K-12 Education

From later school start times to lower thresholds for parcel taxes, California lawmakers see a second chance with Gov. Gavin Newsom to pass education bills quashed by former Gov. Jerry Brown.

As charter school advocates rallied en masse and California’s teachers’ unions flexed their political muscle, a cluster of bills that would dramatically curb the growth of charters in the state cleared the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday. The votes were the first in what figures to be a lengthy, high-stakes battle this session between two […]

The win-win partnership between a struggling charter school network and a rural school district in Los Angeles County touched off a call for legislative reform.

Two months into the new job, Tony Thurmond seems to be exactly the man that his most loyal backers hoped (and his opponents feared) he would be. In a Commonwealth Club discussion with CALmatters' education reporter Ricardo Cano, the state’s public schools superintendent didn’t hold back in a wide-ranging discussion Thursday night: He raised doubts about the value of charter schools, criticized school districts for the state’s wave of teacher strikes, questioned the severity of public pension debt and insisted the state must spend more to educate its students.

The transparency mandate signed into law Tuesday is just the first in a flurry of bills aimed at curbing California charter schools.

As teachers strike this week in Oakland, the conflict over charter schools in California is being portrayed in sweeping terms. But a CALmatters analysis of statewide charter enrollment data paints a far more nuanced picture, in which charter growth is more a collection of densely concentrated hotspots than a statewide phenomenon.

As Gavin Newsom delivers his first State of the State speech, how do his plans prepare California for that dream—not just next year, but 5, 20, 30 years from now?

California has produced football stars including Tom Brady, Jared Goff and Julian Edelman. But the state is in the thick of national trends that are fueling a decline in football participation.

Our reporters are tracking California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies as he seeks to tackle big issues including housing, climate change, health care and more.

As Los Angeles teachers celebrate the end of their six-day strike against the state's largest school district, the Legislature has been left to settle some of the most vexing aspects of their dispute.