Teachers Re-Energized By New Transitional Kindergarten Classes

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, January 2, 2026…

• All 4-year olds in California can now go to school for free in a grade called transitional kindergarten, or TK. And to lead those classrooms, the state needs teachers with special training. A lot of teachers. So what does it take to do the job?
• A new project in San Diego is gathering stories of government persecution against the  LGBTQ+ community. Photos of the Lavender Names Project will be shown after select performances at the San Diego Opera this year.

California Created A New Grade For 4 Year-Olds, And It’s Re-Energizing Teachers

Marguerita Elementary School teacher Claudia Ralston spends most of her day on the floor, guiding her transitional kindergarten students through play. She said if it weren’t for TK, the Alhambra educator would be considering retirement. “Yes, I am exhausted,” Ralston said. “But just being here for the children and doing all the different activities … their curiosity, them wanting to learn just gives you that extra energy.”

This school year is the first where every 4-year-old in the state can enroll in the universal preschool program, also called TK, at their local public school. Schools need to hire an estimated 12,000 teachers to staff the program. Some may come from child care settings and preschool programs, but others are veteran educators who’ve gone back to school to get the credential required to teach TK. And once they get into the TK classroom, many educators told us, they’ve found new joy in the work.

Lauren Bush started teaching transitional kindergarten three years ago after more than two decades coaching other educators and teaching every grade from kindergarten through sixth. Her classroom at Lucille J. Smith Elementary in Lawndale is broken into different “centers,” where students can play with colorful magnetic tiles, practice painting their name or construct a ramp to roll a ball from one end of the room to the other. “It was just so joyful to be with the kids again,” Bush said. “That’s when I just, like, got back to myself as an educator, and now I’m gonna die here. That’s my plan. I love it here.”

Education research shows that teachers who like their jobs are more likely to stay, and that stability can be good for long-term learning outcomes.

New Project Documents Government Persecution Of LGBTQ+ San Diegans 

The Lavender Names Project is collecting stories of government persecution against LGBTQ+ San Diegans.

Submitted photos will show after each performance of “Fellow Travelers” at the San Diego Opera this year. The gay love story is set against the Lavender Scare — the interrogation and mass firing of LGBT U.S. civil servants in the 1950s. “One of the ironies of this time period is that it was all about keeping records on people and keeping files, but those files have never been released,” said Kevin Newbury, director of the opera.

Newbury, along with the American LGBTQ+ Museum, the Up Until Now Collective, and local librarians and archivists, took it upon himself to create a record. “Sharing stories — I mean, in many ways, that’s all we have, right?” he said.

He first directed “Fellow Travelers” for its premiere in 2016 in Cincinnati. “In the lobby after, people are crying and sharing intergenerational stories and saying, ‘You know, this happened to me,’ or, ‘This happened to my grandfather, who never came out of the closet but he lost his job in 1953,’” he said. “We’ve extended this all the way through, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in the United States military and sadly to today, because there are many people that are losing their jobs, especially in our trans and nonbinary community, in DC and beyond,” Newbury said. “I never thought that we would be including people that were getting fired today.”

The submissions may eventually be exhibited at the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York.