Emma Gallegos | Journalist
Reporting
While the vast majority of students in California — 86% of seniors in 2023 — graduate from high school, most — 56% in 2023 — do not complete their A-G requirements. EdSource’s analysis found that Black and Latino students are the hardest hit.
Vast disparities in California’s libraries mirror the state’s yawning equity gaps: The state’s most underfunded libraries are found in counties with high poverty and lowest percentage of people with a bachelor’s degree. Libraries tend to be better funded in wealthier coastal and urban areas, and underfunded in the San Joaquin Valley, Northern California and other inland areas.
In California, an estimated 28% of adults have such poor literacy in English that they struggle to do anything more complicated than filling out a basic form or reading a short text.
Advocates say the vision of the Golden State Pathways Program laid out by the Legislature is both progressive and practical, but those same advocates are frustrated by the program’s rollout, which they say has been beset by late deadlines, a confusing application process and delayed funding.
Superintendent Roy Mendiola finds himself walking a fine line between ensuring the community is ready to face a terrifying threat but without creating unnecessary anxiety.
“How do you prepare for what you know is coming? How do you provide some level of calmness?” said Mendiola. “Because every time there’s rain, people are asking me, ‘Are we going to flood out?’”
For decades, the San Joaquin Valley has been a destination for young families seeking affordable housing. The big questions about enrollment in the San Joaquin Valley have been about where new schools will be built, how they will be funded and what to do with the surge of students on campus in the meantime. But those questions can be thorny.
The Belridge Elementary School District has always been tied to the fortunes of oil. Good times for the oil industry were good for the school budget, but when oil prices hit the skids, so did the school budget.
For many who live in the area served by the Kern Community College District, college can feel far away — and it is. The district sprawls over a region larger than West Virginia. It is served by just one public university, Cal State Bakersfield. High school seniors in this district are less likely to attend college than most in the state.