California education news: What’s the latest?

The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it would make several changes to fix student loan programs and help borrowers move toward debt forgiveness.

Those changes include ending “forbearance steering,” which occurs when loan servicers place borrowers in forbearance in violation of department rules even when their monthly payments under an Income-Driven Repayment plan could have been as low as zero dollars. Most borrowers on an Income-Driven Repayment plan can receive debt forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of repayments if servicers accurately track their progress. These plans include Income-Based Repayment and Revised Pay As You Earn plans.

“Student loans were never meant to be a life sentence, but it’s certainly felt that way for borrowers locked out of debt relief they’re eligible for,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said. “Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers enrolled in IDR plans. These actions once again demonstrate the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to delivering meaningful debt relief and ensuring federal student loan programs are administered fairly and effectively.”

The department estimates that these changes could help more than 3.6 million borrowers receive at least three years of additional credit to their IDR forgiveness, while approximately 40,000 borrowers will receive immediate forgiveness.

Outgoing Berkeley Unified Superintendent Brent Stephens, who led the district for three years during the pandemic, has been appointed superintendent of the much smaller and wealthier Lafayette School District in Contra Costa County.

Stephens will start the new position in July, the Bay Area News Group reported.

Stephens announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down at the end of this school year when his three-year contract is up. At the time he said in an interview with Berkeleyside that the decision was “about prioritizing family and thinking about the value of time, having not had a lot for a few years.”

Prior to his time at Berkeley Unified, Stephens was chief academic officer for San Francisco Unified, and has worked as a Spanish bilingual teacher in Oakland and a teacher in Boston. He received his doctorate from Harvard, according to an announcement from the Lafayette School District.

Oakland Unified will longer require students and staff to wear masks indoors starting April 25.

Still, the district “strongly recommends” students and staff mask indoors, consistent with guidance from the California Department of Public Health.

When the state dropped its indoor mask mandate for schools, Oakland Unified officials said the district would hold off until after spring break to be sure there wouldn’t be a major surge. With the number of Covid cases within Oakland Unified and throughout the country staying relatively low following spring break, the district opted to remove the mask mandate.

Oakland Unified officials said there’s still a possibility that the district would need to revert to requiring indoor masks if it’s recommended by public health officials.

The city of Santa Clarita sued Los Angeles County on Moday over the county Board of Supervisors’ March 15 decision to house young people involved in the juvenile justice system in a facility within city limits called Camp Scott. The city’s lawsuit claims the site is unsuitable to serve as a permanent facility given its location in an area prone to environmental hazards.

“Camp Scott is located in a severe fire hazard area on a road with only one way in and one way out,” Laurene Weste, Santa Clarita mayor, said last month. “It is not a safe or suitable location for this use.”

Over the last year, Santa Clarita residents have also cited safety concerns given Camp Scott’s proximity to residential neighborhoods and the intention to house young people adjudicated for serious crimes.

Senate Bill 823, signed into law in 2020, requires the state’s youth prisons to shut down by June 30, 2023, and it has stopped allowing counties to send most youth to the state Division of Juvenile Justice as of last year.

Currently, the state’s 58 counties must each designate a local facility for the incarceration of young people who, prior to this year, would have been sent to a state youth prison. Until SB 823, the system operated like this: Young people charged with lower-level crimes remained in county facilities. Those found guilty of serious or violent offenses were typically transferred to a state facility. A serious or violent offense could include burglary, assault, homicide and other crimes.

The Office of Youth and Community Restoration was formed by SB 823 to lead the transition from state youth prisons to county juvenile facilities, and they are currently reviewing plans submitted by each county — which includes the L.A. County plan that Santa Clarita sued over on Monday.

School districts in Fresno County saw a modest increase in enrollment last year, even as enrollment statewide dropped to its lowest level in 20 years, according to the Fresno Bee.

Fresno Unified, the largest district in the county and one of the largest in California, gained about 35 students last year, bringing its total to 72,455. Clovis Unified, the county’s second-largest district, lost about 90 students, but its general trend is upward, having gained about 10,000 students over the past two decades.

Statewide, California public schools lost 1.8% of their overall enrollment last year, or 110,300 students, amid the return to in-person school after the pandemic. Most school funding is based on attendance in California. Other districts in the Central Valley, where the cost of living is relatively inexpensive, also saw increases.

The Fontana Unified School District is looking into complaints against a longtime school police officer for allegedly punching a student and committing other violent acts, according to the Daily Bulletin.

The complaints came to light when a fellow officer wrote a letter to the superintendent about the behavior of his colleague, David Wibert, a detective in the school Police Department who is under consideration for a promotion, according to the newspaper.

According to the letter, Wibert threatened students, carried brass knuckles while on duty, slashed students’ bicycle tires and hit students.

School police Chief Lee Powell Jr. defended Wibert, who’s on leave pending the district’s investigation.

“Wibert is an outstanding officer,” Powell told the newspaper. “He comes to work every day squared away. He’s pretty outspoken, and a lot of people don’t like that.”

Fontana Unified came under fire in the early 2010s when it fired all of its school counselors and bought its police department 14 automatic weapons. It since reinstated its counseling department.

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond visited a dual-language-immersion school in Oxnard this week to promote a bill that would fund more schools like this throughout the state.

Thurmond and state Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, visited a class of sixth grade students who asked questions in Spanish and English, according to the newspaper VC Star.

According to the newspaper, Thurmond said funding more bilingual immersion programs can attract and retain more students, in light of declining enrollment in the state.

“These students talked about, in a really articulate way, why a program like this is so important,” Thurmond said.

Limón, who authored Senate Bill 952, said she was inspired to write the bill to replicate the success of the program at Juan Soria Elementary School.

California students will not be required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 until at least July 1, 2023, state public health officials announced Thursday.

The mandate cannot go into effect until the Food and Drug Administration fully approves the vaccines for children. At this time, the FDA has approved the vaccines for emergency use only.

In a statement, California Public Health officer Dr. Tomás Aragón encouraged families to vaccinate their children even though it is not required for school.

“Under the Governor’s SMARTER plan, California is making informed decisions on how to further protect students and staff, to keep children safely in classrooms,” Aragón said.

In addition, state Senator Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, has decided to put a bill on hold that would have removed the ability of families to opt out of the Covid-19 vaccine because of personal beliefs.

After 23 years, Valley College High School, which offered students the chance to take classes at nearby Modesto Junior College, will close at the end of the 2022-23 school year, according to the Modesto Bee.

The Stanislaus County school board, which operated the school, voted last week to close the it, citing declining enrollment and a need to make budget cuts. At its peak in 2012-13, the school had 225 students. This year, it had 104, fewer than half.

Valley College High School science teacher Kevin Richardson was among those who opposed the closure.

“The idea is we were preparing these kids to go out and be successful,” he told the newspaper. “We know many won’t finish their path with us, but hopefully they will be successful at the places where they do finish.”

Joe Ryan Dominguez, principal at San Francisco’s prestigious Lowell High School, announced his resignation this week in a letter to families in which he blasted the district for what he described as a lack of fiscal responsibility and “sound instructional practices,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dominguez, who’s held the top job a Lowell less than a year, accepted a job at a school in Arizona, the newspaper reported. He will serve out the remained of the year at Lowell.

The move comes amid continuing controversy at Lowell High, which until recently admitted students based on their academic prowess. Last year, the school board voted to ditch the admission system and admit students by lottery instead, in an effort to diversify the 166-year-old school, the first public high school west of the Mississippi.

Jenny Lam, president of the school board, said she regrets Dominguez’ departure.

“Support for our high schools is deeply important to me, and with this resignation, I see that we have much work to do,” she said, according to the newspaper. “I will be speaking with members of the Lowell community soon about their steps forward.”

Some cities are attracting workers amid the child care worker shortage through public-private partnerships, as Hechinger reported.

To spark more interest in early childhood careers, Milwaukee has created a dual enrollment initiative as a partnership between Milwaukee Area Technical College, local high schools, the state Department of Workforce Development and Next Door, a Milwaukee-based early childhood provider and nonprofit. It aims to create a pipeline of early childhood educators from the local community.

Child care programs are losing teachers and other workers across the country. Between 2020 and 2022, around 120,000 child care workers left the industry, according to the government. Former child care employees and current program directors note the departures are often for jobs with better pay and benefits in fast food or retail. It has become increasingly difficult to attract workers into early education because of low pay and high demands.

“It’s gotten worse as other industries have been able to respond by increasing salaries, to be able to recruit and retain,” said Lauren Hogan, managing director of policy and professional advancement at the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Hechinger reported.

When Nancy Wyatt got a bill in the mail saying she owed $501 to the city of Los Angeles, as LAist reported, she knew something wasn’t right. Wyatt, who has taken care of children in her San Fernando Valley home since 1985, serves as the public policy chair for the California Family Child Care Network. 

She had advocated successfully for 2019 legislation to reduce the costly regulations that municipalities often charged the predominantly women-of-color workforce, often making poverty wages, to care for children in licensed home-based day cares.

Los Angeles scrapped fire permit fees for licensed family child care providers in March 2021 to comply with the law, but notices still went out in the fall, threatening penalties if payments weren’t made. As of March 30, 2022, only 13 of the 267 child care providers who paid for a fire permit had received a refund, according to the office’s records.

“We’re aware of the issue, and we’re just working to resolve it as quickly as possible,” said Los Angeles Office of Finance Director and City Treasurer Diana Mangioglu, as LAist cited. 

The erroneous bills arrived just as many providers, who operate on thin margins in the best of times, were struggling to survive amid the increased costs and risks of doing business during the pandemic. 

With bipartisan support, Sen. Alex Padilla introduced the HERE act in Congress last week, which would create a $150 million, five-year grant program to boost Latino college enrollment nationwide.

The grants would be available to school districts and colleges with high enrollments of Latino students, as well as nonprofits or community-based organizations. The grants would be used to create college-going cultures, improve school-based and institutional practices to prepare students for higher education, support students through the college application and transition process, develop “grow our own” programs that encourage students to pursue teaching as a profession, and address students’ non-academic needs such as child care and food insecurity that are barriers to college enrollment and completion.

The Fresno Bee reported Fresno State, Fresno City College and all other community colleges in the San Joaquin Valley could qualify for the grant program.

The proposal seeks to upend the nationwide decline in Hispanic-Serving Institutions — colleges which enroll more 25% or more Latino students. In 2020-21, a decrease in Latino higher education enrollment resulted in the number of Hispanic-serving institutions dropping for the first time in 20 years from 569 to 559.

West Contra Costa Unified officials are calling on the community to get involved in the district’s “strategic planning process” to develop a plan towards achieving equity across multiple areas.

“This is the right time for us to initiate a lasting change for our students,” Superintendent Chris Hurst said in an announcement Monday evening.

Three “guiding coalitions” in different parts of the districts will each lead three community meetings in April and May to gather community feedback. The first meetings will take place April 14 at El Cerrito High School, April 18 at Pinole Valley High School and April 20 at De Anza High School.

To RSVP, click here.

In a new book, the president of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, takes on the college ranking system – which Reed stopped cooperating with in 1995 – and urges other schools to leave it, too, Inside Higher Ed reported Monday.

“Breaking Ranks: How the Ranking Industry Rules Higher Education and What To Do About It,” by Colin Diver, from Johns Hopkins University Press, comes out Tuesday. Former Reed President Steven S. Koblik  had ended the private liberal arts school’s relationship with U.S. News and World Report, and Diver writes that’s what attracted him to take over as president at Reed.  He went there from the University of Pennsylvania where he was the dean of the law school.

“I took it to be a statement that Reed viewed education as a path to a genuinely fulfilling life, not just a ticket to a high-paying job,” he writes, according to Inside Higher Ed.

“I’m no longer subject to the tyranny of college rankings. I don’t need to worry about some newsmagazine telling me what to do.”

Noting that every student comes to college with a unique life story, Diver writes that there is really no such thing as a “best college” that fits anything close to all people. “In a world of such diverse stories, and so much human variety, is there a single ‘best’ college? Are there even 500 best colleges?”

The Fresno Unified School District is weighing spending $38 million on “mental health resources and staffing” for students in the upcoming school year, the Fresno Bee reported Monday. It would be a $33 million increase, according to the newspaper.

“The money would go toward hiring 10 additional clinical social workers for the district’s foster and unhoused youth, a new high school counselor, and other full-time employees,” Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson told the newspaper.

This investment is part of how the district hopes to “treat the needs of the whole child,” Nelson said.

“Across the district, students are reporting increased feelings of isolation, stress, and grief and are being screened for suicide risk at higher numbers,” the Bee reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California filed a complaint Monday with the California Department of Justice urging Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate whether Oakland Unified’s plan to close, merge or reduce classes for 11 schools over the next two years is racially discriminatory.

Students, parents, teachers and other community members continue to rally against the plan, which Oakland Unified’s school board approved in a 4-2 vote in February and calls for two schools to close at the end of the current school year. At four of the seven schools slated to close, more than half the students enrolled are Black, ACLU said in a statement Monday.

The district went against its own policy in failing to analyze the racial equity of closing those schools, ACLU said. The ACLU said the district did not consult with the community as it developed the closure plan, “a process that was shrouded in secrecy.”

The complaint, filed on behalf of the Justice for Oakland Students coalition, calls for the closure plan to be overturned and for the district to conduct an equity analysis to guide any future closure plans.

The Association of California School Administrators, the largest group of school leaders in the U.S., selected its longtime policy director, Edgar Zazueta, to serve as its next executive director.

Zazueta, the organization’s senior director of policy and government relations since 2015, will take over on June 1. He replaces Wesley Smith, who left in October to serve as superintendent of Newport-Mesa Unified in Southern California.

ACSA represents superintendents and other leaders from California’s 1,100 school districts. Prior to working at ACSA, Zazueta was head of external affairs at Los Angeles Unified. The son of Mexican immigrants, Zazueta has a doctorate from the University of Southern California in education leadership.

A recent study out of Harvard University suggests that public policies aiming to reduce the harms of poverty may lead to larger brains in children. Scientists say that finding underscores the need for a strong social safety net, WBUR reported.

Researchers looked at brain images from 11,000 children in 17 different states that offer a range of health benefits and cash assistance to low-income families. They found children in states with generous benefits had a larger hippocampus, the section of the brain involved in learning, memory and emotion processing. They also had fewer mental health and behavioral problems.

Harvard psychologist Kate McLaughlin said scientists have long found an association between poverty and brain size.

“The question we had is whether the magnitude of that association — so how much [connection] growing up in a family that’s living in poverty has on a child’s brain development varies based on where you live,” McLaughlin said,  as WBUR reported.

The research team found almost a 40% difference in brain size among low-income children living in states with the most generous benefits, such as California, versus the least generous, like Oklahoma. This is after accounting for the cost of living.

“Could you use effective public policies to try to reduce the impact of poverty on children’s brain development?” she said. “The answer seems to be yes.”

Over the past two years, MacKenzie Scott has shaken up the philanthropic and nonprofit landscape by donating over $12.3 billion in grants to 1,257 organizations. While only 20% of the overall U.S. philanthropic funding is unrestricted, as Forbes reported, 100% of Scott’s grants are unconditional. 

Perhaps most notably, she is reshaping entire sectors, such as early childhood education and care, that have been underfunded for too long. Given the urgency and magnitude of the early childhood education and care crisis, her philanthropy has even more clout, as Forbes suggested.

Even when donor dollars have gone to education, money has tended to go to K-12 or higher education. According to a study by Grantmakers for Education, only 4% of education grant dollars were going to early care and education in 2019. The same applies to education technology funding, with only 6% edtech funding going to early childhood education and care.

A recent report by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Whiteboard Advisors, with a foreword by Priscilla Chan, reports that only 15% of surveyed philanthropic donors in California give to early care and education. Encouragingly, the same report notes that nearly half of donors would be interested in giving more to early care and education. This is good news, as more funding toward a range of diverse solutions is critically needed for little learners and their families to thrive.

Scott is not alone. Connie Ballmer, Jackie Bezos, Susie Buffett, Priscilla Chan, Melinda French Gates, Lisa Mennet, Pam Omidyar, Signe Ostby, Laura Overdeck and Liz Simons are all supporting early childhood education and care. They are pushing the boundaries of philanthropy to transform the face of early childhood education and care,  as Forbes reported.

Most are part of the Giving Pledge, with a commitment to give away a majority of their wealth during their lifetime. They are also all women and mothers, (some are also grandmothers). This is unlikely a coincidence, as Forbes opined. They understand that outsized investments in early childhood education and care can make a huge impact on children, mothers and families.

More frequent school closures due to wildfires and extreme heat waves, as well as higher utility bills for schools as temperatures rise are among the “increasingly severe” impacts climate change will have on K-12 and early childhood education, the Legislative Analyst’s Office warned in a report published Tuesday.

Part of a series on how climate change will impact different sectors across California, the report stressed the need for more state guidance and funding for schools’ emergency and recovery plans since many schools will struggle to prepare for the impacts on their own.

“Confronting the effects of climate change will be challenging,” the report said. “However, the consequences of inaction could be even more severe, and will worsen over time…”

Schools may need to quickly shift between in-person and remote learning due to climate-related closures, the report said, and school facilities will require modifications to withstand the impacts of climate change.

The report comes as California lawmakers consider AB 1939, a proposal to make climate change a required part of K-12 science studies and require high school students to complete at least one science course on climate change in order to graduate.

A state senator has introduced a bill to give low-income high school seniors who have experienced homelessness no-strings-attached checks as they prepare to graduate and get ready for higher education, job training or work.

The bill authored by state Sen. Dave Cortese, D-Campbell, passed the Senate Education Committee without opposition on Wednesday, CalMatters reported. It does not specify how students would apply for the funds or how much money would be provided.

The idea is to give the graduates a financial bridge to the fall when they either enter college or vocational training and financial aid kicks in or while they seek employment and enter the workforce. The proposal is aimed at about 15,000 high school seniors who have experienced homelessness and is part of a  larger movement to provide Californians living in poverty with a guaranteed minimum income, CalMatters reported.

“Cortese said he’s hoping the pilot program would offer $1,000 monthly checks for four or five months for the 2023 graduating class, possibly costing the state about $85 million a year,” CalMatters reported.

A school board in Orange County banned the teaching of so-called “critical race theory,” the first district in the county to take such action, the Voice of O.C. reported.

Placentia-Yorba Linda School District trustees put the ban in place by a 3-2 vote this week. It was pushed by trustee Leandra Blades, who claimed the teaching of the theory is politically motivated and does not belong in public schools. “Keep the politics, the social justice, all of the noise out and just educate our kids,” she said.

Progressives nationwide have alleged that conservatives are seeking to ban legitimate discussion about slavery and racial conflict in American history and smear such lessons as part of a wider so-called critical race theory that allegedly blames whites for many social problems.

Blades claimed the theory has been taught for years in the district, the Voice of O.C. reported. “Three of my kids have been taught CRT,” she was quoted as saying. “In 2017 and 2018, we didn’t know what Critical Race Theory was, we just thought they were just teaching communism.”

Others on the board opposed the move.

“This change creates obstacles and impediments for students’ success,” trustee Karen Freeman said. “I anticipate that the curriculum will suffer the consequence of dumbing down. “Our goal should never be to graduate modern-day Rip Van Winkles.”

The San Diego County Board of Education voted in favor of taking over the redistricting process for the San Dieguito Union High School District.

The move comes after the North County high school district was accused of violating a state transparency law when it approved new trustee maps, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. An agenda item from the San Diego County Board of Education said that corrective votes came after the map’s deadline.

Trustee boundaries are redrawn every 10 years after every census count. School districts are required to submit their maps to the county by Feb. 28. Typically, counties approve board-adopted maps.

But the redistricting has been a contentious process for the fractured board of San Dieguito Union High School District. A suit filed against the board claimed that political conflict between board members influenced the mapping process. A letter from plaintiffs’ attorney Corey Briggs claimed the board did not properly notice the meetings when the map was approved, in violation of the Brown Act.

Board President Maureen “Mo” Muir told the Union-Tribune she disputes these allegations and added that the board “cured and corrected” the alleged Brown Act issues “in an abundance of caution.”

The San Diego County Board of Education’s agenda item notes that the corrective votes came on March 30, after the Feb. 28 deadline. It also notes that state law mandates that a county’s school district organization committee takes over the redistricting process if a district misses its deadline. The county has until April 30 to come up with its own map. It plans hold a series of public meetings beginning tonight.

This is the second county this year to flex its authority to redraw trustee areas. Earlier this year the Orange County Committee on School District Organization rejected a map approved by the Orange County Board of Education.

A school district in San Bernardino County must provide counseling services to former student-athletes under an agreement with the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights stemming from a sexual harassment investigation.

In addition, Chino Valley Unified must train administrators and coaches on how to respond to sexual harassment, educate students about sexual harassment and conduct a climate survey of the district’s sports teams.

The investigation centered on an unidentified sports team in 2017 where student-athletes violated Title IX by videotaping assaults on teammates, physically overpowering teammates and sharing pictures of their genitals on social media, placing teammates’ genitals on or near other players’ faces, and threatening students who might inform adults of the wrongdoing.

As a result, some players said they sought counseling, avoided the locker room and considered leaving the team and school.

The district must follow up with the Office of Civil Rights through the end of the 2022-23 school year.

“I thank Chino Valley Unified School District for its commitment now to ensure that its athletics program and other school activities will be free from sexual harassment, and to take steps necessary to support students subject to past harassment in school,” said Catherine E. Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights.

Cara Rothrock got her first job working at a 1950s roadside cafe and ice cream stand called Polly’s at the age of 15. First, she wanted pocket money. Then she needed to pay for college to become a teacher. 

Now, 28 years later, Rothrock, 43, still works at Polly’s. She never quit. She never could, EdSurge reported. Devoting her life to teaching has meant she has never been able to afford to give up her side hustle even as she got married, had children and became a veteran educator. 

In a 2021 national survey of 1,200 classroom teachers conducted by the Teacher Salary Project, a nonpartisan organization, 82% of respondents said they either currently or previously had taken on multiple jobs to make ends meet. Of those, 53% said they were currently working multiple jobs, including 17% who held jobs unrelated to teaching.

“It’s really kind of disheartening when you think that many teachers not only have bachelor’s degrees but master’s degrees and still have to hustle for their income,” said Donna M. Davis, an education historian and professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, EdSurge reported. “The system is clearly broken when we have highly qualified professionals needing to supplement their income to survive, who are one catastrophe — one paycheck — away from complete ruin.”

Pandemic-related stressors and the pressure of rising inflation have forced many teachers to re-evaluate the cost-benefit calculations they’d accepted long ago and to reimagine the rest of their careers. Some are plotting to leave the field, hoping to turn their side hustle into a full-time job; others have already left. 

President Joe Biden will allow millions of federal student loan borrowers to freeze their payments until Aug. 31, the latest extension of the popular pandemic relief measure. The debt moratorium had been set to expire on May 1 and would have affected more than 40 million Americans.

“The Department of Education is committed to ensuring that student loan borrowers have a smooth transition back to repayment,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “This additional extension will allow borrowers to gain more financial security as the economy continues to improve and as the nation continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Millions of borrowers have saved about $195 billion from the moratorium through April 2022, according to a report released last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The extension will provide additional time for borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments, reducing the risk of delinquency and defaults after the restart.

Monthly payments and interest have been suspended on most federal loans since March 2020 as part of Covid-19 relief. Both the Trump and Biden administrations have extended the relief since then. It’s estimated that borrowers save about $5 billion each month in interest that does not accrue on their loans.

“This continued pause will help Americans breathe a little easier as we recover and rebuild from the pandemic,” Biden said in a video announcing the decision, as Axios reported.

The four-month delay means the pause will become an issue again before the midterm elections and remain a rallying cry for student debt activists who have called for the White House to cancel some debt outright, as the New York Times reported.  Americans owe $1.6 trillion on federal student loans — more than they owe on car loans, credit cards or any consumer debt other than mortgages.

The Biden administration plans to extend the moratorium on federal student loan payments again, according to Politico.

The payment pause is set to expire on May 1 and would impact more than 40 million Americans. Borrowers could see the moratorium extended until the end of August.

Monthly payments and interest have been suspended on most federal loans since March 2020 as part of Covid-19 relief. Both Trump and Biden administrations have extended the relief since then. It’s estimated that borrowers save about $5 billion each month in interest that does not accrue on their loans.

Six of seven Turlock Unified school board members voted to sue their colleague, board member Jeffrey Cortinas, in January over his refusal to wear a mask at board meetings or attend them remotely, the Modesto Bee reported Tuesday.

Though news of the lawsuit broke earlier in the year, Turlock Unified officials refused to respond to the Bee’s questions about when and how the school board decided to pursue the lawsuit. The Bee filed a Public Records Act request and learned the other board members authorized the district to file a lawsuit during a closed-session special board meeting on Jan. 12, but never mentioned it in a public agenda or reported the action — which is required under California public meeting law.

Cortinas wasn’t present at the Jan. 12 closed session meeting, the Bee reported, but he did show up for the public meeting that followed.

The district and school board dropped the lawsuit in March, the day after state officials announced California would lift its mask requirements for K-12 schools.

The California School Boards Association, which represents and lobbies on behalf of district and county office of education school board members, will sever ties with its parent organization, the National School Boards Association, which CSBA officials said doesn’t adequately represent CSBA at the federal level.

The CSBA’s board of directors voted March 26 not to renew its annual membership with the National School Boards Association, which will expire June 30, according to a recent statement from CSBA President Susan Heredia. Instead, CSBA will continue ramping up its own lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., the statement said; it has also partnered with the Association of California School Administrators to lobby at the federal level.

Heredia cited multiple reasons for the split, including NSBA’s lack of communication and coordination with CSBA, “dissatisfaction with some of NSBA’s business practices,” CSBA’s inequitable representation in NSBA’s governance structure and the organization’s “lack of support for policy issues of importance to California” — all of which have persisted for around a decade. Heredia said 21 other state school board associations also parted ways with NSBA, putting the national organization’s future in doubt. Nineteen mostly GOP-led states left or planned to leave NSBA earlier this year over political differences with the group.

A Riverside County judge on Friday sentenced Ted Rozzi, a former assistant superintendent of Corona-Norco Unified, to state prison on charges that he embezzled more than $1 million in money earmarked for school construction projects, according to the Press-Enterprise.

Rozzi, 62, was a 27-year employee of the district. He faced 31 felony counts of money laundering and other charges stemming from his time as facilities director from 2011 to 2017. According to the plea deal he reached with prosecutors, Rozzi would order a construction firm to shift money from one school project to another by depositing money into Rozzi’s personal account. As facilities director, he would approve the changes before anyone else saw them.

Several years’ worth of accounting audits did not uncover the embezzlement. It was discovered when an alert employee found a suspicious check and showed it to the Riverside County Sheriff’s department. The Riverside County Office of Education and a state agency, the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, furthered the investigation, according to the newspaper.

The judge also ordered Rozzi to repay the stolen money.

Five months after the Alameda County Office of Education threatened Oakland Unified with budget oversight unless it reeled in its spending, the county superintendent reversed the order, based on recent steps the school board has taken to address financial shortfalls.

The original order, issued in November, criticized the district for using one-time funding for ongoing expenses and not addressing long-term financial shortfalls, according to the Mercury News. Like many districts in California, Oakland Unified is facing declining enrollment.

County Superintendent L.K. Monroe did, however, warn the district that it must adopt an interim budget and make funding adjustments by June 1 to avoid future oversight.

“One of the important things it signals is it reaffirms that the OUSD is not in financial crisis,” Oakland Unified school board member Mike Hutchinson told the Mercury News. “That’s an important fact, because we’re not [in financial crisis]. We have large reserves. We’re projecting surpluses, and we still have COVID relief dollars — more than $100 million — left. The finances are actually better than they’ve been in a long time.”

The county superintendent said that the original “lack of going concern” designation was a way  to alert the district to its precarious financial situation.

“The Alameda County Office of Education continues to closely monitor and support OUSD‘s efforts to achieve fiscal stability, which is critical to the district’s ability to serve its students. The removal of this designation for OUSD, at this time, represents an acknowledgment of the recent steps taken by the board,” Monroe said. “At the same time, our oversight now moves to an increased focus on the completion of the specific benchmarks necessary to restore fiscal health, as well as increased reporting of progress made to ensure there is timely action and follow through on commitments made by the OUSD board and its leadership.”

Sacramento City Unified teachers and school staff called off a strike Sunday night that has closed schools in the district for eight days.

The district serves 45,078 students.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association and school district leaders have been negotiating a contract since early 2019. They also have been bargaining over Covid-related issues for about two years, reaching an impasse in December.

Negotiations between district representatives and the Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU 1021, representing school staff, had been difficult over the past two weeks, but the sides came to terms Sunday night. A mass shooting in Sacramento Saturday that killed six and injured 12 changed the tone of negotiations, according to teachers union leaders.

“Now, we must focus on healing,” said Superintendent Jorge A. Aguilar in a statement announcing the agreement. “In addition to the trauma of the strike, our district joins everyone in our community and across the nation in profound heartache for the victims of senseless and tragic gun violence in downtown Sacramento last night. The events that unfolded in the midst of ongoing negotiations serves as a reminder that we have a role in working to prevent tragedies such as these. Schools serve as safe havens and centers of emotional and mental health support for many students. This tragedy underscores the importance of the return of our students and staff on Monday, and I look forward to welcoming our students back.”

The district agreed to an ongoing pay increase of 4%, retroactive to the beginning of this school year, for employees represented by both unions, as well as thousands of dollars in stipends. Substitute pay, increased by 25%, will be retroactive for the 2021-22 school year.

Potential changes to employee health care plans were one of the more contentious areas of negotiations. In the end, the district agreed to continue to offer fully paid health benefits, although both sides agreed to research alternatives.

The district also agreed on $2,000 bonuses aimed at recruiting and retaining bus drivers, which have been in short supply in the district. A $5,000 signing bonus will be offered for new bus drivers who are fully licensed to drive a bus and a $2,000 bonus for those who still need training.

Cal State LA is preparing to launch a program for women incarcerated at the California Institution for Women to earn bachelor’s degrees in Chino this fall.

LAist reports that instruction will be in-person, for about 30 students, with priority for those who have already completed an associate degree through a program offered by Chaffey College, a community college in Rancho Cucamonga.

Students will take courses in liberal studies with faculty from several departments, including anthropology, English and the natural sciences.

California State University, Los Angeles has been offering a bachelor’s degree program at the men’s state prison in Lancaster for six years.

Sacramento City Unified teachers and staff are entering their eighth day on strike. The Sacramento Bee reports that the school district increased its offer to the teachers union Wednesday, proposing a 3% wage increase and a combination of one-time bonuses.

The unions called the offer insufficient. Teachers and staff are calling for a higher wage increase and no cuts to health care benefits.

Some parents have been camping out at district headquarters, calling for the school board to meet with teachers and reach an agreement.

Nearly 20% of high school students considered suicide during the past year and 9% actually attempted it, underscoring the dire state of adolescent mental health during the pandemic, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control.

The data is based on a nationwide survey of high school students from January to June 2021. More than 44% of students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. Researchers cited numerous reasons, including school closures, isolation, family economic hardship and conflict, loss of loved ones to Covid and limited access to medical care because of insufficient insurance.

The study did note some bright spots. Students who had close ties, even virtually, to their peers or adults at school fared much better than those who didn’t. Students who felt connected to others at school had significantly lower rates of sadness and anxiety — 28% compared with 45% and were half as likely to have attempted suicide.

Researchers suggested that schools promote social-emotional learning programs, make discipline practices fairer among racial groups and improve teacher training in classroom management.

“Comprehensive strategies that improve connections with others at home, in the community, and at school might foster improved mental health among youths during and after the pandemic,” researchers wrote.

— Carolyn Jones

Nearly half of all students in the Los Angeles Unified School District have been chronically absent this school year, meaning they have missed at least 9% of classes, the L.A. Times reported Thursday.

“This more than twofold increase from pre-pandemic years reveals yet another hit to education with widespread learning disruptions even as campuses are open for in-person learning,” the Times reported.

The newspaper used the state Public Records Act to obtain attendance data from the district. The numbers show chronic absenteeism, already considered high at 19% pre-pandemic, soared to 46% so far in the 2021-22 school year.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Times that the problem is “one of the highest levels of concern. If the student is not in the classroom, the student is not going to learn.”

Close to 30% of women in higher education have “been passed over for a promotion or other opportunity for advancement at work because of their gender,” Inside Higher Ed reported Thursday.

The finding is based on a Gallup survey of 10,500 U.S. academics at two- and four-year institutions.

“In this most recent survey, female faculty and staff members were also less likely than their male counterparts to strongly agree they have the same opportunities for advancement at their institution as do other employees, at 23 percent of women versus 32 percent of men,” Inside Higher Ed reported.

Up to about 100,000 students could participate in LAUSD’s 2022 summer programs, which will include help for struggling students, services for students arriving from Afghanistan and Ukraine and a new program for parents.

“We are going to literally double the number of offerings and the potential capacity of seats for students during the summer,” Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Los Angeles Unified, told reporters during a visit Wednesday to Los Angeles High School of the Arts in the city’s Koreatown neighborhood. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona was also visiting the school.

In addition to offering credit recovery for students struggling to graduate on time, there will also be opportunities such as “acceleration of learning” from students arriving in Los Angeles from Afghanistan and Ukraine, he said. The program for parents will be what Carvalho called a “new parent academy” that will include a number of offerings.

All of the programming will be paid for by federal relief funding that the district has received, Carvalho added.  He also said it will be important for the summer programs to provide not just academic help but social, emotional and mental health supports.

Cardona said LAUSD’s plans for summer programming align with the objectives of the Biden administration and encouraged schools across the country to offer summer sessions.

“Using American Rescue Plan funds, we want all children across the country to have access to some form of summer programming, summer enrichment. … All students deserve that. We have to make up for some of that lost time and give students the best opportunity to thrive,” he said.

Schools districts, county offices of education and teacher preparation programs need the state to help them collaborate to diversify the teacher workforce, according to a report released by the educator diversity advisory task force assembled by California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.

“It is happening in very siloed ways that undermine a systemwide or comprehensive approach to diversifying the teacher workforce, but they don’t know or are unaware of how to deepen that work, because it’s happening in silos,” said Travis J. Bristol, a UC Berkeley education professor and chairman of the advisory group.

The group also recommended the state provide sustained funding to support programs to diversify the teacher and school administration workforces, create a research and advisory board that would produce an annual report on the state’s progress toward diversifying the education workforce and provide guidance to school districts on how to use grant funds to develop programs to recruit and retain teachers of color.

Increasing the number of teachers of color in California has been a top priority for Thurmond since he started the job in 2019. The California Department of Education defines teachers of color as all teachers who are not white, according to department officials.

Having more teachers with diverse backgrounds in the classroom has a positive impact on learning for students of color and for closing achievement gaps, according to a study from the Learning Policy Institute. Students of color generally have higher test scores, are more likely to graduate from college and to succeed in college when they have teachers of color in the classroom they can look to as role models.

This doesn’t happen nearly enough. In 2021 about 61% of K-12 teachers were white, compared with 22% of students, according to the California Department of Education. In contrast, more than half of California students were Latinx, compared with 21% of teachers.

The educator diversity advisory group, made up of K-12 teachers and administrators and faculty at university teacher preparation programs, as well as education researchers, nonprofit leaders and state education officials, spent a year meeting virtually with educators across the state.

It found that one of the biggest hurdles for teacher candidates is the cost of earning a credential and taking exams, paired with unpaid student teaching, Bristol said.

“There could be some way to compensate aspiring teachers through student teaching,” he said. “Also, if the state is going to do this and do this well, it can’t be a one-off grant or a grant that only lasts a year, the county offices and local education agencies need a runway,” he said.

The group also recommended that the state launch a public awareness campaign to encourage people of color to join the teaching profession. Bristol thinks Hollywood should help.

“There is no better place than the state of California – ground zero for the entertainment industry – to enlist Hollywood types to amplify and promote the transformative work teachers can do to impact the lives of students,” he said.

The task force will hold two more webinars. On April 21 the webinar will focus on how state and federal funds can be used to diversify the teacher workforce. On May 4 a webinar will feature programs that are successfully diversifying the education workforce.

What happens if you stop teaching young children through direct instruction and instead set up purposeful opportunities to play? They could learn just as much when it comes to literacy, numeracy and executive function skills critical to early academic success, according to a new review of 17 studies of play, Hechinger Report noted.

Researchers looked at 39 studies of play and included 17 in an analysis that found when children ages 3 to 8 engage in guided play, they learn just as much in some domains of literacy and executive function as children who receive direct instruction from a teacher. (The studies that were excluded did not fit the review’s criteria regarding assessing child learning and development outcomes.)

Guided play, unlike free play, means there is a learning goal set by an adult, and children are “gently steered” to explore. The study found children also learned slightly more in some areas of numeracy, like knowledge of shapes, and showed greater mastery of some behavioral skills, like being able to switch tasks.

These findings, which were published in the journal Child Development, add to a growing body of research that has found play is not simply a carefree break from learning, but rather an effective way to teach important early skills.

“Children often struggle with mathematical concepts because they are abstract,” said Elizabeth Byrne, a co-author of the study and a research associate at the University of Cambridge, in a statement. That’s why the hands-on nature of play may be helpful. Those concepts “become easier to understand if you are actually using them in an imaginary game or playful context.”

These findings come at a time when many experts are calling for more play for kids to mitigate the trauma children have experienced during the pandemic. Last year, a report by the Lego Foundation that looked at 26 studies of play from 18 countries found play is so powerful it can reduce inequality and close achievement gaps between children ages 3 to 6. Those studies, which also looked at free play in addition to guided play, found children progressed in several domains of learning, including language and literacy, math and social-emotional skills.

While direct instruction gets information across quickly, “real learning” occurs when children are active and engaged, said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. That’s why play can be so effective, she added, as children are active and engaged when playing, but they might be passive listeners when sitting through direct instruction. 

“What it’s really about here is can we teach human brains in the way human brains learn,” Hirsh-Pasek said, as Hechinger reported. 

As Congress considers the issue of affordable child care, new polling suggests that likely voters in seven Senate battleground states support childcare legislation that would lower the costs for families. Child care issues rank up there with lowering prescription drug prices and climate change policies as high priorities, according to an analysis by the First Five Years Fund, a research and advocacy group.

“At a time when Americans are being stretched thin by rising costs across the board, voters are unequivocal that lowering child care costs is essential to the legislative package under consideration,” said Sarah Rittling, executive director of the fund. “In fact, support is stronger for including child care than other priorities that have received greater attention from lawmakers in recent weeks. As Democratic congressional leaders look ahead to the midterm elections, important voter groups in key states are watching to see how Congress proceeds — and a strong majority indicate they’ll be unhappy with their lawmakers if they support a package that forsakes child care.”

Key findings include that 9 in 10 of those surveyed say that “the cost of living for families, including the cost of rent, groceries, and child care” is a big problem. 

Analysts suggest that this is a bipartisan issue because 89% of Democrats, 70% of swing voters, and 55% of Republicans polled say child care ought to be included in any social safety net legislation. It is also notable that both parents 77% of parents and 68% of those without children favor child care legislation.

The polling, conducted by Hart Research and New Bridge Strategy on behalf of First Five Action Fund, surveyed likely voters in Arizona, Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

“This is a make-or-break moment for working families, and it hinges on whether Congress secures the sustained funding required to support a strong, stable early-learning system that families and providers can depend on,” said Rittling. “Lawmakers can’t abandon the tremendous work they’ve done to reach this moment and must be united on including child care in reconciliation.”

A shortage of substitute teachers at Sacramento City Unified schools has left about 3,000 students without a teacher each day, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The Bee obtained documents showing that in January and February of this year, hundreds of teachers’ requests for substitute teachers went unfilled — predominantly at schools that serve low-income students. One teacher who spoke with the Bee said she avoids taking days off despite having breast cancer and undergoing radiation because her students would likely receive little to no instruction. Instead, they would be placed in the school’s auditorium, where they would be monitored by teachers on their prep periods.

The substitute shortage is among the issues prompting Sacramento teachers and school staff to strike for better working conditions. The district’s campuses have been closed since Wednesday due to the strike; the district and its employee unions have not yet reached an agreement.

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, at an education summit Monday in San Diego, identified teacher residency programs, increasing teacher pay and other initiatives as solutions to California’s growing teacher shortage.

Cardona spoke at the Carnegie Foundation’s Summit on Improvement in Education conference to about 1,300 educators and other attendees, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. He called on schools to dramatically change in order to better serve students. One of the biggest challenges to implementing change, he said, is the lack of available teachers and school staff, since many have left or are considering leaving the profession.

Cardona proposed schools tap into their federal pandemic aid funds to address the shortage, implementing or scaling up teacher residency programs, increasing teacher pay and paying future teachers while they are in training, the Union-Tribune reported. Cardona acknowledged that many people are turned away from the profession because they don’t get paid while they’re working as student teachers.

Cardona also called on California and other states to allocate more funding toward prospective teachers through teacher residency program grants, scholarships and loan forgiveness. He also called on states to establish teaching as a registered apprenticeship, according to the Union-Tribune.

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond expressed frustration Monday as Sacramento City Unified students stayed home for a fourth day. The school district’s teachers and staff went on strike Wednesday afternoon, calling for pay increases and improved working conditions.

Negotiations between the district and union leaders from the Sacramento City Teachers Association and SEIU 1021 broke down Wednesday night but continued on Sunday, according to Thurmond.

Earlier this week Thurmond proposed that Sacramento City Unified Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, the district’s school board, representatives of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the Sacramento County Office of Education and the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, meet with union and district leaders to resolve the strike. Aguilar declined Thurmond’s invitation.

“Because this is a local issue, we do not want to circumvent the appropriate process for reaching agreement with our local labor partners,” Aguilar said in a statement Friday. “That process calls for the district to meet with SCTA to resolve these issues and bring an end to the strike.”

Thurmond said he invited representatives from these specific organizations because he wanted everyone in attendance during negotiations who could answer questions to help resolve the strike. The Sacramento County Office of Education is in charge of fiscal oversight for all the school districts in the county and FCMAT is the state agency that evaluates districts that are financially at risk. One of the points of contention among district and union officials is whether the district can afford the increasing compensation for teachers and staff.

“My goal was to get this thing done so the kids could return to school today,” Thurmond said.

The Sacramento City Teachers Association and school district leaders have been negotiating a contract since early 2019. They also have been bargaining over Covid-related issues for about two years, reaching an impasse in December.

The unions have complained of staffing shortages that have left hundreds of students without a full-time teacher or substitute each day. They say 600 students are on a waiting list for independent study and are getting no instruction.

Thurmond said he was discouraged that the two parties went several days without negotiating, but is encouraged they are back at the table now. He saids he expects both parties would agree to follow the recommendations of a fact-finding report prepared by a panel from the California Public Employment Relations Board if they can’t come to a compromise on their own.

The teachers union has agreed to the recommendations in the report, which include salary increases, retroactive Covid sick pay and a 25% increase in the daily rate for substitutes that was proposed by the district. It also recommends that the district not implement its proposals to offer a long-term independent study program with required instructional time in excess of state requirements, as well as plan to have teachers offer Zoom and in-person instruction simultaneously.

Thurmond, who took part in strike negotiations between Oakland Unified and teachers union representatives in 2019, said he would not be in the room for negotiations in Sacramento, although he would be happy to take part.

Thurmond said that the recent teacher strikes in California reflect what is happening across the country. Most teachers are calling for better compensation and improved working conditions, which have been made worse by staffing shortages, he said.

If the parties can’t come to an agreement, Thurmond said there is nothing he can do legally.

“We will use every tool available to get them back to school,” he said. “This has got to be resolved.”

A federal judge in Southern California on Monday found that former President Donald Trump and former Chapman University law school professor John C. Eastman “most likely committed felonies” in their failed effort to overturn the 2020 election, the New York Times is reporting.

“The illegality of the plan was obvious,” Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California wrote in an order requiring Eastman to turn over more than 100 emails to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Eastman resigned under pressure from Chapman’s Fowler School of Law in Orange County days after the attack on the Capitol. He had urged Trump to convince then Vice President Mike Pence that he had the power to not certify the electors from several key states, throwing the election to the House of Representatives.

The ruling came in a lawsuit Eastman filed to block the release of the emails to the Jan. 6 committee, citing attorney-client privilege. Carter rejected Eastman’s argument that the emails are protected by attorney-client privilege.

“The true animating force behind these emails was advancing a political strategy: to persuade Vice President Pence to take unilateral action on January 6,” Carter wrote.

“Our nation was founded on the peaceful transition of power, epitomized by George Washington laying down his sword to make way for democratic elections. Ignoring this history, President Trump vigorously campaigned for the vice president to single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election,” the judge wrote.

In his 2023 fiscal year budget released Monday, President Joe Biden proposed $88.3 billion in new discretionary spending for schools and colleges, an increase of 15.6% over last year’s spending.

The money includes $1 billion for schools to hire more counselors, nurses and other staff to help students recover from the pandemic, as well as $468 million for full-service community schools. It also includes $36.5 billion for Title I schools, more than double what was allotted in 2021, to help students living in poverty.

Special education is also highlighted. The budget includes $16.3 billion in grants to states, one of the largest ever increases in the history of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Much of the money is earmarked for early intervention programs for young children and programs to expand the special education teacher pipeline.

“Across the country, we must focus our efforts on recovery,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said. “That means ensuring all students — especially those from underserved communities and those most impacted by the pandemic — receive the resources they need to thrive.”

Anticipating a possible uptick in Covid cases after spring break, the state has sent 14.3 million at-home Covid tests plus other materials to all public and private schools, enough for all students and staff to be tested before returning to the classroom, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced over the weekend.

The tests, in addition to masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and social media messaging materials, are part of California’s SMARTER plan to curb the spread of Covid.

“California is focused on keeping schools open and students safe, and we’re not letting our guard down,” Newsom said. “We know that COVID-19 is still present in our communities, but the SMARTER Plan is how we keep people safe and continue moving the state forward.”

As of Monday, California had an average of 2,001 new Covid cases a day, and 54 deaths, according to the state Department of Public Health, numbers that have been steadily dropping since the omicron surge in January.

California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has asked Sacramento City Unified officials and union leaders to return to the table to resolve the strike that has closed schools for three days.

Sacramento City Unified teachers and school staff represented by SEIU 1021 went on strike Wednesday morning. The district serves 45,078 students. Negotiations between union and district officials broke down Wednesday night.

Thurmond also extended the invitation to “meet to restore dialogue” to district Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, the district’s school board, representatives of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, the Sacramento County Office of Education and the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, according to the California Department of Education.

It’s not clear whether Thurmond planned to be at the table for negotiations.

Aguilar declined Thurmond’s invitation, saying it was not the appropriate process for reaching an agreement with the district’s labor partners.

“We urge SCTA to present a counterproposal to the district’s last proposal so that we can give it due consideration and provide a response,” Aguilar said. “Our community is also wanting to understand what it will take to end this strike. With a counterproposal, the district’s negotiators are prepared to meet around the clock with SCTA so that we can bring our students on Monday. We reached out to SCTA again earlier today to request a response to the district’s last proposal.”

The Sacramento City Teachers Association and school district leaders have been negotiating a contract since early 2019. They also have been bargaining over Covid-related issues for about two years, reaching an impasse in December.

The unions have complained of staffing shortages that have left hundreds of students without a full-time teacher or substitute each day. They say 600 students are on a waiting list for independent study and are getting no instruction.

The district has offered teachers an ongoing 2% salary increase starting in the 2021-22 school year, a 2% bonus for this school year and 1% bonuses for both the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, according to the district. They also are offering increased pay for substitutes and nurses and three additional paid professional development days.

Nine school districts, charter schools and county offices of education were awarded $1.8 million in grants from private funders to improve training for teachers to better serve children learning English in addition to their home languages.

The funding is expected to be used to help develop new bilingual curriculum, or to hire coaches or conduct trainings to support teachers to implement the resources and best practices outlined in the Multilingual Learning Toolkit, developed by a coalition of nonprofit organizations, researchers and in collaboration with the California Department of Education.

“Multilingual children need support now more than ever with the pandemic creating further inequities in their learning experiences,” said Patricia Lozano, Executive Director of the organization Early Edge California, in a press release about the grants. “Let’s build an assets-based approach to teaching multilingual learners as a permanent part of California’s education system.” 

The awardees are Franklin-McKinley School District in San Jose, Fullerton School District, Oakland Unified School District, Salinas City Elementary School District, Semitropic School District, Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, a network of charter schools in Los Angeles, the Orange County Department of Education, the San Mateo County Superintendent of Schools, and the Tehama County Department of Education.

The grants were awarded by the Emerging Bilingual Collaborative, a project of the New Venture Fund backed by a coalition of five California-based funders – California Community Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, James B. McClatchy Foundation, Silver Giving Foundation, and Sobrato Philanthropies.

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