CA's education system is affected by external factors like shifting demographics, declining economics, and intensifying politics, limiting the traditional routes of local decision-making and property taxation. Although some districts show excellence and commitment, creating and sustaining a statewide education system to meet 21st-century expectations is difficult without a comprehensive reform plan. Political conflict over revenue earmarking and school reform distracts from education improvement. This report describes and analyzes these issues, suggesting a comprehensive set of solutions.

The Trust Agreement Project, initiated in September 1987, is a joint effort of 12 California school districts and their teachers' unions. It enables teachers and school management to develop agreements on professional issues beyond the traditional scope of collective bargaining. The agreements cover topics like teacher evaluation and curriculum development, and aim to enhance educational capacity by promoting collective responsibility for educational processes and outcomes. The project appears to be altering decision-making processes and encouraging collaboration between unions and management.

This report examines the pervasive racial disparities in California's school discipline system, with a focus on the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of Black students, particularly Black males. Drawing from 1980s statewide data and court cases such as Larry P. and Watson v. Stockton, it documents patterns of overrepresentation in both special education placements and disciplinary actions. The report highlights how systemic bias—embedded in subjective referral categories like "willful defiance"—has led to significant exclusion of Black students from mainstream classrooms, perpetuating...