California’s public schools live—or die—by the numbers. They are utterly dependent on how much money the state budget allocates each year under Proposition 98, a formula adopted by voters in 1988 that only a few wonks in and around the...

After years of cash windfalls, California schools are bracing for a stretch of austerity that could jeopardize students’ already precarious recovery from the pandemic. An end to billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds, declining enrollment, staff raises, hiring...

More than a year after California community colleges received $650 million in state COVID-19 relief money, schools have spent less than 20% of it. Colleges say they desperately need the money, but that they are reluctant to spend it because...

When California’s schools reopened their classrooms at the beginning of this school year, educators were confronted by a critical question: Where did all the students go? Since the beginning of the pandemic, California public schools have lost more than 4%...

A recent review of school guidance and communications from the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention argues that the federal agency failed often in its goal of providing timely, actionable information to states and districts around COVID-19 safety protocols. As...

In San Ysidro School District, more than a quarter of the district’s nearly 4,400 students are unhoused, according to Superintendent Gina Potter. It highlights the question of how school funding should be determined, she said, while weighing the pros and...

The 2021-22 school year was supposed to have been a rebound to normalcy, with Covid in the rear-view mirror. Instead, midway through, the year has been “shock and overload,” with teachers and administrators “working harder and losing ground,” as Mike...

Enrollment at Coachella Valley K-12 public schools has declined by approximately 1,000 students since this time last year and much more than that since before the pandemic began. Declining enrollment since 2019-20 could result in Desert Sands Unified losing approximately $13.8 million, Coachella Valley Unified losing $9...

The Hoover Education Success Initiative (HESI) presented a six-part webinar series this fall that explored how public education can improve moving forward given the ongoing disruption of in-person instruction caused by COVID-19-inspired restrictions, as well as foundations of the system...

The COVID crisis led to a windfall of taxpayer dollars for our local schools. It was much-needed money but all that isn’t being spent. And, if it doesn’t get used, millions, even billions, could go away. NBC Bay Area’s Raj...

The COVID-19 pandemic crippled learning for many students, leaving some kids years behind their classmates. In June, the non-profit Policy Analysis for California Education released a report showing students at 19 school districts were about two and a half months...

A report from a coalition of bipartisan education groups—including the California PTA, the California Teachers Association and Policy Analysis for California Education—has urged schools to use their COVID funding to support mental health programs this year. The report recommends school...

The term “learning loss” is too often used to describe the restorative restart needed in California’s most underserved communities for the 2021-2022 academic year. It is accurate that many students have experienced enormous disruptions in their lives and learning, but...

The pandemic altered our understanding of how schools could and should operate as well. Now, as we return for a new school year and districts are poised to receive a major infusion of federal and state funding, we have an...

The Education Department projects that homelessness within the public school system has increased by an astounding 70% in the past ten years. This poses problems when the school bell rings, but those issues don’t dissipate when class is not in...

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools, the grades and mental health of millions of students declined. Several of the leading Republican challengers in the upcoming recall election of Govenor Gavin Newsom see this crisis as an opportunity. Their solution: more...

Schools are shaping up as a key battleground in the upcoming California recall election, and the coterie of Republicans running to replace Governor Gavin Newsom is offering voters an alternative vision of public education: school choice.

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered schools, the grades and mental health of millions of students declined. Several of the leading Republican challengers in the upcoming California recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom see this crisis as an opportunity. Turning parents...

As school districts around the country begin to announce a wide range of plans for the fall, COVID-19 infection rates are on the rise and the economy remains in recession.Senate Republicans and the White House are considering conditioning at least...

News headlines about the three federal stimulus packages totaling $192 billion for public schools since the beginning of the pandemic have emphasized their potential to lead to significant academic and other improvements—expanded mental health resources, broader summer school offerings, cleaner...

Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature have seized a once-in-a-generation deluge of state and federal funding to set in motion a sweeping and ambitious set of education programs that seemed implausible six months ago. The 2021-22 state budget, which...

With coronavirus numbers creeping up, online learning in flux and public health departments revising their return-to-campus guidelines almost week by week, parents, educators and experts are increasingly turning to summer school to try to figure out fall.

In the wake of the pandemic, which shined a spotlight on the essential nature of early childhood education and care, universal transitional kindergarten is poised to become a reality in California. Although some of the state’s largest districts already offer...

With brief but exuberant praise from Democrats and often acerbic criticism from Republicans, the Legislature dispatched the 2021-22 budget bill with spending levels for education that appeared implausible a year ago, in the throes of a pandemic. Gavin Newsom, who...