#california-education-policy

#california-education-policy

The February 2025 exam faced numerous technical issues, including server problems and ineffective tech support, leading to a joint request for a stay in the case against ProctorU.

Sheryl Davis is accused of steering millions of dollars to Collective Impact, a San Francisco-based nonprofit she previously ran as executive director, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.

Over the past few weeks leading up to the teachers strike, Superintendent Maria Su repeatedly told the press and labor negotiators that dipping into the district's over $400 million reserves was, simply, "not an option." But projected spending shows that the district will significantly spend its reserves to pay for its labor agreements, potentially depleting its "restricted funding" by 2028.

There's a lot of evidence that indicates that teacher morale has been declining nationwide and is at, by some measures, the lowest point in recent memory. California teachers scored 16 on the Teacher Morale Index, which is based on three questions from the Education Week survey. The morale score for U.S. teachers overall was 13.

Protecting students from immigration raids was a priority for state legislators this year, resulting in several new laws, including one prohibiting school staff from allowing immigration officers to enter campuses or providing student or family information. The most controversial of the new laws is one meant to target antisemitism, although amendments made during the legislative session resulted in a bill that defines discrimination more broadly.

The central aspect of the PACE plan calls for removing the state superintendent as the head of the California Department of Education. Instead, that department would be run by an appointee of the state Board of Education. Members of the state board are appointed by the governor to fixed four-year terms. The PACE report envisions the "governor as the chief architect and steward responsible for aligning and advancing California's education system."

These numbers look stark, but in context they reveal far more about the conditions California children are growing up in than the quality of classroom instruction. California educates a disproportionate share of children experiencing housing insecurity. A 2024 analysis found that 4% of California students were homeless, with some counties reaching 16%. The California Department of Education reports 230,443 homeless students statewide, a 26% increase over five years that mirrors broader trends in affordability, overcrowding and displacement.

Teachers have almost no authority over student behaviors or academic grading, and are given little, if any, respect from administrators, parents or even students. Instead, students have all the authority but no responsibility for their success. Students do (or don't do) whatever they wish, while empty-handed teachers are left to take the blame. Teachers no longer have the ultimate tool of flunking students.

California is one of six states that fund public schools based on how many students attend classes on an average day. Under California law, Average Daily Attendance is calculated by dividing the total number of days students attended class by the number of days of instruction. A student who leaves campus for only part of the day to protest, or for any other reason, still counts as having attended school for the purposes of calculating ADA.

While Newsom supports more bachelor's degrees for students, he's repeatedly stated his opposition to adding more community college baccalaureate programs that go outside an agreed-upon process in a law that he and lawmakers approved in 2021. That law said community colleges can develop up to 30 bachelor's degrees per academic year, as long as the degrees do not duplicate the baccalaureate programs of the University of California and California State University.