California’s back-from-the-dead online college

I’m CalMatters reporter Mikhail Zinshteyn and I’m subbing in for Lynn today.

Who doesn’t like a good back-from-the-dead story?

California’s only fully online community college seemed like it was on political life support. Twice the state Assembly voted to shutter the school but was rebuffed by either Gov. Gavin Newsom or the state Senate, CalMatters’ Adam Echelman reports. 

The legislative animus, shared by many community college faculty, stemmed in part from a 2021 state audit that found that after its first year in 2020, Calbright enrolled just over 900 students and only 12 finished a certificate program. 

But owing to the school’s unique academic and enrollment practices, Calbright is on a tear. It has grown to 6,000 students and posted the most enrollment growth of any community college in California between 2024 and 2025, according to tentative state data. Calbright’s completion rate is 13%, on par with the state’s other 115 community colleges, though comparisons are difficult given how different CalBright is.

What makes Calbright unusual in California public higher education is its competency-based learning approach. “Students can enroll at any time and study whenever they want by watching pre-recorded lectures or setting up meetings with professors,” Adam writes. Nor does the school charge tuition. Conversely, traditional community colleges usually run on a semester basis and are generally only free for low-income students.

The school’s growth coincides with Newsom’s wish to more than triple the college’s annual state support from $15 million to $53 million in his January budget proposal. But Calbright’s foes remain rejective. Faculty groups say California’s community colleges are already offering similar courses to Calbright’s and that the money could be better spent on existing initiatives.

• Stephanie Goldman, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges: “Our argument is the same that it’s been since 2018 — this just isn’t a necessary college.”

The association opposes Newsom’s funding increase. The Legislative Analyst’s Office also posted its concerns about Calbright this month, questioning its cost-effectiveness and whether it’s living up to its original mission.

Read more by Adam here.

With oil prices surging because of Donald Trump’s decision to bomb Iran, the president ordered on Friday that offshore oil drilling near Santa Barbara restart — even though the same site was responsible for an oil spill 11 years ago that killed hundreds of animals.

As CalMatters’ Alejandro Lazo reports, Trump’s Friday decision invoked emergency powers under the Defense Production Act. The decision aims to override court orders that blocked a Houston-based company, Sable Offshore Corp, from renewing drilling operations. Sable says it can produce 30,000 to 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. 

Newsom said California will sue.

“Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, and told Americans it was a small price to pay,” Newsom said. “Now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches.”

Read more by Alejandro here.

California continues to sue the Trump administration over its policies affecting colleges and universities, showing no signs of slowing down after 2025’s whirlwind of state-initiated litigation against the White House.

Last week California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of states led by Democrats sued the White House for requiring colleges to provide data going back a half decade on the race and grades of applicants, among other information. Two days later, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order siding with the states. A hearing is scheduled for March 24. The suit says Trump may use the data to punish states for alleged affirmative action practices.

And it’s not just Bonta leading the state charge. On March 6, the California State University sued the Trump administration over its findings that San Jose State University violated women’s rights by permitting a transgender woman to compete on the women’s volleyball team between 2022 and 2024. Central to the White House’s argument is that the school violated Trump’s executive order banning transgender women from school athletics. 

Cal State says it did nothing wrong.

• California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia at the Cal State Trustees meeting Tuesday: “An executive order does not by itself change statutory or legal precedent. Second, the executive order was issued after the time in question and cannot be applied retroactively.”

Several anti-transgender advocates spoke at the trustees meeting, prompting groans and censure from some professors in the public gallery.

“You’ve been lied to. It’s impossible for a human to change your sex. There’s no such thing as a gender identity,” said one speaker.

Moments earlier, a Cal State sociology professor said sex and gender are both societal constructs and added: “Shame on you for using lesbian politics as a front for your transphobia because this lesbian has had plenty of girlfriends with penises.”

The back-and-forth prompted the chair of the trustees to admonish the crowd for arguing with each other rather than directing comments to the board.

California’s ports, warehouses and railyards don’t own the trucks and trains that move goods in and out of them. So why should they be responsible for the pollution those vehicles leave behind, ask business groups? That’s a question core to a new legislative effort to curb emissions at these sites after the Trump administration reduced California’s and the federal government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gasses and mandate electric vehicles.

Read CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde’s story here.