Education

On the first day of a massive LA teachers' strike, Gov. Gavin Newsom pressed for legislation adding more “transparency” to the state’s 1,200-plus charter schools—a point of contention between the LA district and the union.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposal to pay down pension liability would save California school districts an estimated $50 per students. It wasn't enough to head off the Los Angeles teachers strike, but districts are welcoming it anyway.

Los Angeles teachers are set to strike Monday despite a fresh offer from California's largest school district after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed freeing some $40 billion at Los Angeles Unified School District by paying pension debt. The strike would impact more than a half-million students and their families.

A huge surprise surplus, a big push on affordable housing, help for college students, working poor tax credits, credit cards at the DMV, kindergarten potties.

Before Gavin Newsom can expand preschool, California will first have to get to full-day kindergarten by building classrooms with those little toilets attached.

Tony Thurmond, who spent a childhood in the sort of poverty that mirrors the lives of many California school children, was sworn in on Monday as state superintendent of public instruction, becoming the second African American to hold the office. He will oversee the California Department of Education as the top education administrator in a state where majority of students come from low-income households.

The threatened teachers' strike at Los Angeles Unified School District is already reverberating in public schools across California, and could be felt by taxpayers and communities throughout the state.

There's a surge of California interest in the idea of a state-run bank to support the weed market and fund student loans and affordable housing. But would it work?

Universal preschool. Top ranked per-pupil spending. Data tracking from toddlerhood to universities. Newsom is giving schools a tough assignment for 2019.

Fewer than half of California's schools got a passing grade in English on Calfornia's School Dashboard, and only about a third passed in math. The state's colorful new assessment tool, in its second year, expands beyond test scores to include graduation rates, absenteeism, college readiness and other measures, but the big picture remains grim.