California Divide

After decades of voluntary desegregation, California schools have grown more segregated, not less. District boundaries are a major reason.

Amid a national backlash, is California willing to move from celebrations of freedom to building the structural conditions for Black people to permanently thrive?

Only 11% of schools spend what voters earmarked for arts on those classes. Music education is rare at many low income neighborhood schools.

A loophole in state law allows trucking schools to operate with little state oversight, raising concerns about the quality of training for California’s truck drivers.

An estimated 1 in 5 Californians live with a conviction on their record. A 2022 law gives many of them a chance to expunge their record and make greater contributions to their communities.

The state's upper class espouses equality politics and social justice, while pushing policies that keep low wage workers living in poverty.

Doctors regularly need to pay more than $300,000 for medical school, including tuition and housing. New regulations signed by President Donald Trump cap their federal borrowing at $200,000 for medical degrees.

California went from being a state with high economic mobility and opportunity to a society starkly separated by wealth, income and race.

Catholic hospitals run 20% of California's maternity wards. Their policies generally prohibit abortion, even in miscarriage, as long as a heartbeat can be detected.

Many people in California prisons and jails work for less than $1 an hour. Lawmakers are advancing two bills that could lead to wage increases for some of them.