Education

With Heather Hiles's resignation,  California’s first-in-the-nation online community college now has 450 students — with  no full-time faculty,  no CEO and no political champion. What will Calbright's future be?

California state Sen. Bill Dodd has introduced legislation to help schools make up instructional time and state dollars lost to closures for climate-driven emergencies such as wildfires. The increasingly pressing issue was the topic of a CalMatters series last year.

The "free college" movement in California has consisted of two years of community college, for full-time students, with an assortment of strings attached. But with AB 1862, Los Angeles Assemblyman Miguel Santiago seeks to take California College Promise program, literally, to the next level: tuition-free junior and senior years for transfers to the Cal States.  

Former tech exec Heather Hiles' departure, effective March 31, comes only a few months after Calbright enrolled its first class of students.

A critical state audit has made oversight of spending on disadvantaged students a first order of business for California lawmakers. 

New California laws explained in 60 seconds. Ring in 2020 by learning about California's new do's and don'ts, and how they will affect us all.

The nationwide Varsity Blues scandal posed an important question about college admissions: As California Assemblyman Kevin McCarty put it, “How do we reassure the public that the system is not totally rigged?” State legislators sought to address this challenge with two new laws increasing oversight of the admissions process, both of which take effect in […]

We covered how Californians were affected by the workings — or non-workings — of their state government. Here are highlights:

When students of color have teachers of color, they learn more, finish high school at higher rates, and are more likely to go to college. But the number of teachers of color in California isn’t keeping pace with the diversity of its student body.

Campus organizers across California are gearing up for the state’s early primary in March, hoping for a repeat of the 2018 elections, when student voter turnout nationwide more than doubled. They’re trying creative tactics to get their peers registered and to the polls, helped along by two new California laws.