Teaching in a school like mine, you get insulted a lot. Not by the students, who are (mostly) wonderful, but by conservative critics who judge and misjudge the performance of schools and districts that serve low-income, minority, and immigrant communities...

A decade after California revolutionized the way it funds schools, nearly everyone agrees the initiative has done what it was meant to do: improved math and reading scores and brought more resources to students who struggle the most. And nearly...

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...

While the vast majority of students in California—86% of seniors in 2023—graduate from high school, most—56% in 2023—do not complete their A-G requirements, according to an EdSource analysis of data from the California Department of Education. EdSource’s analysis found that...

A Hayward elementary school struggling to boost low test scores and dismal student attendance is spending $250,000 in federal money for an organization called Woke Kindergarten to train teachers to confront white supremacy, disrupt racism and oppression and remove those...

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...

In a 2022 study of 10 CCB-authorizing states, researchers Ivy Love and Iris Palmer found that half required CCB institutions to keep upper-division tuition level with lower-division tuition. Even in the states that don’t place this requirement on community colleges...

For many school districts in California, the flush years of budget windfalls are decidedly over. Declining enrollment, expiring Covid funds, inflation and ballooning staff costs have combined to lead some districts — particularly those in urban areas — to make...

When it passed in 1978, before most of today’s Californians were even born, Proposition 13 addressed the very real fear of rising tax bills pricing people out of their homes. But we now have decades of evidence that Proposition 13...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed May budget revision for the 2023-24 fiscal year May 12. Newsom’s revised proposal now accounts for a projected $31.5 billion “shortfall,” or deficit, an increase from the governor’s January budget, which estimated approximately...

For the past decade, California has spent billions of dollars to improve the education of at-risk children, but there’s scant evidence that it had the intended effect. When Jerry Brown returned to the governorship in 2011, a quarter-century after his...

Michael Kirst, the architect of the Local Control Funding Formula and then its chief implementer as president of the California State Board of Education for the first five years after its passage in 2013, freely acknowledges the law needs some...

In 2013, the Legislature adopted the Local Control Funding Formula, landmark legislation championed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that overhauled how California finances TK-12 schools. It significantly redistributed money to districts based on student needs, and, in exchange for transferring more...

Now is the time for California elected leaders to be bold and to build on the historic progress we’ve seen. As a state that is poised to be the fourth largest economy in the world, California has the capacity and...

The San Francisco Unified School District calls the LCAP its “most important plan.” That’s because the Local Control and Accountability Plan will map out how SFUSD serves its highest-need students: English language learners, foster and homeless youth and socioeconomically disadvantaged...

The California Department of Education is making another historic investment in its educational leaders by awarding up to $12 million in additional funding over three years to the 21st Century California School Leadership Academy (21CSLA) State Center, a project housed...

By directing funding to the state’s poorest schools and targeting racial disparities statewide, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing the biggest changes in a decade to the state system of funding and governing schools. His plan would be an implicit acknowledgment...

California’s public education performance needs improvement. The state ranks 40th in pre-K through 12th grade education, according to US News 2022 rankings. On average, 86% of California students graduate high school compared to 92% in Florida and 94% in Texas. ...

After years of ambitious and record-breaking investments in education, Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled a decline in funding for California’s K-12 schools and community colleges in his 2023-24 proposed budget. EdSource asked practitioners, observers, advocates, students and legislators...

California Governor Gavin Newsom released his January budget proposal for the 2023-24 fiscal year Tuesday. The proposal accounts for a projected $22.5 billion “budget gap,” or deficit, a major change from the $100 billion surplus the state saw in its...

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%...

Dr. Michael W. Kirst is Professor Emeritus of Education and Business Administration at Stanford University and the longest-serving President of the California State Board of Education, serving as a member from 1975-1982 (as well as President from 1977 to 1981...