and you get people to think about kids in different ways. Health people, youth people, school people, organizers all have a slightly different view of the world and how it should change. When you put them together, you can really create a synergy that leads to a better strategy and better results. It’s the wisdom of the group, rather than a single entity being in charge of everything.

    The title of your book is “The Community Schools’ Revolution: Building Partnerships, Transforming Lives, Advancing Democracy.” What’s revolutionary, and how would parents and teachers know that they’re in the middle of a revolution?

    That partnerships are essential in today’s public school and policy environment is a revolutionary concept. The power of partnership between schools and community is the essence of our work. We’ve begun to demonstrate how powerful that is.


    Listen: How parents, teachers, and the community can tell if the community schools “revolution” is in their midst

    We also have leaders in community schools who are thinking and acting differently. Principals are not only focused on their school, on their academic responsibilities, but they also recognize their ability to build a community of parents, teachers and now partners that support their students.

    The community schools revolution is also demonstrated by their growth. There are thousands of schools across the country. We have evidence of success, and we have a growing investment. California’s is significant and we’ve got substantial federal money. Maryland has embedded community schools across all school districts, by including them in the school funding formula, and a growing number of states are funding community schools development.

    California’s is the biggest bet yet on community schools. In part, it was driven by money. California had a huge surplus, and so the Legislature and the Newsom administration, at the encouragement of State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, put down $4.4 billion over seven years. It made this commitment without really anything in place as a state system. Does it concern you that it might fall short of its potential?

    If I could control the way policy functions, one might do very careful planning, then implement, then evaluate. But in the United States, we don’t do policy that way. It’s all a bit chaotic, and that makes it really hard for school people.

    We were worried when New York expanded from 40 community schools to 150, because we thought that was going to be challenging. And it was. But in time, because the school system and the city government and the community-based organizations and the school leaders stayed together, there are now 420 plus community schools in New York, and they’re working toward a set of common goals. Are there challenges? Do we worry that money is going to be taken away? Of course, but sustainable partnerships emerging.

    Listen: Whether California’s approach to community schools, through planning grants, followed by implementation grants on a mass scale, makes sense

    We saw measurable progress in New York. A report by Rand demonstrated there was some improvement in math achievement, that students were more connected to adults and to the school, that there were improvements in attendance. We saw progress in California, where there are community schools that people could draw on — in San Francisco, West Contra Costa, Oakland, Los Angeles and other places.

    We’re hoping that school and community organization leaders will realize that if they go beyond vendor and contract relationships, to really become partners, there will be a foundation on which to continue. Grants may come, but if the relationship between the school and their partners remains, then the essence of the community school will remain.

    California is investing many billions of dollars in other services, too, such as mental health, transitional kindergarten, and an extended day and year, particularly for low-income schools. What difference will this make in a community school?

    California represents a real opportunity. If it works the way we hope, the person in charge of new mental health money, the person running the after-school program, and other partners will be talking to each other and educators about what they want to accomplish. I remember a principal telling me he was responsible for all partners. They would ask for space and for equipment. He held a meeting and said, “Who are you and why the hell are you here?” What we want is for those potential allies to sit and talk regularly, to listen to students and their families and figure out how to make progress together.

    Oakland and UCLA are prominent in your book. Any school would be fortunate to be associated with a university like UCLA. And Oakland has more nonprofits than coffee shops. But there are lots of communities that don’t have those opportunities. If you are in rural San Bernardino County or Humboldt County, what do you do?

    The first thing is to go out in the community and talk to the business community, to the religious community. In every community, there are some nonprofit organizations. Every community has resources. We’ve had community schools where the emphasis was on bringing in elders from Appalachian communities to teach about the local history. We’ve had community schools where the kids have learned about the fishing industry. 4H is a significant player in many rural communities.

    It’s a mindset issue. People have assets and expertise. If you assume there’s nothing, it puts the school and the teachers in a very negative mindset about what they’re trying to accomplish.

    A crucial person will be the community schools coordinator, which all community schools in California must hire to receive state funding. Whom should districts be looking for, and why is that person important?

    A community school coordinator is a bridge builder. We’ve had innumerable principals say, “I don’t know how I managed before I had a community school coordinator.” A community school coordinator is vital to connecting the work of partners and school staff. They should be collaborative and like to work with other people; they should be someone who knows how to listen to families and young people, who can bring ideas from partners to the principal and teachers and be part of the school leadership team.

    The  California Teachers Association has taken a position and some local unions in negotiations that the community schools coordinator should be a certificated teacher. A number of districts have said that first and foremost, the person should come from the community and know the community. What’s your view?

    Sometimes you’ll find a social worker with community organizing training. Or a teacher who was a Peace Corps volunteer, a parent or community resident with strong relational skills. We need someone who can build bridges to the community whether they work for a school system, a nonprofit organization or a higher education institution. We should not limit ourselves when we think about where we look for people.

    What might be early wins that might set the right tone and culture for community schools?

    Attendance is a big issue and really a critical place to start. People are worried about it all across the country. When you have partnerships, whether it’s around health and mental health or just outreach with the ability to talk to parents and meet in their homes or workplaces, you can encourage improvement in attendance. In Baltimore, grassroots groups of Black men, some of whom are formerly incarcerated, have become involved with schools to try to make connections.

    I can imagine some principals and teachers might say, “We welcome the partnerships, we welcome the additional resources, but leave instruction and learning to us.” How can what goes on in the school day be integrated into the community school?

    We’ve seen teachers do walk-arounds in neighborhoods, so they understand their students’ lives and communities and use that knowledge in the classroom.  At the UCLA Community School, the kids have worked on immigration and housing issues. We’ve seen young people get involved in dealing with hunger and nutrition issues in their neighborhoods. Partners can help facilitate that.

    Listen to kids. You can build a standards-based curriculum that involves kids dealing with science and math, and everything else around problems that matter to them and to their neighborhood.

    Listen: How principals must open up schools and themselves for community schools to succeed

    The community can be a resource for learning apprenticeships and internships. The University of Pennsylvania has students going into labs and doing summer work. All of that is part of what can happen in a community school.

    For this $4 billion public investment, what metrics should the public use to gauge whether community schools are making a difference in the lives of students including, academic achievement?

    They would see better attendance. They might see reductions in disciplinary incidents because they’ve applied restorative justice practices. They might see indications of improvement in mental health, not only because young people have had access to mental health professionals, but also because they’ve just had more opportunities to be on a team, whether it’s a robotics team or a football team, They should be looking for parents to stand up and say, “This school works for our kids” and for kids to be saying the same kinds of things.

    I was told by a high school principal who was a community schools manager that building trust can be difficult and that the initial efforts can be frustrating. Parents are busy, and perhaps their own experiences may have turned them off to school.

    It’s a never-ending process. Each of us, in our personal lives, in our professional lives, has had situations where we built some trust, we lost the trust, we had to rebuild it. Parents are busy, but if you knock on doors and listen to them, you can capture the essence of what they want. Educators and partners build trust when they look at data together to solve problems.

    You mentioned timing may be both right and difficult now, with so much scrutiny on schools for various reasons and tensions brought into schools from the outside. Your book ends with this quote: “Now more than ever, with a deeply divided electorate and an often toxic political environment, community schools may represent a strategy that can bring people together, build community, and even bridge ideological divides.” Why are you confident that a community school can achieve such ambitions?

    If you’re not a dreamer or ambitious, then you’re not going to be able to overcome the historic inequities that have existed in our public school system and society. I’ve been at this work for 60 years, and it’s been urgent for all 60 years. When we first opened the migrant education program in a formerly segregated school in southeast Missouri, it was urgent. Now, with our politics so divided, the fact that there can be community schools in Florida and Idaho, in New York and California, in Wisconsin and Texas, indicates there’s a power in the idea of public school being the vehicle around which we build community.

    School leaders have to realize that they gain power by being more open. And that’s a challenge, given the politics of the moment. But our schools are a place that everyone knows, where we can all come together and act democratically. It’s not the only solution, but it offers the possibility of creating the kind of trust, the kind of relationships and the kind of places where people can come and see that we all care about each other’s kids.

    Community schools show how people and organizations can come together to solve problems.





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  • Fresno teachers vote to strike; negotiations with district continue

    Fresno teachers vote to strike; negotiations with district continue


    Thousands of Fresno Unified educators – a part of the Fresno Teachers Association – started voting on whether to strike during an Oct. 18 rally.

    Credit: California Teachers Association / X

    Thousands of educators in Fresno Unified have voted to strike, the Fresno Teachers Association announced Tuesday morning.

    From last Wednesday to Monday, more than 4,000 FTA members had the opportunity to cast their votes on whether to strike. Nearly 3,700 voted with 93.5%, or over 3,400 educators, voting yes.

    Teachers union President Manuel Bonilla said the vote sends a clear message: “We have a mandate, and we are willing to strike.”

    “Our teachers are tired,” he said. “Tired of the empty promises, the nonsense slogans, the highly paid administrators paying lip service to solving real issues on our campuses.”

    After more than a year of negotiations, four key issues have emerged, Bonilla said: reducing class size, reducing the caseload for special education teachers, paying educators a wage that keeps pace with inflation and maintaining the employee health fund.

    If Fresno Unified School District and the teachers union can’t agree by next week, starting Nov. 1, teachers will strike and form picket lines in front of the district’s 100-plus campuses and district office.

    Besides initiating the strike on Nov. 1, educators plan to be at district schools this Friday to inform parents about the four issues and provide information about the strike.

    The district, according to a Tuesday afternoon statement, are prepared for a strike.

    “Fresno Unified reassures its families, students, and staff that we are prepared to keep our schools open, safe, and full of learning during an active teacher strike,” the statement said.

    Can a strike be averted in the face of mutual disrespect?

    Even though the last teachers strike was in 1978, Fresno Unified and the teachers union have been on the brink a few other times. In 2017, teachers voted to strike, but a third party stepped in and negotiated a compromise.

    This time, even a week ahead of a strike, Bonilla said the union is ready “at any moment to come to the table and reach a fair contract.”

    “As we prepare for a potential strike, we are always willing to be at the table,” Bonilla said. “A strike can be averted.”

    Fresno Unified and FTA leaders were in negotiations Tuesday afternoon, according to district spokesperson Nikki Henry.

    And that dialogue will continue, Fresno Unified’s statement said, because “we support our staff, our families, and our students while remaining fully committed to a mutual agreement.”

    Fresno Unified’s latest proposal includes 19% pay increases over the next three years, expanded medical benefits for the rest of employees’ lives and changes to class size overages.

    “Fresno Unified stands proud of the updated offer we have made to the FTA which includes raising the average teacher’s base salary to $103,000 annually, provides affordable, high-quality medical coverage for life, and continues moving towards lowering class sizes,” the district’s statement says. 

    The teachers union rejected the proposal because the offer does not raise teachers’ pay enough to keep pace with inflation and cost-of-living increases, doesn’t reduce class size and still comes with a cut to the district’s health care fund contribution.

    “During the course of negotiations, it has become abundantly clear that Superintendent Nelson is disconnected from the realities of the classroom, out of sync with our district’s needs,” Bonilla said, “and now, he’s out of time.”

    The district’s revised proposal came after daily negotiations with the union, from the Oct. 5 release of a fact finder’s report until Oct. 13, Superintendent Bob Nelson said.

    Much of what’s in the district’s latest proposal was recommended in the report, including creating a problem-solving team to focus on issues, ways to increase pay, expanded medical benefits for employees working in the district for 20 years and the union-district contract becoming a “living document.”

    But there were so many unresolved items ahead of the fact-finding process in early September that Don Raczka, author of the fact-finding report, said it was as if the district and union had not bargained in the year prior.

    In a matter of days, Raczka said, he witnessed both the district and union be “disrespectful” and exhibit behaviors that are detrimental to establishing trust.

    Ultimately, the report, shared publicly on Oct. 16, focused on salary, benefits and class size, three of the four areas that the district and union remain deadlocked on.

    What happens during a strike?

    If teachers strike on Nov. 1, Fresno Unified will keep schools open. But many programs and services may suffer.

    School transportation and before-and-after-school care will continue during a strike, but all Fresno Unified events — including camps, field trips, community meetings, tournaments and access to health centers — outside of regular school and after-school hours, will be canceled, according to a document shared with families and posted on the district website. The only exception will be high school sports practices and competitions, which will be supervised by administrators and hired security.

    Students’ individualized education plan schedules must be adjusted.

    The district also has made plans to ensure that dozens of medically fragile students have uninterrupted access to services.

    As part of a $3 million allocation, the district will pay $451,000 for student health care services as needed because nurses could also strike as members of the union, which represents over 4,000 teachers, nurses, social workers and other professionals. The allocation will also fund curriculum, security and substitute teacher hiring and orientation, not including their daily pay.

    According to Fresno Unified, the district will pay substitute teachers $500 a day if the strike happens. It has over 2,100 subs who are credentialed, qualified, fingerprinted and have completed background checks. But because that isn’t enough to cover the 3,400 union members who voted to strike, the district also plans to put district personnel in the classrooms.

    Bonilla referred to the substitute teachers as babysitters who would hand out packets of work — $2 million worth of curriculum materials, which was part of the $3 million the district allocated to prepare for the strike.

    “That is not quality education,” he said.

    Parents, he said, must choose between sending their children to school during a strike with “a random babysitter” or keeping their kids home — which would bring the strike to a quick end.

    However, students who miss school during the strike will not receive academic or attendance credit, and the absence will not be excused, according to Fresno Unified.

    Despite the district’s reassurance that learning will take place, Bonilla said education won’t be happening during a strike.

    “Teachers are making a sacrifice – in this case, they won’t be compensated for those days,” Bonilla said. “They’re making a sacrifice on behalf of their students in this community…”





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  • Trump Throws Global Economy into Chaos with On-again, Off-again Tariffs

    Trump Throws Global Economy into Chaos with On-again, Off-again Tariffs


    The New York Times said bluntly that Trump has plunged the global economy into chaos with his wild and wooly tariffs. He doesn’t know what they are, who pays for them, how they affect trade. He is listening only to Peter Navarro, the tariff evangelist. Trump is not the master of “the art of the deal” (a ghost-written book). He is the master of obfuscation and chaos.

    The New York Times reported:

    Six months into his new administration, President Trump’s assault on global trade has lost any semblance of organization or structure.

    He has changed deadlines suddenly. He has blown up negotiations at the 11th hour, often raising unexpected issues. He has tied his tariffs to complaints that have nothing to do with trade, like Brazil’s treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, or the flow of fentanyl from Canada.

    Talks with the United States were like “going through a labyrinth” and arriving “back to Square 1,” said Airlangga Hartarto, the Indonesian minister for economic affairs, who met with U.S. officials in Washington on Wednesday.

    The resulting uncertainty is preventing companies and countries from making plans as the rules of global commerce give way to a state of chaos.

    “We’re still far away from making real deals,” said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at the bank ING in Germany. He called the uncertainty “poison” for the global economy.

    Gone is the idea that the White House would strike 90 deals in 90 days after a period of rapid-fire negotiation, as Mr. Trump pledged in April. Instead, Washington has signed bare-bone agreements with big trading partners including China, while sending many other countries blunt and mostly standardized letters announcing hefty tariffsto start on Aug. 1.



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