Higher Education

International students forced to return to their home countries. Low-income students losing the jobs that kept them afloat. Professors and students alike pushed off campus and adjusting to virtual learning, sometimes without access to the technology they needed.  The coronavirus pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of California higher education as we knew it. In the […]

Download and read this 53-page overview of all the major issues facing California policymakers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend $15 million to develop more degree programs that include free textbooks, taking aim at the “usurious costs” of commercial textbooks today. The state spent $5 million on a similar program in 2016-17.

Both President-elect Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats want to forgive some amount of federal student loan debt. The question is, how much — $10,000 or $50,000 — and is it even a good idea?

Sara Romero tutors math for middle school students in San Diego during their last class of the day. But on Jan. 6, her attention was divided between two monitors: one showing her students and another open to news coverage of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. “I had to tell the kids, ‘I’m fine!’” said […]

1. California widens mental health conditions insurers must cover In the past, state law only required treatment for nine serious mental illnesses. Even before the pandemic, more than half of Californians said most people with mental health conditions couldn’t get the help they needed. Some families even dropped private insurance to qualify for treatment in […]

At the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, California students led the nation in creating college ethnic studies programs that explored the histories and cultures of people overlooked by the dominant European-centric curriculum. It was a time of national racial introspection and wide-scale protest. Echoes of then are loud and clear in […]

Assuming the president approves Congress’ bipartisan relief package of $900 billion, California community colleges expect to receive $1 billion in sorely needed cash, money meant for direct student aid and to shore up colleges’ battered finances.

While coronavirus cases are surging across California and overwhelming intensive care units, the country’s top infectious disease expert said today he’s “cautiously optimistic” that college students can return to campus in the fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he anticipates that COVID-19 vaccines will begin to […]

The new information gives new insight into intergenerational debt. Experts argue that the federal loans taken out by low-income parents can be a net negative for the family.