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Joe Hong

K-12 Education Reporter

Joe reports on the students, teachers and lawmakers who shape California's public schools. Before joining CalMatters in 2021, he was the education reporter at KPBS, the public radio station in San Diego. Previously, he reported on education in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun, a daily newspaper in Palm Springs. He's a proud graduate of California's public schools.

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Ezuma Ekomo Ble, a senior at Milpitas High School, receives her COVID-19 vaccine in a locker room at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on May 11, 2021. Photo by Dylan Bouscher, Bay Area News Group
Sisters Guadalupe Flores, 15, right, and Estela Flores, 13, left, from East Los Angeles, get vaccinated with the Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by licensed vocational nurse Rita Orozco at Esteban E. Torres High School in Los Angeles. The city has required all students 12 and older to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to participate in on-campus instruction. Now the state of California is following with its own mandate. Photo by Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo
Ellie sits in her room with a behavioral therapist during class time in Monrovia, on Sept. 15, 2021. "There is no way to go back with 37 kids in a classroom," Julie Fitzgibbons, the mother of triplets, said. "With masks and not being able to communicate very well, and autism, there is just no way we can go back like normal." Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMatters
Sisters Guadalupe Flores, 15, right, and Estela Flores, 13, left, from East Los Angeles, get vaccinated with the Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine by licensed vocational nurse Rita Orozco at Esteban E. Torres High School in Los Angeles. The city has required all students 12 and older to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to participate in on-campus instruction. Now the state of California is following with its own mandate. Photo by Damian Dovarganes, AP Photo
Mario Ramirez Garcia, 10, attends online class in the bedroom he shares with his sister on April 23, 2021. “It’s funner in real school,” said Mario of distance learning. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters
Rising first graders walk to their classroom at the start of the day during summer session at Laurel Elementary in Oakland on June 11, 2021. Laurel is a hub program for five district schools hosting 120 kids for the summer with a focus on resocialization in addition to academics. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

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