
Emma Gallegos
Emma Gallegos covers equity in education and is based in the Central Valley. Emma has spent more than a decade in journalism, having worked at the Pasadena Star-News, LAist and Gothamist before returning to the Central Valley, where she grew up. Emma also spent a few valuable years in the classroom as a substitute teacher in the Bakersfield City School District. She also comes from a family of educators: her mom is a retired district administrator and her father was a superintendent and professor. Most recently, Emma worked at her hometown paper, The Bakersfield Californian, covering the Kern County education beat. She lives in Bakersfield.
All articles by Emma Gallegos
Enroll every ninth grader in a college course, says incoming California Community Colleges chancellor
Right now, just 6% of California students take a college course through dual enrollment their first year of high school. The time is now, said incoming Community College Chancellor Sonya Christian, to make sure that all 436,192 of the state’s eighth graders will be automatically enrolled in a college course next fall.
Emma Gallegos
May 22, 2023
Gov. Newsom proposes increased funding for flood preparation, mitigation and recovery
Gov. Newsom announced a series of flood mitigation measures in the May revision of his budget proposal, totaling $492 million. None of those measures specifically addresses the unique challenges California's K-12 schools face when a community is flooded.
Emma Gallegos
May 12, 2023
A guide to earning college credit while in high school
This guide aims to give high school students and families an overview of college-level coursework in California for young students and its effects on college and careers.
Emma Gallegos
May 8, 2023
How a Central Valley school district prepares for the terrifying threat of disastrous flooding
Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified is preparing not just its employees, students and families, but the entire community for the threat of a flood caused by a melting record snowpack.
Emma Gallegos
April 5, 2023
Panel: Underrepresented students should be the target of California's dual enrollment
Even as dual enrollment programs have rapidly grown in California, the students most in need of that academic boost don’t always have access to it.
Emma Gallegos
March 23, 2023
Advocates propose an alternative to refocus budget on Black students
A coalition of Black education and civil rights groups has come up with a plan that would focus additional state funding directly on Black student achievement — a goal the Newsom administration would tackle by boosting funding to low-income schools rather than any one racial group.
Emma Gallegos, John Fensterwald, And Daniel J. Willis
March 14, 2023
California reconsiders the potential of college work-study jobs
The state has invested $500 million for jobs that help a student's career, not just working at campus cafeterias and bookstores.
Emma Gallegos
February 28, 2023
CSU asks: What do you want in the next systemwide chancellor?
Public forums held across the state this week are meant to help the board write the job description for CSU's next leader.
Emma Gallegos
February 10, 2023
Critics say Newsom's proposal for low-performing students fails most Black students
Black leaders are criticizing a compromise plan by Gov. Newsom as not doing enough to help close the achievement gap of Black students.
Emma Gallegos, John Fensterwald, And Daniel J. Willis
January 24, 2023
Tulare County passes $95 million measure to build a public university center for its residents
The new University Center, expected to open in 2027, will represent a major expansion of university-level offerings for Tulare and Kings counties — even if it is not a full CSU campus.
Emma Gallegos
January 5, 2023
Dual enrollment thrives in Central Valley area where few earn college degrees
Dual enrollment has a large presence in rural, Latino communities of Kern County.
Emma Gallegos
November 30, 2022
University of California disrupted as 48,000 academic workers continue strike
Many classes and programs disrupted across the ten-campus system as strike enters second day.
Emma Gallegos And Betty Márquez Rosales
November 15, 2022
Students call on State Board of Education to address safety, equity and mental health
Student representatives from across California made a series of policy and curriculum recommendations during a presentation to the State Board of Education on Wednesday morning.
Emma Gallegos
November 2, 2022
Study finds college president searches favor white men and offers strategies to change that
A new report outlines the way search for college and university leaders favors white men and offers solutions. It comes at a critical time when top positions are open at the helm of CSU and California Community Colleges and colleges around the state.
Emma Gallegos
October 31, 2022
CSU graduation rates tick up for some students, decline for transfers
Pandemic impacts university's 2022 completions. Campus closures may have hurt some graduation plans.