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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Update Friday, June 24: The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was announced on June 24, overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>California guarantees the right to abortion in statute and the state constitution. Our state’s abortion laws are the strongest in the United States. Both officials and abortion providers have made it very clear that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917111/even-without-roe-v-wade-abortion-is-still-legal-in-california-heres-what-you-need-to-know\">abortion access in California will not change\u003c/a> because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. \u003ca class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917776/supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917776/supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">Read more about the overturning of Roe v. Wade\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original story continues:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California abortion clinics are building new facilities closer to transit hubs and training more staff. A package of a dozen abortion rights bills moving through the Legislature could expand the number of providers, provide financial assistance to patients traveling to California to terminate their pregnancies, and legally protect the doctors who treat them.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jodi Hicks, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California\"]‘People from across the country are already looking to California as a haven state, as a beacon to provide them the care they need.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As new restrictions rapidly sweep the country in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that may dramatically scale back or even end the constitutional right to abortion, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/abortion-in-california-laws/\">California is preparing to step into the void\u003c/a> — and welcome a possible surge of patients losing access in dozens of other states. Politico released a \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473\">draft majority opinion\u003c/a> written by Justice Samuel Alito that calls for overturning Roe v. Wade and the constitutional abortion rights that were maintained under the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the draft opinion, Alito wrote, “We hold that \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Casey\u003c/em> must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Casey\u003c/em> now chiefly rely – the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, justices can change, and have changed, their votes on major decisions where multiple drafts have been created. The Supreme Court’s decision will not be final until it is published, more than likely sometime in the next two months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the leaked draft opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed its authenticity and directed the Supreme Court marshal to investigate how such a leak occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096123185/supreme-court-john-roberts-roe-wade\">said Roberts in a statement\u003c/a>. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People from across the country are already looking to California as a haven state, as a beacon to provide them the care they need,” Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said during a recent online program. “It is our moral imperative that we continue to provide the leadership that people are looking for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planned Parenthood, which operates about half of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ansirh.org/abortion-facility-database\">165 abortion clinics in California\u003c/a>, reports that it has treated at least 80 out-of-state patients per month on average since September, when Texas adopted a law allowing residents to seek civil damages against anyone who aids an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That move turbocharged a political and cultural battle that has all but cut off abortion access in the most conservative parts of the country in recent years and sent advocates in liberal states scrambling to build a bulwark for reproductive rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unable to secure an injunction against the Texas law while courts consider the legality of the novel attempt to circumvent Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that protected the right to an abortion without excessive government restriction — clinics in the state shut down to avoid a deluge of lawsuits. \u003ca href=\"https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2022/03/07/about-1-400-texans-seeking-out-of-state-abortions-per-month--ut-austin-study-says-\">Thousands of patients are now seeking abortions elsewhere\u003c/a>, overwhelming neighboring Oklahoma and New Mexico and pushing some people further afield to more friendly states, including California.[aside postID=\"news_11909017,arts_13911818,forum_2010101888660\" label=\"Related Posts\"]“The need right now of expanding access is pretty clear to all of us,” state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins told reporters last month. The San Diego Democrat is carrying \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1375\">Senate Bill 1375\u003c/a>, which would allow some nurse practitioners to independently perform first-trimester abortions without a doctor’s supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Getting ready for more patients\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sue Dunlap, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, said she has been preparing for years for the moment when the organization would have to become a haven for patients from all over the country who have nowhere else to turn for an abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That has included expanding and reorganizing its network of facilities — so that they are near airports and bus and train stations — and of supportive emergency rooms and medical providers. Dunlap said she worked with UCLA’s law school to establish a \u003ca href=\"https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF06954\">new center for the study of reproductive health law and policy\u003c/a>. Planned Parenthood Los Angeles also collaborates with medical schools across the country on abortion training, particularly in states where those opportunities might not otherwise exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dunlap declined to provide data on how many out-of-state patients the organization serves, arguing that the numbers would not fully reflect the situation because of the secrecy and fear surrounding abortion. But she noted that Los Angeles, as a center of tourism and commerce, has long been a \u003ca href=\"https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article/99/1/10/120152/Abortion-and-the-Law-in-CaliforniaLessons-for\">destination for people seeking abortions\u003c/a> — even before it was legal, when patients often crossed the border to Mexico for the procedure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Los Angeles is a place that people identify with ideas of freedoms,” Dunlap said. “Los Angeles is also a place that, when you don’t know where to go, you come here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who do come “are almost always in incredibly desperate situations,” she added, and many have more challenging circumstances and complications than in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dunlap mentioned a pregnant woman from Texas who was diagnosed with breast cancer, necessitating a double mastectomy. Though the woman did not want to terminate her pregnancy, Dunlap said, she had to travel to one of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles’s clinics in recent months because she could not get an abortion in her own state — and could not get the double mastectomy if she were pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which covers Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada, said it treated 66 out-of-state patients at its California clinics between September and March, including 22 patients from Texas. One of them was a college student who was prepared to use her scholarship money to fly to California until it provided her with a voucher, according to an anonymous patient testimony shared by the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Oklahoma and other states on the verge of shutting down abortion access as well, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte President and CEO Stacy Cross said the organization is preparing to take on between 250 and 500 more patients per week in its network of facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medication abortion is now available at all of its sites. Clinics are hiring more staff and making sure any medical providers who are licensed to perform abortions have the necessary training, even if they specialize in one of the other services Planned Parenthood offers, so they can schedule more appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next month, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte plans to break ground on a new, larger facility in Reno that is closer to the airport. Cross wants to add a second site in northern Nevada for what she anticipates will soon be more patients coming from Utah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work is personal for Cross: Both of her grandmothers died from a lack of access to reproductive care — one from an illegal abortion and the other in childbirth, delivering her ninth child at age 47, she said. She worries that Californians don’t fully understand how quickly and fully abortion access could shut down across the country if the Supreme Court reverses the Roe decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I even say those words out loud, it sends a chill down my back. It’s horrific to think about,” Cross said. But California has done an amazing job preparing: “We fill the gaps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Divide deepens between red and blue states\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Those gaps are almost certain to widen in the months to come. Spurred on by the success of the Texas law, anti-abortion legislators across America are racing to advance new restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just a one-week stretch this month, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politics/desantis-signs-abortion-ban-florida/index.html\">ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy\u003c/a>; GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma signed a bill making it \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/abortion-oklahoma-law-87880e9f3c7bde2ae634cb2f02839e6e\">a felony to perform an abortion in the state\u003c/a>, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and Republican legislators in Kentucky overrode a governor’s veto on a measure to impose \u003ca href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-general-assembly/2022/04/15/new-kentucky-abortion-law-ky-only-state-without-abortion-services/7330408001/\">broad new requirements on abortion providers\u003c/a> that they say make it impossible for them to continue operating. A federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/abortion-business-health-kentucky-legislature-eda1b6c68c636e753be8032c715bde45?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP\">temporarily blocked the Kentucky law\u003c/a> on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though many of the policies are currently unconstitutional, conservative states are laying the groundwork in anticipation that the Supreme Court will soon uphold a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/01/us/abortion-mississippi-supreme-court\">Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy\u003c/a>. A decision on that case is expected by June, and some experts believe the justices will take the opportunity to overturn the Roe ruling altogether, which would trigger \u003ca href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/10/26-states-are-certain-or-likely-ban-abortion-without-roe-heres-which-ones-and-why\">near or complete bans on abortion in about half of states\u003c/a>, including Arizona, which neighbors California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liberal states are responding with their own measures to protect the right to abortion in law, and to increase access to accommodate a potential influx of patients from beyond their borders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, Vermont voters will decide whether to \u003ca href=\"https://www.vpr.org/vpr-news/2022-02-08/proposed-constitutional-amendment-protecting-reproductive-liberty-heads-to-vt-voters\">amend the state constitution\u003c/a> to enshrine reproductive autonomy, while Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is trying to circumvent her state’s Republican-controlled Legislature by asking the state Supreme Court to \u003ca href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/04/07/michigan-abortion-law-ban-gretchen-whitmer-supreme-court/9485031002/\">overturn a pre-Roe abortion ban\u003c/a> that is still on the books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oregon recently approved a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/idaho-abortion-ban-oregon-reproductive-funding/283-4c696054-7b49-48ea-b7e2-a9639d47d47e\">$15 million fund that could provide financial assistance to patients\u003c/a>, including those from outside the state, who need help paying for abortion fees and other costs. Washington adopted \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/washington-state-governor-signs-bill-that-prohibits-texas-style-abortion-lawsuits\">legal protections against prosecuting people who aid an abortion or people who experience pregnancy losses\u003c/a>. Democratic legislators in Maryland overrode a veto by the Republican governor to pass \u003ca href=\"https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-sat-hogan-overrides-20220409-pqpje5ocdvaknho7ry62a6nfve-story.html\">a bill that would require health insurance plans to cover abortions\u003c/a> and put $3.5 million toward training providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several states have adopted or are pursuing measures to expand who is authorized to perform an abortion to include other advanced medical professionals beyond doctors, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, following a move that California made more than a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has been on the forefront for a long time,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, which researches and promotes reproductive rights. “It has helped other states see what’s possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making California an abortion ‘sanctuary’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/abortion-in-california-laws/\">California is pushing further still.\u003c/a> In September, after the Texas law took effect, Gov. Gavin Newsom convened the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cafabcouncil.org/\">Future of Abortion Council\u003c/a>, a coalition of reproductive rights, health and justice groups, to explore how to make the state a “sanctuary” for abortion. More than 40 policy recommendations, released in December, formed the basis for the sweeping legislative package now advancing at the Capitol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If approved by the end of session in August and signed by Newsom, the measures would become law next year, though supporters hope some pieces might be incorporated into the state budget that must be approved by June 15. Those could kick in immediately this summer, when the Supreme Court decision on abortion is expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is definitely an urgency to get some of these things in place and get prepared, because this is happening regardless of whatever timeline our Legislature is on,” said Lisa Matsubara, general counsel and vice president of policy for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, which is sponsoring or co-sponsoring most of the bills in the package. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we are as ready as we can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The centerpiece is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1142\">Senate Bill 1142\u003c/a>, by Democratic Sens. Anna Caballero of Salinas and Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, which would create a state-administered fund to assist patients who face financial barriers to obtaining an abortion and support public research into improving access. Advocates are seeking $20 million from the state to launch the fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is also\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2134\">Assembly Bill 2134\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Akilah Weber, a San Diego Democrat, which would set aside money for clinics that provide uncompensated care to lower-income patients whose insurance does not cover abortion and contraceptive services. Supporters argue the funding is crucial to ensure that not only wealthy patients are able to travel to California for abortions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jessica Pinckney, executive director of Access Reproductive Justice, the only statewide abortion fund in California, says the bill could expand its grants to people who need help paying for their abortion, travel and lodging, lost wages, a doula or other expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Oakland-based fund supported 551 patients with an average of about $300, Pinckney said, not enough to meet anybody’s full need. She also would like to do more outreach to let people know the fund exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 80 people the fund served were from 18 different states, Pinckney added, but most are lower-income or from one of the dozens of mostly rural counties without an abortion provider, who may need to travel hours and stay overnight for a multi-day abortion procedure in their second trimester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even in the state of California, there are quite a few barriers,” Pinckney said. “This is an unmet need for Californians already.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recognition that conservative states may continue to ramp up legal and financial penalties for abortions, another collection of bills aims to protect doctors who travel to other states to perform the procedure or who treat out-of-state patients: \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1666\">AB 1666\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, an Orinda Democrat, would nullify civil judgments from other states related to reproductive care. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2091\">AB 2091\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, an Alameda Democrat, would prohibit medical providers and health insurers from sharing information in cases that seek to penalize abortion. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2626\">AB 2626\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, a Whittier Democrat, would prevent the state medical board from suspending or revoking the license of a physician who is punished in another state for performing an abortion in accordance with California law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other major legislative efforts include Atkins’s bill to allow abortions by independent nurse practitioners and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1918\">AB 1918\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, which would create a “reproductive health service corps” for underserved parts of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about strengthening our foundation, our health care foundation, to expand the pool of health care professionals who can provide abortions,” Atkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Last stand for anti-abortion activists?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/abortion-in-california-laws/#9f19d20d-aa0d-463f-a93f-1f63820093df\">measures are moving through the legislative process\u003c/a> so far with widespread support from the overwhelmingly Democratic lawmakers, and seem likely to be approved if they reach the governor’s desk. Newsom already signed a law last month that \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/03/22/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-eliminate-out-of-pocket-costs-for-abortion-services/\">prohibits health insurers from charging a co-pay or deductible for abortions\u003c/a>, thus eliminating out-of-pocket costs for covered patients. He pledged that California would continue to “protect and advance reproductive freedom for all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the bills have not been entirely without controversy. Hundreds of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2022/04/abortion-rights-covid-protests/\">protesters gathered at the Capitol last week\u003c/a> to oppose \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2223\">AB 2223\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, which would end a requirement that coroners investigate the cause of fetal deaths resulting from suspected self-induced abortions, clarify that people cannot be held criminally or civilly liable for their own pregnancy losses or abortions, and create an ability to sue prosecutors and others who violate that protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Protesters holding crosses and “Babies’ Lives Matter” signs packed onto the steps of the building to hear from \u003ca href=\"https://www.christianpost.com/news/christians-rally-against-california-abortion-bill.html\">Pastor Jack Hibbs of the Calvary Chapel Chino Hills megachurch\u003c/a>. Nearby, a Christian band and twirling dancers led a crowd in a worship service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the measure is necessary to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2022/04/coroner-investigation-stillbirths-anti-abortion/\">protect Californians from overzealous law enforcement\u003c/a> and district attorneys who may be hostile to abortion rights. They point to two Kings County women who were charged with murder and imprisoned in the past five years after \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/criminal-justice/2022/02/stillbirth-prison-manslaughter/\">both delivered stillbirths and tested positive for methamphetamine\u003c/a>, in what Attorney General Rob Bonta has called a misapplication of the state criminal code. Advocates argue that fear of prosecution may deter some patients from seeking necessary care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-800x534.png\" alt='A crowd marches forward holding signs that read \"Save lives No AB 2223.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-1536x1025.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM.png 1550w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protestors gather to rally against Assembly Bill 2223 at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 19, 2022. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But critics of the Wicks bill highlight a provision that states women cannot be penalized for “perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause,” referring to a baby who dies in an undefined period immediately after birth, which they contend is so vague as to legalize infanticide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is trying to really tear down one of the few restrictions that California does have when it comes to terminating pregnancies, and that is the actual point of delivery,” Jonathan Keller, president of the religious advocacy group \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiafamily.org/\">California Family Council\u003c/a>, said following the Capitol rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Wicks has vehemently denied that’s what the measure would or is intended to do, Keller said, “Intentions don’t matter. It’s actual legislative text that matters.” He added that the outrage has helped his group organize broader and more fervent opposition to the abortion legislation than it has managed in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do think that many of the bills in this package are actually out of step with the state of California,” Keller said, including the fund to help out-of-state patients travel to California for abortion care. He calls it “abortion tourism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His claims have been picked up by the Republican National Committee, which issued a statement denouncing Wicks’s bill and calling abortion “murder,” but seem unlikely to gain much traction in the Democrat-dominated Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the first committee hearing for the bill, following the rally, only one legislator questioned Wicks, who slammed her opponents’ tactics: “These same groups that are trying to ban abortion across this country and imprison people for stillbirths have manufactured a disinformation campaign using disturbing and violent imagery that is not grounded in medical science or the text of the bill,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite nearly an hour of testimony from opponents, the bill sailed through on an 11-3 vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The original version of this story was published on April 25, 2022.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California abortion-rights groups, health care providers and Democratic lawmakers all are getting ready for a potential influx of out-of-state patients after a leaked majority draft opinion calls for the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.",
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"title": "'We Fill the Gaps': California Preps to Be a Haven for Abortion Rights | KQED",
"description": "California abortion-rights groups, health care providers and Democratic lawmakers all are getting ready for a potential influx of out-of-state patients after a leaked majority draft opinion calls for the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/alexei-koseff/\">Alexei Koseff\u003c/a>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Update Friday, June 24: The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was announced on June 24, overturning Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>California guarantees the right to abortion in statute and the state constitution. Our state’s abortion laws are the strongest in the United States. Both officials and abortion providers have made it very clear that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917111/even-without-roe-v-wade-abortion-is-still-legal-in-california-heres-what-you-need-to-know\">abortion access in California will not change\u003c/a> because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. \u003ca class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917776/supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11917776/supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">Read more about the overturning of Roe v. Wade\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Original story continues:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California abortion clinics are building new facilities closer to transit hubs and training more staff. A package of a dozen abortion rights bills moving through the Legislature could expand the number of providers, provide financial assistance to patients traveling to California to terminate their pregnancies, and legally protect the doctors who treat them.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘People from across the country are already looking to California as a haven state, as a beacon to provide them the care they need.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As new restrictions rapidly sweep the country in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that may dramatically scale back or even end the constitutional right to abortion, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/abortion-in-california-laws/\">California is preparing to step into the void\u003c/a> — and welcome a possible surge of patients losing access in dozens of other states. Politico released a \u003ca href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473\">draft majority opinion\u003c/a> written by Justice Samuel Alito that calls for overturning Roe v. Wade and the constitutional abortion rights that were maintained under the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Casey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the draft opinion, Alito wrote, “We hold that \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Casey\u003c/em> must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of \u003cem>Roe\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Casey\u003c/em> now chiefly rely – the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, justices can change, and have changed, their votes on major decisions where multiple drafts have been created. The Supreme Court’s decision will not be final until it is published, more than likely sometime in the next two months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to the leaked draft opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed its authenticity and directed the Supreme Court marshal to investigate how such a leak occurred.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/05/03/1096123185/supreme-court-john-roberts-roe-wade\">said Roberts in a statement\u003c/a>. “The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People from across the country are already looking to California as a haven state, as a beacon to provide them the care they need,” Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, said during a recent online program. “It is our moral imperative that we continue to provide the leadership that people are looking for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planned Parenthood, which operates about half of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ansirh.org/abortion-facility-database\">165 abortion clinics in California\u003c/a>, reports that it has treated at least 80 out-of-state patients per month on average since September, when Texas adopted a law allowing residents to seek civil damages against anyone who aids an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That move turbocharged a political and cultural battle that has all but cut off abortion access in the most conservative parts of the country in recent years and sent advocates in liberal states scrambling to build a bulwark for reproductive rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unable to secure an injunction against the Texas law while courts consider the legality of the novel attempt to circumvent Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that protected the right to an abortion without excessive government restriction — clinics in the state shut down to avoid a deluge of lawsuits. \u003ca href=\"https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2022/03/07/about-1-400-texans-seeking-out-of-state-abortions-per-month--ut-austin-study-says-\">Thousands of patients are now seeking abortions elsewhere\u003c/a>, overwhelming neighboring Oklahoma and New Mexico and pushing some people further afield to more friendly states, including California.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The need right now of expanding access is pretty clear to all of us,” state Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins told reporters last month. The San Diego Democrat is carrying \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1375\">Senate Bill 1375\u003c/a>, which would allow some nurse practitioners to independently perform first-trimester abortions without a doctor’s supervision.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Getting ready for more patients\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Sue Dunlap, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, said she has been preparing for years for the moment when the organization would have to become a haven for patients from all over the country who have nowhere else to turn for an abortion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That has included expanding and reorganizing its network of facilities — so that they are near airports and bus and train stations — and of supportive emergency rooms and medical providers. Dunlap said she worked with UCLA’s law school to establish a \u003ca href=\"https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF06954\">new center for the study of reproductive health law and policy\u003c/a>. Planned Parenthood Los Angeles also collaborates with medical schools across the country on abortion training, particularly in states where those opportunities might not otherwise exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dunlap declined to provide data on how many out-of-state patients the organization serves, arguing that the numbers would not fully reflect the situation because of the secrecy and fear surrounding abortion. But she noted that Los Angeles, as a center of tourism and commerce, has long been a \u003ca href=\"https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article/99/1/10/120152/Abortion-and-the-Law-in-CaliforniaLessons-for\">destination for people seeking abortions\u003c/a> — even before it was legal, when patients often crossed the border to Mexico for the procedure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Los Angeles is a place that people identify with ideas of freedoms,” Dunlap said. “Los Angeles is also a place that, when you don’t know where to go, you come here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who do come “are almost always in incredibly desperate situations,” she added, and many have more challenging circumstances and complications than in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dunlap mentioned a pregnant woman from Texas who was diagnosed with breast cancer, necessitating a double mastectomy. Though the woman did not want to terminate her pregnancy, Dunlap said, she had to travel to one of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles’s clinics in recent months because she could not get an abortion in her own state — and could not get the double mastectomy if she were pregnant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which covers Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada, said it treated 66 out-of-state patients at its California clinics between September and March, including 22 patients from Texas. One of them was a college student who was prepared to use her scholarship money to fly to California until it provided her with a voucher, according to an anonymous patient testimony shared by the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With Oklahoma and other states on the verge of shutting down abortion access as well, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte President and CEO Stacy Cross said the organization is preparing to take on between 250 and 500 more patients per week in its network of facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Medication abortion is now available at all of its sites. Clinics are hiring more staff and making sure any medical providers who are licensed to perform abortions have the necessary training, even if they specialize in one of the other services Planned Parenthood offers, so they can schedule more appointments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next month, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte plans to break ground on a new, larger facility in Reno that is closer to the airport. Cross wants to add a second site in northern Nevada for what she anticipates will soon be more patients coming from Utah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work is personal for Cross: Both of her grandmothers died from a lack of access to reproductive care — one from an illegal abortion and the other in childbirth, delivering her ninth child at age 47, she said. She worries that Californians don’t fully understand how quickly and fully abortion access could shut down across the country if the Supreme Court reverses the Roe decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every time I even say those words out loud, it sends a chill down my back. It’s horrific to think about,” Cross said. But California has done an amazing job preparing: “We fill the gaps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Divide deepens between red and blue states\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Those gaps are almost certain to widen in the months to come. Spurred on by the success of the Texas law, anti-abortion legislators across America are racing to advance new restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just a one-week stretch this month, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politics/desantis-signs-abortion-ban-florida/index.html\">ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy\u003c/a>; GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma signed a bill making it \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/abortion-oklahoma-law-87880e9f3c7bde2ae634cb2f02839e6e\">a felony to perform an abortion in the state\u003c/a>, punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and Republican legislators in Kentucky overrode a governor’s veto on a measure to impose \u003ca href=\"https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-general-assembly/2022/04/15/new-kentucky-abortion-law-ky-only-state-without-abortion-services/7330408001/\">broad new requirements on abortion providers\u003c/a> that they say make it impossible for them to continue operating. A federal judge \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/abortion-business-health-kentucky-legislature-eda1b6c68c636e753be8032c715bde45?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP\">temporarily blocked the Kentucky law\u003c/a> on Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though many of the policies are currently unconstitutional, conservative states are laying the groundwork in anticipation that the Supreme Court will soon uphold a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/01/us/abortion-mississippi-supreme-court\">Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy\u003c/a>. A decision on that case is expected by June, and some experts believe the justices will take the opportunity to overturn the Roe ruling altogether, which would trigger \u003ca href=\"https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2021/10/26-states-are-certain-or-likely-ban-abortion-without-roe-heres-which-ones-and-why\">near or complete bans on abortion in about half of states\u003c/a>, including Arizona, which neighbors California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Liberal states are responding with their own measures to protect the right to abortion in law, and to increase access to accommodate a potential influx of patients from beyond their borders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In November, Vermont voters will decide whether to \u003ca href=\"https://www.vpr.org/vpr-news/2022-02-08/proposed-constitutional-amendment-protecting-reproductive-liberty-heads-to-vt-voters\">amend the state constitution\u003c/a> to enshrine reproductive autonomy, while Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is trying to circumvent her state’s Republican-controlled Legislature by asking the state Supreme Court to \u003ca href=\"https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/04/07/michigan-abortion-law-ban-gretchen-whitmer-supreme-court/9485031002/\">overturn a pre-Roe abortion ban\u003c/a> that is still on the books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oregon recently approved a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/idaho-abortion-ban-oregon-reproductive-funding/283-4c696054-7b49-48ea-b7e2-a9639d47d47e\">$15 million fund that could provide financial assistance to patients\u003c/a>, including those from outside the state, who need help paying for abortion fees and other costs. Washington adopted \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/washington-state-governor-signs-bill-that-prohibits-texas-style-abortion-lawsuits\">legal protections against prosecuting people who aid an abortion or people who experience pregnancy losses\u003c/a>. Democratic legislators in Maryland overrode a veto by the Republican governor to pass \u003ca href=\"https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-sat-hogan-overrides-20220409-pqpje5ocdvaknho7ry62a6nfve-story.html\">a bill that would require health insurance plans to cover abortions\u003c/a> and put $3.5 million toward training providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several states have adopted or are pursuing measures to expand who is authorized to perform an abortion to include other advanced medical professionals beyond doctors, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, following a move that California made more than a decade ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California has been on the forefront for a long time,” said Elizabeth Nash, a state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, which researches and promotes reproductive rights. “It has helped other states see what’s possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making California an abortion ‘sanctuary’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/abortion-in-california-laws/\">California is pushing further still.\u003c/a> In September, after the Texas law took effect, Gov. Gavin Newsom convened the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cafabcouncil.org/\">Future of Abortion Council\u003c/a>, a coalition of reproductive rights, health and justice groups, to explore how to make the state a “sanctuary” for abortion. More than 40 policy recommendations, released in December, formed the basis for the sweeping legislative package now advancing at the Capitol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If approved by the end of session in August and signed by Newsom, the measures would become law next year, though supporters hope some pieces might be incorporated into the state budget that must be approved by June 15. Those could kick in immediately this summer, when the Supreme Court decision on abortion is expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is definitely an urgency to get some of these things in place and get prepared, because this is happening regardless of whatever timeline our Legislature is on,” said Lisa Matsubara, general counsel and vice president of policy for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, which is sponsoring or co-sponsoring most of the bills in the package. “We are doing everything we can to make sure we are as ready as we can be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The centerpiece is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB1142\">Senate Bill 1142\u003c/a>, by Democratic Sens. Anna Caballero of Salinas and Nancy Skinner of Berkeley, which would create a state-administered fund to assist patients who face financial barriers to obtaining an abortion and support public research into improving access. Advocates are seeking $20 million from the state to launch the fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is also\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2134\">Assembly Bill 2134\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Akilah Weber, a San Diego Democrat, which would set aside money for clinics that provide uncompensated care to lower-income patients whose insurance does not cover abortion and contraceptive services. Supporters argue the funding is crucial to ensure that not only wealthy patients are able to travel to California for abortions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jessica Pinckney, executive director of Access Reproductive Justice, the only statewide abortion fund in California, says the bill could expand its grants to people who need help paying for their abortion, travel and lodging, lost wages, a doula or other expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, the Oakland-based fund supported 551 patients with an average of about $300, Pinckney said, not enough to meet anybody’s full need. She also would like to do more outreach to let people know the fund exists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 80 people the fund served were from 18 different states, Pinckney added, but most are lower-income or from one of the dozens of mostly rural counties without an abortion provider, who may need to travel hours and stay overnight for a multi-day abortion procedure in their second trimester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even in the state of California, there are quite a few barriers,” Pinckney said. “This is an unmet need for Californians already.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recognition that conservative states may continue to ramp up legal and financial penalties for abortions, another collection of bills aims to protect doctors who travel to other states to perform the procedure or who treat out-of-state patients: \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1666\">AB 1666\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, an Orinda Democrat, would nullify civil judgments from other states related to reproductive care. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2091\">AB 2091\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Mia Bonta, an Alameda Democrat, would prohibit medical providers and health insurers from sharing information in cases that seek to penalize abortion. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2626\">AB 2626\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, a Whittier Democrat, would prevent the state medical board from suspending or revoking the license of a physician who is punished in another state for performing an abortion in accordance with California law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other major legislative efforts include Atkins’s bill to allow abortions by independent nurse practitioners and \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1918\">AB 1918\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, which would create a “reproductive health service corps” for underserved parts of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about strengthening our foundation, our health care foundation, to expand the pool of health care professionals who can provide abortions,” Atkins said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Last stand for anti-abortion activists?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/abortion-in-california-laws/#9f19d20d-aa0d-463f-a93f-1f63820093df\">measures are moving through the legislative process\u003c/a> so far with widespread support from the overwhelmingly Democratic lawmakers, and seem likely to be approved if they reach the governor’s desk. Newsom already signed a law last month that \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2022/03/22/governor-newsom-signs-legislation-to-eliminate-out-of-pocket-costs-for-abortion-services/\">prohibits health insurers from charging a co-pay or deductible for abortions\u003c/a>, thus eliminating out-of-pocket costs for covered patients. He pledged that California would continue to “protect and advance reproductive freedom for all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet the bills have not been entirely without controversy. Hundreds of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2022/04/abortion-rights-covid-protests/\">protesters gathered at the Capitol last week\u003c/a> to oppose \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2223\">AB 2223\u003c/a> by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, an Oakland Democrat, which would end a requirement that coroners investigate the cause of fetal deaths resulting from suspected self-induced abortions, clarify that people cannot be held criminally or civilly liable for their own pregnancy losses or abortions, and create an ability to sue prosecutors and others who violate that protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Protesters holding crosses and “Babies’ Lives Matter” signs packed onto the steps of the building to hear from \u003ca href=\"https://www.christianpost.com/news/christians-rally-against-california-abortion-bill.html\">Pastor Jack Hibbs of the Calvary Chapel Chino Hills megachurch\u003c/a>. Nearby, a Christian band and twirling dancers led a crowd in a worship service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the measure is necessary to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/2022/04/coroner-investigation-stillbirths-anti-abortion/\">protect Californians from overzealous law enforcement\u003c/a> and district attorneys who may be hostile to abortion rights. They point to two Kings County women who were charged with murder and imprisoned in the past five years after \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/justice/criminal-justice/2022/02/stillbirth-prison-manslaughter/\">both delivered stillbirths and tested positive for methamphetamine\u003c/a>, in what Attorney General Rob Bonta has called a misapplication of the state criminal code. Advocates argue that fear of prosecution may deter some patients from seeking necessary care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-800x534.png\" alt='A crowd marches forward holding signs that read \"Save lives No AB 2223.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-1020x680.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM-1536x1025.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Screen-Shot-2022-04-25-at-2.04.46-PM.png 1550w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protestors gather to rally against Assembly Bill 2223 at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 19, 2022. \u003ccite>(Rahul Lal/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But critics of the Wicks bill highlight a provision that states women cannot be penalized for “perinatal death due to a pregnancy-related cause,” referring to a baby who dies in an undefined period immediately after birth, which they contend is so vague as to legalize infanticide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is trying to really tear down one of the few restrictions that California does have when it comes to terminating pregnancies, and that is the actual point of delivery,” Jonathan Keller, president of the religious advocacy group \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiafamily.org/\">California Family Council\u003c/a>, said following the Capitol rally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Wicks has vehemently denied that’s what the measure would or is intended to do, Keller said, “Intentions don’t matter. It’s actual legislative text that matters.” He added that the outrage has helped his group organize broader and more fervent opposition to the abortion legislation than it has managed in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do think that many of the bills in this package are actually out of step with the state of California,” Keller said, including the fund to help out-of-state patients travel to California for abortion care. He calls it “abortion tourism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His claims have been picked up by the Republican National Committee, which issued a statement denouncing Wicks’s bill and calling abortion “murder,” but seem unlikely to gain much traction in the Democrat-dominated Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the first committee hearing for the bill, following the rally, only one legislator questioned Wicks, who slammed her opponents’ tactics: “These same groups that are trying to ban abortion across this country and imprison people for stillbirths have manufactured a disinformation campaign using disturbing and violent imagery that is not grounded in medical science or the text of the bill,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite nearly an hour of testimony from opponents, the bill sailed through on an 11-3 vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The original version of this story was published on April 25, 2022.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "whats-a-black-school-worth-in-oakland-grass-valley-elementary-community-braces-for-2nd-closure-in-a-decade",
"title": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade",
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"headTitle": "What’s a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig Colbert mingles with parents picking up their kids outside Grass Valley Elementary’s front doors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school’s community adviser, it’s his job to know students’ families. It helps that he grew up with some of them in this hilly green section of East Oakland, that his own son graduated from the school and that he’s worked here for a decade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He saunters up to idling cars to chat with moms through open windows and offers dads standing on the sidewalk handshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s up, baby boy,” he says, gripping Steffen Scott Sr.’s hand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They both played basketball on the Grass Valley outdoor courts as kids. Now, Scott’s fifth grader is in his first year here. At his last school in Union City, there were hardly any Black students in his class, Scott explains, “so he couldn’t really identify with anything.” \u003c/span>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Francis Pearman, education professor, Stanford University\"]‘If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re a lot friendlier here,” Steffen Jr. chimes in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Grass Valley, Steffen Jr. is surrounded by students who look like him. The comfort of familiarity has translated into greater confidence, Scott says, and he sees the difference in his son’s schoolwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Seeing the joy when he walks out that door, it’s everything to me,” Scott says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley, off Golf Links Road near Skyline Boulevard, enrolls the highest share of Black students — 65% — among Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. In February, the school board voted to close it next year as part of a broader downsizing plan that will shutter seven campuses. Black families will be disproportionately affected. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision comes less than a year after the board made a remarkable pledge to its Black students by adopting a community proposal that organizers named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://reparationsforblackstudents.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan seeks to address practices, like school closures, that have helped cut the number of Black students in the district from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">25,400 in 2000-01 \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterEth.aspx?cds=0161259&agglevel=district&year=2021-22\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">7,400 this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the past two decades, Oakland Unified has closed 16 majority-Black schools. That’s left few elementary schools like Grass Valley.\u003c/span>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the board passed the Reparations for Black Students resolution in March 2021, it excluded one of the campaign’s central demands: that no majority-Black schools be considered for closure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under pressure to address a stubborn structural deficit, the size of which nobody seems to agree on, the board forged ahead. It did so despite the pleas of students, parents and teachers — and despite protest marches, rallies and a weeks-long hunger strike by two teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For those that don’t know the power of the word ‘reparations,’ the first part of the definition is a commitment to not cause harm again,” says Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, who chairs the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/reparations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is charged with implementing the reparations work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The story of this campaign is not an easy one to tell,” she continues. “It’s a story of, how do you really get a system to address its lack of commitment to the education of Black students? And how do you do it in such a way that even when there is resistance, you’re still capable of making some levels of progress?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley Elementary opened in 1953 as a set of portable classrooms with 100 students before a permanent school was built for the rapidly growing area. Throughout the 1960s, newspaper ads for nearby housing developments enticed buyers with references to the “outstanding” and “wonderful” neighborhood school. \u003c/span>[aside postID=\"news_11904278,news_11906636,news_11911675\" label=\"Related Posts\"]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, teachers have taped up crayon signs in the classroom windows that say “save our school” and “Black Lives Matter.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Colbert came to Grass Valley, he worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, just down the hill, until the district \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/27/ousd-board-votes-to-close-five-elementary-schools-at-a-contentious-meeting/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed it a decade ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mostly Black students enrolled at Marshall, and the reasons district leaders gave for closing it echo those for closing Grass Valley: under-enrollment and poor test scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was packing up Thurgood Marshall’s archives, Colbert, 49, came across photos of himself as a student there in the ’80s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I thought about the community, I thought about the kids that went there and how much they loved the school,” he says. “It was a tough deal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a kid, he’d hitchhike up Golf Links Road after school to play basketball on the school’s courts. Many of the children he grew up with went to school there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the neighborhoods close to the school were home to a mix of Black and white middle- and upper-middle-class families. Incomes dropped as you went down the hill, as did the share of white residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more Latino and Asian people now, and fewer Black families. Between 2010 and 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://belonging.gis-cdn.net/us_segregation_map/?year=2010&bounds=37.83%2C-121.98%2C37.65%2C-122.27&geoid=06001410000&geo=tract\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">share of Black residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the neighborhood surrounding the school dropped from nearly 50% to 37%, according to research from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having a school site where Black kids feel really valued and can be themselves is important,” says Paula Mitchell, another Marshall transplant who now runs Grass Valley’s project-based learning program. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Kids play outside at school.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I purposely chose to be in a place where I could teach students that look like me because I didn’t have any Black teachers when I was growing up,” she continues, “and I just know how it would have made me feel differently in my belief in all the things I could do in the world.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About half of Grass Valley’s teachers are Black, compared to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousddata.org/announcements/fast-facts-2020-21\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">20% district-wide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, according to school-district data. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think families feel really comfortable sending their children here knowing that we get it,” Mitchell says. “We understand what’s out there in the world and we’re doing our best to hold their kids close.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent study, Stanford education professor Francis Pearman \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/school-closures-and-gentrification-black-metropolis\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">found that school closures increased gentrification in Black neighborhoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In an age where school districts are writing statements and promising policy in ‘defense of Black lives,’ stakeholders must consider how educational policies are contributing to the further perpetuation of the disintegration of Black communities,” Pearman writes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his research, Pearman has identified a cyclical relationship between school closures and neighborhood change. Closing schools increases the likelihood that Black neighborhoods will gentrify. In turn, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042085919884342\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentrification leads to lower enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as families are displaced and new residents opt out of the neighborhood school or don’t have kids to enroll. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods,” Pearman says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 11, the ACLU asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Oakland’s closure plan, saying it is discriminatory and violates the rights of of Black students. On April 29, Oakland Unified teachers, including those at Grass Valley, held a one-day strike to protest the closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert leaves his two-story, four-bedroom home in Stockton at 6:30 a.m. to get to Grass Valley’s tree-ringed campus in time for work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I wanted to own my own house,” he says. “But I come here every day, so Oakland is still in my heart.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 10 Grass Valley families live outside the city, according to principal Casey Beckner, but most people leave the school behind when they move. They often leave for the Central Valley. Like Colbert, they’re relocating to become homeowners or looking for cheaper rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic has accelerated the exodus as parents put their kids in independent study or homeschool them. Public school \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-k-12-enrollment-plunges-again-falls-below-6-million/670111#:~:text=The%201.8%25%20enrollment%20decline%2C%20on,Covid%20struck%20in%20spring%202020.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrollment plummeted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> across the state during the pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man and child walk past a multicolored mural of students, a bridge and an eagle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Colbert watches students during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Grass Valley staff blame the Thurgood Marshall closure for driving families away, too. As they tell it, transplanting the Marshall community to Grass Valley created a chain reaction of instability. The principal got burned out and left, then some teachers started chafing at the new administrator’s approach. As teachers left, more families followed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Once you start a cycle of people leaving, then you have an open door,” Colbert says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment has declined at Grass Valley four years in a row, leaving the school with 198 students. District staff say that’s too small to make the school financially sustainable. For the past 15 years, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQ/EnrTimeRptSch.aspx?cYear=2012-13&Level=School&cName=Grass+Valley+Elementary&cCode=6001879&dCode=0161259\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> show the school’s enrollment has hovered around 250 students, dipping as low as 177 and rising to 285 at its peak. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If one school doesn’t have enough students to generate the money to cover its costs, it hurts the whole system, says school board director Clifford Thompson, whose district includes Grass Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have to use the money that [a bigger] school has generated in order to keep this other school afloat,” he says. “It’s a hard decision, but how long can you do that? It’s been done for several years, and now it’s time to really bite the bullet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District staff have pointed out that Oakland Unified operates more schools than many larger districts in the state. They say having more teachers per student than these other districts hasn’t translated into academic gains for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thompson sees an upside to larger schools. He’d like to see Oakland’s elementary schools enroll about 400 students each. The former principal, who returned to teaching in Richmond a few years ago, says having multiple teachers for each grade allows educators to learn from each other, grow and innovate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of Grass Valley’s teachers and staff who came from Marshall are wary of the district’s vision of a system improved through economization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a face mask sits in a classroom with two children using multicolored blocks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tammy Coleman works with students on an activity at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Tammy Coleman’s classroom, the small numbers are a blessing. Typically, she’s had 25 or 26 students, and as many as 30. This year, she has only 18 in her combined first and second grade class, the fewest she’s ever had. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s grateful to be able to give students more individualized support as they get readjusted to the classroom after more than a year of distance learning. She says some second graders, who didn’t know the alphabet when they started the year, are now flourishing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s less stress,” she says. “You can delve into what they need more.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Late one morning, after reading instruction, she makes her way around the classroom, checking in with students who are bent over their notebooks clutching crayons and pencils. The class is studying birds and the students are responding to prompts in their new research journals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey, William,” Coleman says, leaning down to get a closer look at her student’s work. “What do you wonder about birds?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How birds fly, period. And how they lay eggs,” Williams says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of research to do!” Coleman says before moving to another student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s closure would be her third. All three schools were majority Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent a decade at Cole Middle School, on 10th Street in West Oakland’s Cypress Village neighborhood, before the district closed it. She then moved to Thurgood Marshall. Based on her 28 years in the classroom, she says what matters most is individualized support. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids come in needing so much and it’s hard for one person to give them all that they need,” Coleman says. “Are you going to close the achievement gap by shoving them into a larger school with larger class sizes, teachers they don’t know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a group of local Black organizers began gathering community input to shape an agenda for improving Black students’ experiences in schools, stopping closures quickly became a priority. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One of the reasons why it rang so true for us to name the campaign Reparations for Black Students is because we saw a trend in this district that majority-Black schools were always targeted for school closures, which meant that the bulk of the pain of that practice lived in Black communities,” Awobodu, an OUSD parent and lead organizer of the reparations project, says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The evidence backs her up, says UC Berkeley professor of education and African American studies Janelle Scott, who’s studying school closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know that Black and Latinx students are much more likely to be targeted by school closures,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Chicago closed dozens of schools a decade ago, for instance, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/19/heres-one-reason-rahm-emanuel-wont-run-for-reelection-as-chicagos-mayor/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">88%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the students affected were Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So it’s not a subtle point of evidence,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other research finds that school closures are associated with charter school expansion, which can further destabilize district enrollment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research suggests academic prospects for students whose schools close vary depending on many factors, including the quality of the new school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s general education students will be sent to Oakland Academy of Knowledge and Burckhalter Elementary School under Oakland Unified’s plan. The schools are three and four miles away and their academic, racial and socioeconomic profiles are similar to Grass Valley’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott finds that claims about declining enrollment and cost savings are often used to justify closures, but that the evidence doesn’t actually support the strategy as a cost-savings measure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It sounds kind of persuasive and simple, but the reality is not quite so simple,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because the costs that can come with shuttering campuses, like facilities improvements needed to accommodate displaced students at receiving schools, can offset potential savings. Closing schools also can contribute to revenue decline by pushing more students out of the district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When you disrupt communities with school closures, however well-intentioned, many families do look for other options, so you see a relationship between school closures and even further enrollment declines,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott met with three Oakland Unified school board members in an effort to better understand their reasoning. They didn’t produce the evidence to persuade her. The takeaway, she says, was, “‘We don’t know what else to do. We know we need to do something.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In slating the closure, the district may have sealed Grass Valley’s fate: Families don’t want to sign up for a school that may not be around after next year, and some parents plan to pull their kids out preemptively. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ericka Njemanze used to be an active Grass Valley parent. She was president of the PTA and a member of the School Site Council. Her second grader and fourth grade twins have been at the school since kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912889\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A child holds up a drawing of a person.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student in Tammy Coleman’s class draws a picture that says ‘Girl Power’ at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I picked Grass Valley because it had a history,” she says. “I heard really good things about the school.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family doesn’t live far from Grass Valley, but it’s not their neighborhood school. At first Njemanze thought she’d made a good choice, but her feelings have changed. Her kids fell behind during the pandemic, and the fifth grade teachers she was looking forward to for her kids retired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the harsh light of the closure, the things that bothered her became intolerable. She judged the test scores and wondered where the other professional Black parents were. Why wasn’t there more PTA involvement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t see the fifth grade teachers taking my kids where they need to be,” says Njemanze, who plans to send her kids to Laurel Elementary next year. “I guess I want to beat the wave. If my kids can transition a little faster, I think that will help my household.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert stands at the end of a long lunch table in the schoolyard. On a neon green sheet of poster board, he’s mapped out the fourth grade and fifth grade girls’ arm-wrestling tournament brackets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week he held a tournament for the boys, and the girls demanded their own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This contest isn’t about strength, it’s about stamina and your will to win,” he tells the girls crowded around the table. “If you want to win, you will fix yourself to win. It doesn’t matter how big or small the other person is on the other side.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The girls pair up and lock arms. Their biceps tense as they strain and grit their teeth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Don’t give up,” Colbert says. “Don’t give up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Teachers and parents grapple with OUSD's decision to close Grass Valley Elementary and the disproportionate impact it will have on Black students.",
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"title": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade | KQED",
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"headline": "What's a Black School Worth in Oakland? Grass Valley Elementary Community Braces for 2nd Closure in a Decade",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Craig Colbert mingles with parents picking up their kids outside Grass Valley Elementary’s front doors. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the school’s community adviser, it’s his job to know students’ families. It helps that he grew up with some of them in this hilly green section of East Oakland, that his own son graduated from the school and that he’s worked here for a decade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He saunters up to idling cars to chat with moms through open windows and offers dads standing on the sidewalk handshakes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s up, baby boy,” he says, gripping Steffen Scott Sr.’s hand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They both played basketball on the Grass Valley outdoor courts as kids. Now, Scott’s fifth grader is in his first year here. At his last school in Union City, there were hardly any Black students in his class, Scott explains, “so he couldn’t really identify with anything.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“They’re a lot friendlier here,” Steffen Jr. chimes in. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At Grass Valley, Steffen Jr. is surrounded by students who look like him. The comfort of familiarity has translated into greater confidence, Scott says, and he sees the difference in his son’s schoolwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Seeing the joy when he walks out that door, it’s everything to me,” Scott says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley, off Golf Links Road near Skyline Boulevard, enrolls the highest share of Black students — 65% — among Oakland Unified School District elementary schools. In February, the school board voted to close it next year as part of a broader downsizing plan that will shutter seven campuses. Black families will be disproportionately affected. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The decision comes less than a year after the board made a remarkable pledge to its Black students by adopting a community proposal that organizers named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://reparationsforblackstudents.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Reparations for Black Students\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plan seeks to address practices, like school closures, that have helped cut the number of Black students in the district from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dashboards.ousd.org/views/Enrollment/Snapshot?:embed=y&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">25,400 in 2000-01 \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqcensus/EnrCharterEth.aspx?cds=0161259&agglevel=district&year=2021-22\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">7,400 this year\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. In the past two decades, Oakland Unified has closed 16 majority-Black schools. That’s left few elementary schools like Grass Valley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"link1": "https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the board passed the Reparations for Black Students resolution in March 2021, it excluded one of the campaign’s central demands: that no majority-Black schools be considered for closure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under pressure to address a stubborn structural deficit, the size of which nobody seems to agree on, the board forged ahead. It did so despite the pleas of students, parents and teachers — and despite protest marches, rallies and a weeks-long hunger strike by two teachers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“For those that don’t know the power of the word ‘reparations,’ the first part of the definition is a commitment to not cause harm again,” says Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, who chairs the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousd.org/reparations\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black Students and Families Thriving Task Force\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is charged with implementing the reparations work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The story of this campaign is not an easy one to tell,” she continues. “It’s a story of, how do you really get a system to address its lack of commitment to the education of Black students? And how do you do it in such a way that even when there is resistance, you’re still capable of making some levels of progress?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">— \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley Elementary opened in 1953 as a set of portable classrooms with 100 students before a permanent school was built for the rapidly growing area. Throughout the 1960s, newspaper ads for nearby housing developments enticed buyers with references to the “outstanding” and “wonderful” neighborhood school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, teachers have taped up crayon signs in the classroom windows that say “save our school” and “Black Lives Matter.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before Colbert came to Grass Valley, he worked at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, just down the hill, until the district \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandnorth.net/2011/10/27/ousd-board-votes-to-close-five-elementary-schools-at-a-contentious-meeting/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">closed it a decade ago\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Mostly Black students enrolled at Marshall, and the reasons district leaders gave for closing it echo those for closing Grass Valley: under-enrollment and poor test scores.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he was packing up Thurgood Marshall’s archives, Colbert, 49, came across photos of himself as a student there in the ’80s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I thought about the community, I thought about the kids that went there and how much they loved the school,” he says. “It was a tough deal.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a kid, he’d hitchhike up Golf Links Road after school to play basketball on the school’s courts. Many of the children he grew up with went to school there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, the neighborhoods close to the school were home to a mix of Black and white middle- and upper-middle-class families. Incomes dropped as you went down the hill, as did the share of white residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are more Latino and Asian people now, and fewer Black families. Between 2010 and 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://belonging.gis-cdn.net/us_segregation_map/?year=2010&bounds=37.83%2C-121.98%2C37.65%2C-122.27&geoid=06001410000&geo=tract\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">share of Black residents\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in the neighborhood surrounding the school dropped from nearly 50% to 37%, according to research from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Having a school site where Black kids feel really valued and can be themselves is important,” says Paula Mitchell, another Marshall transplant who now runs Grass Valley’s project-based learning program. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Kids play outside at school.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55654_027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I purposely chose to be in a place where I could teach students that look like me because I didn’t have any Black teachers when I was growing up,” she continues, “and I just know how it would have made me feel differently in my belief in all the things I could do in the world.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About half of Grass Valley’s teachers are Black, compared to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ousddata.org/announcements/fast-facts-2020-21\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">20% district-wide\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, according to school-district data. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I think families feel really comfortable sending their children here knowing that we get it,” Mitchell says. “We understand what’s out there in the world and we’re doing our best to hold their kids close.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a recent study, Stanford education professor Francis Pearman \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/school-closures-and-gentrification-black-metropolis\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">found that school closures increased gentrification in Black neighborhoods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“In an age where school districts are writing statements and promising policy in ‘defense of Black lives,’ stakeholders must consider how educational policies are contributing to the further perpetuation of the disintegration of Black communities,” Pearman writes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his research, Pearman has identified a cyclical relationship between school closures and neighborhood change. Closing schools increases the likelihood that Black neighborhoods will gentrify. In turn, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042085919884342\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">gentrification leads to lower enrollment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as families are displaced and new residents opt out of the neighborhood school or don’t have kids to enroll. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If these school closures are promoting the further dispossession of communities of color, making them even less likely to retain their historic profile of being Black communities, then there’s broader conversations that need to be had about what these closures mean for the lifeblood of Black neighborhoods,” Pearman says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On April 11, the ACLU asked Attorney General Rob Bonta to investigate Oakland’s closure plan, saying it is discriminatory and violates the rights of of Black students. On April 29, Oakland Unified teachers, including those at Grass Valley, held a one-day strike to protest the closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert leaves his two-story, four-bedroom home in Stockton at 6:30 a.m. to get to Grass Valley’s tree-ringed campus in time for work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I wanted to own my own house,” he says. “But I come here every day, so Oakland is still in my heart.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">About 10 Grass Valley families live outside the city, according to principal Casey Beckner, but most people leave the school behind when they move. They often leave for the Central Valley. Like Colbert, they’re relocating to become homeowners or looking for cheaper rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pandemic has accelerated the exodus as parents put their kids in independent study or homeschool them. Public school \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/california-k-12-enrollment-plunges-again-falls-below-6-million/670111#:~:text=The%201.8%25%20enrollment%20decline%2C%20on,Covid%20struck%20in%20spring%202020.\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">enrollment plummeted\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> across the state during the pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man and child walk past a multicolored mural of students, a bridge and an eagle.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55655_029_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Craig Colbert watches students during recess at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Grass Valley staff blame the Thurgood Marshall closure for driving families away, too. As they tell it, transplanting the Marshall community to Grass Valley created a chain reaction of instability. The principal got burned out and left, then some teachers started chafing at the new administrator’s approach. As teachers left, more families followed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Once you start a cycle of people leaving, then you have an open door,” Colbert says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enrollment has declined at Grass Valley four years in a row, leaving the school with 198 students. District staff say that’s too small to make the school financially sustainable. For the past 15 years, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQ/EnrTimeRptSch.aspx?cYear=2012-13&Level=School&cName=Grass+Valley+Elementary&cCode=6001879&dCode=0161259\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">state records\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> show the school’s enrollment has hovered around 250 students, dipping as low as 177 and rising to 285 at its peak. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If one school doesn’t have enough students to generate the money to cover its costs, it hurts the whole system, says school board director Clifford Thompson, whose district includes Grass Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have to use the money that [a bigger] school has generated in order to keep this other school afloat,” he says. “It’s a hard decision, but how long can you do that? It’s been done for several years, and now it’s time to really bite the bullet.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">District staff have pointed out that Oakland Unified operates more schools than many larger districts in the state. They say having more teachers per student than these other districts hasn’t translated into academic gains for students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thompson sees an upside to larger schools. He’d like to see Oakland’s elementary schools enroll about 400 students each. The former principal, who returned to teaching in Richmond a few years ago, says having multiple teachers for each grade allows educators to learn from each other, grow and innovate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of Grass Valley’s teachers and staff who came from Marshall are wary of the district’s vision of a system improved through economization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman wearing a face mask sits in a classroom with two children using multicolored blocks.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55644_018_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Tammy Coleman works with students on an activity at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Tammy Coleman’s classroom, the small numbers are a blessing. Typically, she’s had 25 or 26 students, and as many as 30. This year, she has only 18 in her combined first and second grade class, the fewest she’s ever had. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s grateful to be able to give students more individualized support as they get readjusted to the classroom after more than a year of distance learning. She says some second graders, who didn’t know the alphabet when they started the year, are now flourishing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s less stress,” she says. “You can delve into what they need more.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Late one morning, after reading instruction, she makes her way around the classroom, checking in with students who are bent over their notebooks clutching crayons and pencils. The class is studying birds and the students are responding to prompts in their new research journals. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hey, William,” Coleman says, leaning down to get a closer look at her student’s work. “What do you wonder about birds?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How birds fly, period. And how they lay eggs,” Williams says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot of research to do!” Coleman says before moving to another student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s closure would be her third. All three schools were majority Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent a decade at Cole Middle School, on 10th Street in West Oakland’s Cypress Village neighborhood, before the district closed it. She then moved to Thurgood Marshall. Based on her 28 years in the classroom, she says what matters most is individualized support. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The kids come in needing so much and it’s hard for one person to give them all that they need,” Coleman says. “Are you going to close the achievement gap by shoving them into a larger school with larger class sizes, teachers they don’t know?” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a group of local Black organizers began gathering community input to shape an agenda for improving Black students’ experiences in schools, stopping closures quickly became a priority. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“One of the reasons why it rang so true for us to name the campaign Reparations for Black Students is because we saw a trend in this district that majority-Black schools were always targeted for school closures, which meant that the bulk of the pain of that practice lived in Black communities,” Awobodu, an OUSD parent and lead organizer of the reparations project, says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The evidence backs her up, says UC Berkeley professor of education and African American studies Janelle Scott, who’s studying school closures. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We know that Black and Latinx students are much more likely to be targeted by school closures,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Chicago closed dozens of schools a decade ago, for instance, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/09/19/heres-one-reason-rahm-emanuel-wont-run-for-reelection-as-chicagos-mayor/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">88%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of the students affected were Black. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“So it’s not a subtle point of evidence,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other research finds that school closures are associated with charter school expansion, which can further destabilize district enrollment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Research suggests academic prospects for students whose schools close vary depending on many factors, including the quality of the new school. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grass Valley’s general education students will be sent to Oakland Academy of Knowledge and Burckhalter Elementary School under Oakland Unified’s plan. The schools are three and four miles away and their academic, racial and socioeconomic profiles are similar to Grass Valley’s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott finds that claims about declining enrollment and cost savings are often used to justify closures, but that the evidence doesn’t actually support the strategy as a cost-savings measure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It sounds kind of persuasive and simple, but the reality is not quite so simple,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s because the costs that can come with shuttering campuses, like facilities improvements needed to accommodate displaced students at receiving schools, can offset potential savings. Closing schools also can contribute to revenue decline by pushing more students out of the district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“When you disrupt communities with school closures, however well-intentioned, many families do look for other options, so you see a relationship between school closures and even further enrollment declines,” Scott says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scott met with three Oakland Unified school board members in an effort to better understand their reasoning. They didn’t produce the evidence to persuade her. The takeaway, she says, was, “‘We don’t know what else to do. We know we need to do something.’”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In slating the closure, the district may have sealed Grass Valley’s fate: Families don’t want to sign up for a school that may not be around after next year, and some parents plan to pull their kids out preemptively. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ericka Njemanze used to be an active Grass Valley parent. She was president of the PTA and a member of the School Site Council. Her second grader and fourth grade twins have been at the school since kindergarten.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912889\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A child holds up a drawing of a person.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/RS55649_023_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student in Tammy Coleman’s class draws a picture that says ‘Girl Power’ at Grass Valley Elementary School in Oakland on April 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I picked Grass Valley because it had a history,” she says. “I heard really good things about the school.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family doesn’t live far from Grass Valley, but it’s not their neighborhood school. At first Njemanze thought she’d made a good choice, but her feelings have changed. Her kids fell behind during the pandemic, and the fifth grade teachers she was looking forward to for her kids retired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the harsh light of the closure, the things that bothered her became intolerable. She judged the test scores and wondered where the other professional Black parents were. Why wasn’t there more PTA involvement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I don’t see the fifth grade teachers taking my kids where they need to be,” says Njemanze, who plans to send her kids to Laurel Elementary next year. “I guess I want to beat the wave. If my kids can transition a little faster, I think that will help my household.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Colbert stands at the end of a long lunch table in the schoolyard. On a neon green sheet of poster board, he’s mapped out the fourth grade and fifth grade girls’ arm-wrestling tournament brackets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week he held a tournament for the boys, and the girls demanded their own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“This contest isn’t about strength, it’s about stamina and your will to win,” he tells the girls crowded around the table. “If you want to win, you will fix yourself to win. It doesn’t matter how big or small the other person is on the other side.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The girls pair up and lock arms. Their biceps tense as they strain and grit their teeth. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Don’t give up,” Colbert says. “Don’t give up.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "charter-schools-examine-the-future-amid-teacher-shortage-and-declining-enrollment",
"title": "Charter Schools Examine the Future Amid Teacher Shortage and Declining Enrollment",
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"headTitle": "Charter Schools Examine the Future Amid Teacher Shortage and Declining Enrollment | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Charter school enrollment in California declined this year for the first time after three decades of steady and, in some years, staggering growth. Does this signify a pandemic blip, retrenchment or an inflection point for charter schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not since the first charter school opened in 1994 in San Carlos, south of San Francisco, has charter school enrollment fallen year over year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was to have been a year of school recovery, but instead has been turbulent, buffeted by waves of COVID infections. Charter school leaders say they have been consumed with keeping schools open, and have put off thinking about growing again. They and districts face the same headwinds: an immediate teacher and staff shortage, rising chronic absences, huge questions about enrollment next year and long-term projections of a double-digit decline statewide over the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But charter schools say they also face potential legal roadblocks, anti-charter antagonism, and financial burdens, including uncertainty over how much funding they’ll receive this year under a state budget that left them vulnerable to funding cuts. All of that gives them pause about expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I’m a charter management organization, and I’m struggling with 30% turnover in teachers, fluctuating enrollment, and I’m dedicating resources that I don’t even have any idea if I’m going to be reimbursed by the state, why would I be thinking about fighting a political fight to get a charter petition into LAUSD?” said Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912218\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-800x611.jpg\" alt=\"A middle-school-aged girl with brown skin and black hair smiles as she holds in her arms and tucked under her chin three yellow softballs and an assortment of small stuffed animals in yellow blue, green and purple. She's wearing a black sweater over a red shirt. She's standing next to a large blow-up slide in purple and yellow. This is a charity event for her school, Backpack Middle School.\" width=\"800\" height=\"611\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-800x611.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-1020x779.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-1536x1174.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-2048x1565.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-1920x1467.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student enjoys carnival games during the Vera Bradley/Blessings in a Backpack middle school charity event at Vista Charter Public School in September 2018 in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Vera Bradley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About 1 in 9 of California’s 5.9 million public school students attends a charter school, which are public schools freed from some regulations imposed on traditional school districts. Independent, nonprofit boards run most of them, with some under the control of school districts that set them up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020-21, the first full year of the pandemic, total enrollment statewide fell 4.4% while charter school enrollment actually increased 3.4%. But this year, enrollment in TK-12 school districts and charter schools both fell 1.8%: by 110,000 students in district schools, and by 12,600 in charter schools, as measured as of Census Day last October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exclude all virtual charter schools, a small subset of charter schools, and enrollment in classroom-based charter schools, the most common form, fell 2.9%, exceeding district schools’ one-year decline, according to an EdSource analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parallel enrollment drop wasn’t coincidental. COVID-19 has been a storm that has upended district and charter schools alike, said Castrejón. The pandemic “supercharged these broader demographic trends — the crashing birth rate, the negative rate of immigration, the transfer [of families] into rural and suburban areas, the political dissatisfaction in red areas where people are leaving for Texas, Arizona or Idaho,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, she said, COVID has produced a “multiverse” of education options that affect schools and districts: Enrollment in private schools is up, as are parents’ applications for homeschooling. There are emerging forms like small, private homeschools in pods and through church co-ops that are hard to quantify. And there are hybrid charter schools combining independent study at home with classroom learning at schools like \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://classicalacademy.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Classical Academies\u003c/a> in northern San Diego County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charter school enrollment declined the most this year in the areas that for decades have been the strongholds of charter schools: the Bay Area, down 3.6%, and Los Angeles County and the San Diego area, both down 3.1%. Those, too, are the regions with the largest drops in overall school enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912199\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-800x544.jpg\" alt=\"A teacher and student with wide smiles give each other a big hug in an office with a calendar, whiteboard and paper notes covering the walls. The teacher has black skin and is wearing a black and white dress in a graphic print. The student, almost as tall as her teacher, has black skin and is wearing a black sweatshirt and pants with white stripes down the side. \" width=\"800\" height=\"544\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-1020x694.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-1536x1045.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-2048x1394.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-1920x1307.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student Danesha Johnson (left) gets a big hug from workforce development director Aubria Lamendola at the Life Learning Academy charter school on Treasure Island in San Francisco in March 2018. The school was breaking ground on a dormitory that week to house more students. \u003ccite>(Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“From 2003 through 2017, we worked with our philanthropic partners to encourage and fund charters that targeted neighborhoods with crowded, academically failing schools,” said Caprice Young, the founding head of the charter schools association that led two Los Angeles-based groups of charter schools and consults for education nonprofits and schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those neighborhoods are disproportionately inner-city and facilities-based, so the larger demographic trends impact the charter movement more than the traditional schools,” Young said, referring to many charter schools’ concentration in lower-income neighborhoods with declining enrollment. \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/2iTVf/\">Click here to see California charter school enrollment since 2009-2010.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For two decades, that strategy worked in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Led by charter management organizations — including \u003ca href=\"https://aspirepublicschools.org/\">Aspire\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kipp.org/\">Kipp\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.laalliance.org/\">Alliance College-Ready Public Schools\u003c/a> in Los Angeles and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rocketshipschools.org/\">Rocketship\u003c/a> in the Bay Area — charter schools grew by a dozen to more than three dozen schools annually before leveling out in 2018 with 188 schools in the Bay Area and 373 in Los Angeles County, mainly Los Angeles Unified. It is the nation’s second-largest school district and contains the nation’s largest concentration of charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in Los Angeles Unified, charter enrollment mushroomed as enrollment in the district’s schools steadily fell, creating tensions over shared facilities and \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2020/charter-school-politics-still-in-play-in-la-unified-school-board-elections/624275\">epic election battles to establish a pro- or anti-charter majority\u003c/a> on the seven-member district board. In 2009-2010, there were 61,000 charter school students and 618,000 students in district schools. By last year, charter school enrollment had more than doubled, to its peak of 114,431, while district enrollment had fallen to 456,964. In LAUSD, 1 in 5 public school students attended a charter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then COVID took its toll. This year, enrollment at charter schools in Los Angeles fell 1.7%, compared with 5.7% at district schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Inequitable funding\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This year, school districts are being held financially harmless for a second year, because of COVID’s havoc on drops in enrollment and attendance. They are receiving the pre-pandemic level of funding. But charter schools are not; they are returning to funding based on the average daily attendance, as in the past. And with attendance down anywhere from 8% to 10% this year, they’re anticipating a commensurate cut in funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric Premack, executive director and founder of the Charter Schools Development Center in Sacramento, said charter schools had no notice last June that the budget legislation extending financial protection to districts wouldn’t apply to them. Charter leaders are hoping to get this fixed retroactively in May when Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his revised budget plan for 2022-23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t get it fixed, it will be an enormous hit for charter schools with a psychological impact. Can you afford to take growth risks when you just lost a big chunk or all of your budget reserves?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the Legislature has put a three-year moratorium on new non-classroom-based charter schools, while it figures out how to distinguish legitimate programs from poor-performing programs and frauds, like\u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-09-10/a3-charter-school-fraud-ringleader-sentenced-to-4-years-in-prison-fined-18-75-million#:~:text=Three%20of%20those%20schools%20were,of%20dollars%20for%20personal%20use.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> the former A3 charter chain\u003c/a> in San Diego County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Topping off worries is a new but largely untried charter governance and accountability law, \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1505\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Assembly Bill 1505\u003c/a>, which was passed into law in September 2019, six months before COVID shut down all schools and cut short plans for new charter schools. Newsom sold it as a reasonable compromise on charter school growth. Premack and other critics see it as a signal for abuse. Its most contested provision allows school boards to consider a new charter school petition’s financial impact on a district as a factor in approval or denial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castrejón points to the law’s guardrails and said it’s too soon to judge. Premack said that in an era of declining enrollment, districts will use fiscal impact as a cudgel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beth Hunkapiller, a founder of the San Carlos Charter Learning Center and now the chair of Aspire Public Schools’ board of trustees, foresees problems. “Yes, the table is tilted by AB 1505. It wrote into law the presumption that the existence of charter schools has fiscal impact on district schools,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Follow the migration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Outside the Bay Area and Los Angeles, there is room to grow, and there are alternatives to the traditional brick-and-mortar charter schools. Since 2000, except for last year and the Great Recession of 2009, school enrollment has grown steadily in San Bernardino and Riverside counties — which make up the Inland Empire — the Central Valley, and Sacramento and surrounding cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s urban centers have failed to build housing, so people are fleeing inland and to other states to raise families,” Young of Los Angeles observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of charter schools in the Inland Empire has increased from 45 in 2009 to 81 this year. In the northern San Joaquin Valley, which includes Stockton, the number has more than doubled, from 45 to 92. From the Sacramento region north to the Oregon border, the number has jumped from 110 to 167. \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/ywl84/\">Click here to see the number of charter schools by region since 2009-2010.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocketship Public Schools, an elementary charter school network with most of its 13 California schools in lower-income San José neighborhoods, saw an overall enrollment plunge of 5.5%, the first drop since it started in 2008. But enrollment in its two newest schools, in Concord and Antioch, to the east in Contra Costa County, grew significantly this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aspire Public Schools, with nearly 17,000 students, now has 16 of its 36 schools in Sacramento, Modesto and Stockton, more than in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. It has received approvals for two new schools in Stockton and, after drawn-out negotiations, the ability to expand existing schools in new facilities in Sacramento and Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Tony Solina, Aspire’s Central Valley superintendent, is not optimistic in the current environment that new schools could be approved. Aspire will identify schools with long waiting lists as areas to expand, but there’s an anti-charter sentiment even in districts that were favorably inclined to support charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“School board members are under pressure to deny charters,” Solina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What do families want?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Population shifts have led some foundations like the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.siliconschools.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Silicon Schools fund\u003c/a>, which underwrites start-up and other costs of innovative schools serving lower-income students, to revise their plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re now supporting schools in Bakersfield, Stockton, Fresno, Sacramento, which is very different than how our foundation looked 10 years ago,” said Brian Greenberg, Silicon Schools CEO. “Once we opened our minds to look, we found the truth, which is that talent is equally distributed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greenberg said that the emergence from COVID offers a moment of opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What if teachers want a little more flexibility of how they use time during the day? What if parents want some more flexibility of how kids are coming to school or what they’re doing during the school day?” he asked. “We’re much more interested in finding more innovative solutions that work better for kids and families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He pointed to two charter schools, one that opened this year in Fresno and another that will open in 2023-2024 in Sacramento, as examples of new models grounded in community support. The former is \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.goldencharteracademy.org/gca-news/gca-news-january-2021-rps33-hl94z-yf6r6-fm26s-hs472-xdr7g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Charter Academy\u003c/a>, a TK-8 school founded by retired NFL defensive back Robert Golden, who has returned to his hometown of Fresno. The school is partnering with Fresno Chaffee Zoo, with plans to relocate next to it, so that students can learn firsthand about wildlife habitats and the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other, which received approval this month as a countywide charter in Sacramento County, will be a high school early college program built around a single industry sector, construction trades. With partnerships with Caltrans, the building trades union and some of the largest building contractors in Sacramento, \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://capcca.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Capital College & Career Academy\u003c/a> will start with career exploration and foundational academic courses the first two years, with opportunities as juniors and seniors for internships, dual-enrollment courses in community colleges and courses at Sacramento State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students will have credits toward a four-year degree in engineering or design or training to enter an apprenticeship in a building trade, said founder Kevin Dobson, who’s currently a principal at Natomas Charter School. The new school “will bridge the gap between K to 12 and post-secondary options. This really grew out of frustration that kids were really going unserved, often being forced to choose college or career at the expense of the other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose Braxton says her fifth grader, who has a learning disability, is looking forward to enrolling four years from now. “I don’t see her struggle with hands-on learning. She likes building things and is a more visual learner,” she said. “They have community support. Kevin has a heart for reaching youth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don Shalvey has a long view on charter schools, as a former teacher and principal, school district superintendent, founder and CEO of Aspire Public Schools and former deputy director overseeing education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Now he’s the executive director of \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://sjaplus.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Joaquin A+\u003c/a>, a nonprofit organization in the San Joaquin Valley, where he has lived for 50 years, seeding efforts to prepare students for a changing workplace. (Shalvey is one of 13 members of EdSource’s board of directors, who have no influence or oversight on content. Editorial decisions remain under the sole control of the EdSource newsroom.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Greenberg, he agrees that families moving east into the Central Valley will insist on new school models, including pod schools, independent study programs and schools with flexible schedules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “crazy notion of war between charters and districts” is tangential to them, he said, and “distorts that parents expect schools to provide a brighter future for kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Joaquin A+ supports the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://valleyrobotics.lodiusd.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Valley Robotics Academy\u003c/a>, an independent school within Lodi Unified that partners with the agriculture industry to train students in complex technical, mechanical and engineering skills. And San Joaquin A+ works with charter schools and county offices of education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the 1990s and early 2000s, charter schools were small schools, personalized and safe. That’s what parents wanted,” Shalvey said. Aspire identified neighborhoods where Black and Latino students were underserved and “did the common thing uncommonly well,” preparing students for college on the same dollar as district schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s still important but not the singular thing a school district should do,” he said. “Some charter management organizations must change their model. The menu for school choice is no longer as narrow as it was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "After three decades of steady and, in some years, staggering growth, charter school enrollments are dropping. Is this a pandemic blip or does it signify a long-term trend?",
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"title": "Charter Schools Examine the Future Amid Teacher Shortage and Declining Enrollment | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Charter school enrollment in California declined this year for the first time after three decades of steady and, in some years, staggering growth. Does this signify a pandemic blip, retrenchment or an inflection point for charter schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not since the first charter school opened in 1994 in San Carlos, south of San Francisco, has charter school enrollment fallen year over year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was to have been a year of school recovery, but instead has been turbulent, buffeted by waves of COVID infections. Charter school leaders say they have been consumed with keeping schools open, and have put off thinking about growing again. They and districts face the same headwinds: an immediate teacher and staff shortage, rising chronic absences, huge questions about enrollment next year and long-term projections of a double-digit decline statewide over the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But charter schools say they also face potential legal roadblocks, anti-charter antagonism, and financial burdens, including uncertainty over how much funding they’ll receive this year under a state budget that left them vulnerable to funding cuts. All of that gives them pause about expanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I’m a charter management organization, and I’m struggling with 30% turnover in teachers, fluctuating enrollment, and I’m dedicating resources that I don’t even have any idea if I’m going to be reimbursed by the state, why would I be thinking about fighting a political fight to get a charter petition into LAUSD?” said Myrna Castrejón, president and CEO of the California Charter Schools Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912218\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-800x611.jpg\" alt=\"A middle-school-aged girl with brown skin and black hair smiles as she holds in her arms and tucked under her chin three yellow softballs and an assortment of small stuffed animals in yellow blue, green and purple. She's wearing a black sweater over a red shirt. She's standing next to a large blow-up slide in purple and yellow. This is a charity event for her school, Backpack Middle School.\" width=\"800\" height=\"611\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-800x611.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-1020x779.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-1536x1174.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-2048x1565.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1027443678-1920x1467.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A student enjoys carnival games during the Vera Bradley/Blessings in a Backpack middle school charity event at Vista Charter Public School in September 2018 in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Vera Bradley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About 1 in 9 of California’s 5.9 million public school students attends a charter school, which are public schools freed from some regulations imposed on traditional school districts. Independent, nonprofit boards run most of them, with some under the control of school districts that set them up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020-21, the first full year of the pandemic, total enrollment statewide fell 4.4% while charter school enrollment actually increased 3.4%. But this year, enrollment in TK-12 school districts and charter schools both fell 1.8%: by 110,000 students in district schools, and by 12,600 in charter schools, as measured as of Census Day last October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exclude all virtual charter schools, a small subset of charter schools, and enrollment in classroom-based charter schools, the most common form, fell 2.9%, exceeding district schools’ one-year decline, according to an EdSource analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parallel enrollment drop wasn’t coincidental. COVID-19 has been a storm that has upended district and charter schools alike, said Castrejón. The pandemic “supercharged these broader demographic trends — the crashing birth rate, the negative rate of immigration, the transfer [of families] into rural and suburban areas, the political dissatisfaction in red areas where people are leaving for Texas, Arizona or Idaho,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, she said, COVID has produced a “multiverse” of education options that affect schools and districts: Enrollment in private schools is up, as are parents’ applications for homeschooling. There are emerging forms like small, private homeschools in pods and through church co-ops that are hard to quantify. And there are hybrid charter schools combining independent study at home with classroom learning at schools like \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://classicalacademy.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Classical Academies\u003c/a> in northern San Diego County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charter school enrollment declined the most this year in the areas that for decades have been the strongholds of charter schools: the Bay Area, down 3.6%, and Los Angeles County and the San Diego area, both down 3.1%. Those, too, are the regions with the largest drops in overall school enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11912199\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11912199\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-800x544.jpg\" alt=\"A teacher and student with wide smiles give each other a big hug in an office with a calendar, whiteboard and paper notes covering the walls. The teacher has black skin and is wearing a black and white dress in a graphic print. The student, almost as tall as her teacher, has black skin and is wearing a black sweatshirt and pants with white stripes down the side. \" width=\"800\" height=\"544\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-1020x694.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-1536x1045.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-2048x1394.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/GettyImages-1298841505-1920x1307.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Student Danesha Johnson (left) gets a big hug from workforce development director Aubria Lamendola at the Life Learning Academy charter school on Treasure Island in San Francisco in March 2018. The school was breaking ground on a dormitory that week to house more students. \u003ccite>(Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“From 2003 through 2017, we worked with our philanthropic partners to encourage and fund charters that targeted neighborhoods with crowded, academically failing schools,” said Caprice Young, the founding head of the charter schools association that led two Los Angeles-based groups of charter schools and consults for education nonprofits and schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those neighborhoods are disproportionately inner-city and facilities-based, so the larger demographic trends impact the charter movement more than the traditional schools,” Young said, referring to many charter schools’ concentration in lower-income neighborhoods with declining enrollment. \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/2iTVf/\">Click here to see California charter school enrollment since 2009-2010.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For two decades, that strategy worked in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Led by charter management organizations — including \u003ca href=\"https://aspirepublicschools.org/\">Aspire\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kipp.org/\">Kipp\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.laalliance.org/\">Alliance College-Ready Public Schools\u003c/a> in Los Angeles and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rocketshipschools.org/\">Rocketship\u003c/a> in the Bay Area — charter schools grew by a dozen to more than three dozen schools annually before leveling out in 2018 with 188 schools in the Bay Area and 373 in Los Angeles County, mainly Los Angeles Unified. It is the nation’s second-largest school district and contains the nation’s largest concentration of charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in Los Angeles Unified, charter enrollment mushroomed as enrollment in the district’s schools steadily fell, creating tensions over shared facilities and \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2020/charter-school-politics-still-in-play-in-la-unified-school-board-elections/624275\">epic election battles to establish a pro- or anti-charter majority\u003c/a> on the seven-member district board. In 2009-2010, there were 61,000 charter school students and 618,000 students in district schools. By last year, charter school enrollment had more than doubled, to its peak of 114,431, while district enrollment had fallen to 456,964. In LAUSD, 1 in 5 public school students attended a charter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then COVID took its toll. This year, enrollment at charter schools in Los Angeles fell 1.7%, compared with 5.7% at district schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Inequitable funding\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This year, school districts are being held financially harmless for a second year, because of COVID’s havoc on drops in enrollment and attendance. They are receiving the pre-pandemic level of funding. But charter schools are not; they are returning to funding based on the average daily attendance, as in the past. And with attendance down anywhere from 8% to 10% this year, they’re anticipating a commensurate cut in funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric Premack, executive director and founder of the Charter Schools Development Center in Sacramento, said charter schools had no notice last June that the budget legislation extending financial protection to districts wouldn’t apply to them. Charter leaders are hoping to get this fixed retroactively in May when Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers his revised budget plan for 2022-23.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we don’t get it fixed, it will be an enormous hit for charter schools with a psychological impact. Can you afford to take growth risks when you just lost a big chunk or all of your budget reserves?” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the Legislature has put a three-year moratorium on new non-classroom-based charter schools, while it figures out how to distinguish legitimate programs from poor-performing programs and frauds, like\u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/education/story/2021-09-10/a3-charter-school-fraud-ringleader-sentenced-to-4-years-in-prison-fined-18-75-million#:~:text=Three%20of%20those%20schools%20were,of%20dollars%20for%20personal%20use.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> the former A3 charter chain\u003c/a> in San Diego County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Topping off worries is a new but largely untried charter governance and accountability law, \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB1505\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Assembly Bill 1505\u003c/a>, which was passed into law in September 2019, six months before COVID shut down all schools and cut short plans for new charter schools. Newsom sold it as a reasonable compromise on charter school growth. Premack and other critics see it as a signal for abuse. Its most contested provision allows school boards to consider a new charter school petition’s financial impact on a district as a factor in approval or denial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Castrejón points to the law’s guardrails and said it’s too soon to judge. Premack said that in an era of declining enrollment, districts will use fiscal impact as a cudgel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beth Hunkapiller, a founder of the San Carlos Charter Learning Center and now the chair of Aspire Public Schools’ board of trustees, foresees problems. “Yes, the table is tilted by AB 1505. It wrote into law the presumption that the existence of charter schools has fiscal impact on district schools,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Follow the migration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Outside the Bay Area and Los Angeles, there is room to grow, and there are alternatives to the traditional brick-and-mortar charter schools. Since 2000, except for last year and the Great Recession of 2009, school enrollment has grown steadily in San Bernardino and Riverside counties — which make up the Inland Empire — the Central Valley, and Sacramento and surrounding cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s urban centers have failed to build housing, so people are fleeing inland and to other states to raise families,” Young of Los Angeles observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of charter schools in the Inland Empire has increased from 45 in 2009 to 81 this year. In the northern San Joaquin Valley, which includes Stockton, the number has more than doubled, from 45 to 92. From the Sacramento region north to the Oregon border, the number has jumped from 110 to 167. \u003ca href=\"https://www.datawrapper.de/_/ywl84/\">Click here to see the number of charter schools by region since 2009-2010.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rocketship Public Schools, an elementary charter school network with most of its 13 California schools in lower-income San José neighborhoods, saw an overall enrollment plunge of 5.5%, the first drop since it started in 2008. But enrollment in its two newest schools, in Concord and Antioch, to the east in Contra Costa County, grew significantly this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aspire Public Schools, with nearly 17,000 students, now has 16 of its 36 schools in Sacramento, Modesto and Stockton, more than in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. It has received approvals for two new schools in Stockton and, after drawn-out negotiations, the ability to expand existing schools in new facilities in Sacramento and Stockton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Tony Solina, Aspire’s Central Valley superintendent, is not optimistic in the current environment that new schools could be approved. Aspire will identify schools with long waiting lists as areas to expand, but there’s an anti-charter sentiment even in districts that were favorably inclined to support charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“School board members are under pressure to deny charters,” Solina said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What do families want?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Population shifts have led some foundations like the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.siliconschools.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Silicon Schools fund\u003c/a>, which underwrites start-up and other costs of innovative schools serving lower-income students, to revise their plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re now supporting schools in Bakersfield, Stockton, Fresno, Sacramento, which is very different than how our foundation looked 10 years ago,” said Brian Greenberg, Silicon Schools CEO. “Once we opened our minds to look, we found the truth, which is that talent is equally distributed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greenberg said that the emergence from COVID offers a moment of opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What if teachers want a little more flexibility of how they use time during the day? What if parents want some more flexibility of how kids are coming to school or what they’re doing during the school day?” he asked. “We’re much more interested in finding more innovative solutions that work better for kids and families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He pointed to two charter schools, one that opened this year in Fresno and another that will open in 2023-2024 in Sacramento, as examples of new models grounded in community support. The former is \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.goldencharteracademy.org/gca-news/gca-news-january-2021-rps33-hl94z-yf6r6-fm26s-hs472-xdr7g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Golden Charter Academy\u003c/a>, a TK-8 school founded by retired NFL defensive back Robert Golden, who has returned to his hometown of Fresno. The school is partnering with Fresno Chaffee Zoo, with plans to relocate next to it, so that students can learn firsthand about wildlife habitats and the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other, which received approval this month as a countywide charter in Sacramento County, will be a high school early college program built around a single industry sector, construction trades. With partnerships with Caltrans, the building trades union and some of the largest building contractors in Sacramento, \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://capcca.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Capital College & Career Academy\u003c/a> will start with career exploration and foundational academic courses the first two years, with opportunities as juniors and seniors for internships, dual-enrollment courses in community colleges and courses at Sacramento State.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students will have credits toward a four-year degree in engineering or design or training to enter an apprenticeship in a building trade, said founder Kevin Dobson, who’s currently a principal at Natomas Charter School. The new school “will bridge the gap between K to 12 and post-secondary options. This really grew out of frustration that kids were really going unserved, often being forced to choose college or career at the expense of the other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose Braxton says her fifth grader, who has a learning disability, is looking forward to enrolling four years from now. “I don’t see her struggle with hands-on learning. She likes building things and is a more visual learner,” she said. “They have community support. Kevin has a heart for reaching youth.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don Shalvey has a long view on charter schools, as a former teacher and principal, school district superintendent, founder and CEO of Aspire Public Schools and former deputy director overseeing education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Now he’s the executive director of \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://sjaplus.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Joaquin A+\u003c/a>, a nonprofit organization in the San Joaquin Valley, where he has lived for 50 years, seeding efforts to prepare students for a changing workplace. (Shalvey is one of 13 members of EdSource’s board of directors, who have no influence or oversight on content. Editorial decisions remain under the sole control of the EdSource newsroom.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Greenberg, he agrees that families moving east into the Central Valley will insist on new school models, including pod schools, independent study programs and schools with flexible schedules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “crazy notion of war between charters and districts” is tangential to them, he said, and “distorts that parents expect schools to provide a brighter future for kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Joaquin A+ supports the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://valleyrobotics.lodiusd.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Valley Robotics Academy\u003c/a>, an independent school within Lodi Unified that partners with the agriculture industry to train students in complex technical, mechanical and engineering skills. And San Joaquin A+ works with charter schools and county offices of education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the 1990s and early 2000s, charter schools were small schools, personalized and safe. That’s what parents wanted,” Shalvey said. Aspire identified neighborhoods where Black and Latino students were underserved and “did the common thing uncommonly well,” preparing students for college on the same dollar as district schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s still important but not the singular thing a school district should do,” he said. “Some charter management organizations must change their model. The menu for school choice is no longer as narrow as it was.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Inside some University of California academic departments and colleges, an atypical idea is gaining steam: deemphasizing, or even ditching, the A-F grading system and rethinking how to assess student learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Divisions like UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and UC Davis’s Department of Mathematics are deliberating whether to change how they grade students. In some cases, that means awarding students a pass or no-pass grade rather than a letter grade. Other times, it may mean allowing students to choose which assignments get the most weight in determining their grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Irvine, Academic Senate leaders are currently evaluating long-term options around grading and have met with officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students don’t receive letter grades for their first semester, to learn about that university’s approach.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jody Greene, associate vice provost of teaching and learning, UC Santa Cruz\"]'The changes that were happening in higher education at a glacial pace were put on a bullet train by COVID, and as painful as the last couple of years have been, we're now having genuine conversations about how we can better serve the students.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Departments at other UC campuses also are experimenting with making changes to how they test students, putting less emphasis on high-stakes exams, because some students aren’t good test-takers but can demonstrate their understanding of the material in other ways. Some departments have begun using two-stage exams: Students take a standard individual exam before also taking a group test where they work with other students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes are especially being considered for first-year students to give them more time to get used to the rigors of college work and learn the material over the course of a semester rather than discourage them early on with low scores on tests and other assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the possibilities are a welcome development to Jody Greene, the associate vice provost of teaching and learning at UC Santa Cruz, who argues that letter grades aren’t necessarily indicative of whether a student has mastered the material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, Greene said, what grades really measure is the student’s preparation to do college work. That could stem from the availability of rigorous courses in that student’s high school, such as Advanced Placement classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar22/a3.pdf\">recent UC Board of Regents memo\u003c/a> noted that a student from an under-resourced high school “may perform poorly on initial assignments.” As they learn the material over the course of the term, the student may ultimately ace the final exam yet still end up with a below average grade because of those early assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greene is among some teaching staff across UC who have long advocated for changes to grading, but the pandemic has accelerated the willingness of many faculty members to get on board with those ideas, she said. According to the regents memo, faculty sensitivity to inequities in their students’ educational experiences “was heightened” during the pandemic, ramping up efforts across UC to improve grading and assessment, though officials acknowledge there’s no consensus across the system of the best approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will be better institutions for this,” said Greene, who is also the founding director of \u003ca href=\"https://citl.ucsc.edu/\">UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning\u003c/a>. “The changes that were happening in higher education at a glacial pace were put on a bullet train by COVID, and as painful as the last couple of years have been, we’re now having genuine conversations about how we can better serve the students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shift to reconsider how best to teach and assess students was a natural one for many faculty members amid the pandemic, said Rachel Kennison, executive director of \u003ca href=\"https://ceils.ucla.edu/\">UCLA’s Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences\u003c/a>. Once classes moved online, faculty had to think of new ways to engage students and couldn’t rely on traditional methods for assessing them, such as in-person, closed-book exams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was key because often, students who struggle in their first year of college to achieve high grades are discouraged and leave their majors. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-science-divide-why-do-latino-and-black-students-leave-stem-majors-at-higher-rates/2019/05/03/e386d318-4b32-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html\">problem is especially acute in STEM fields, and particularly among Black and Latino students\u003c/a> when they take \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/07/26/whos-getting-pulled-in-weed-out-courses-for-stem-majors/\">so-called weed-out classes\u003c/a>, difficult courses like chemistry or calculus that often determine whether a student sticks with their major.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>MIT's approach\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One college, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has found a system that may serve as a model for UC campuses. That university uses what Ian Waitz, MIT’s vice chancellor of undergraduate and graduate education, calls “ramp-up grading” for first-year students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For every class MIT students take their first semester, either they receive a passing grade or the course doesn’t show up on their transcript at all. In the second semester, they either get a letter grade of A, B or C or, if they earn a D or F, the class doesn’t appear on their transcript. By year two, students receive a standard A-F grade for most classes. That system for first-year grading has been in place at MIT since 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re gradually getting people acclimated, and they’re calibrating themselves to what it takes to succeed with our very rigorous academics,” Waitz said. That style of grading is valuable to students, who also are going through a massive life change as they start college. It’s a difficult transition for many students who are living away from home for the first time and need time to adjust.[aside postID=\"news_11898137,mindshift_59217,news_11911877\" label=\"Related Posts\"]Waitz acknowledged that there have been unintended consequences. For example, MIT requires all students to take certain rigorous physics and chemistry courses, and some students schedule those classes in their first semester “to get them out of the way” and not risk a poor letter grade, Waitz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part to combat that, MIT last year implemented a policy that lets students take any four classes on a pass/no record basis at any point after their first semester. Students don’t need to designate the class as pass/no record until after they’ve seen their potential letter grade. MIT officials hope that will encourage students to try as hard as possible in those classes to achieve a high letter grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waitz recently met with leaders of UC Irvine’s Academic Senate to discuss MIT’s strategies as Irvine weighs its options on first-year grading. A spokesperson for Irvine said in an email that the senate “is still deliberating policies and there is nothing to share at this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Changes brewing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Relying more on pass/no pass grading could be a natural transition for UC campuses after almost all of them relaxed their pass/no pass regulations during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the state’s other four-year university system, the 23-campus California State University, there is currently no plan to rely less on letter grades, said Toni Molle, a spokesperson for the system-wide chancellor’s office. “While it’s possible that an individual campus could explore this tactic, we are not currently aware of any that are planning to do so,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the UC students who have benefited from pass/no pass classes is Timothy Tam Nguyen, a second-year math major at UC Irvine. Nguyen took a political science class and designated it as pass/no pass because he wasn’t confident he would get an A and wanted to focus more on classes in his major. The class was heavily essay-based, and Nguyen didn’t think the professor clearly explained the expectations for the essays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As I predicted, I ended up with a B+ in the class, mainly due to flaws in my essays that weren’t clearly articulated,” he said. Nguyen added that taking the class pass/no pass also was a stress reliever since it allowed him to “obsess less and live a more balanced life with friends and fitness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen isn’t the only student who had lower stress levels while taking pass/no pass classes. Seeing how the increased availability of pass/no pass classes helped relieve student stress is among the main factors that motivated UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry to consider permanent changes to pass/no pass grading for first-year students. College leaders also believe it’s an equity issue and have noticed that students who enter college less prepared than their peers often finish their first year with lower GPAs as a result, according to the regents memo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some critics argue that designating too many classes as pass/no pass \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/choosing-pass-fail-grades-may-help-college-students-now-but-could-cost-them-later/\">could have negative implications for students hoping to attend graduate school\u003c/a>, though Greene disputes that notion. She pointed out that, until 2001, UC Santa Cruz did not assign grades at all and still sent many students to graduate school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The UC campuses looking at grade changes are focusing on the first year and not a student’s entire undergraduate career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Davis, meanwhile, the Department of Mathematics has considered using “contract grading,” which allows a student to choose how to be graded. One calculus instructor at that college gives students three options, each with a different distribution of weight across different assessments to determine the student’s grade. For example, one option could give more weight to exams, and another option could give more weight to homework and class engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere at Davis, an introductory biology class uses two-stage exams. After taking a traditional test, students work together in groups to solve questions that are the same or similar to the exam questions. “Students who preferred that approach said it provided an opportunity to debate and arrive at a better answer. Students also received immediate feedback on individual exam responses from peers,” states the regents memo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennison said rethinking exams is key to considerations around grading changes because not all students demonstrate their knowledge the same way. Other options for assessing students include allowing them to use their notes on tests or assigning projects instead of exams. Oftentimes, Kennison said, classes that rely too heavily on final exams are measuring students’ ability to memorize things and “spit it back out” under pressure, something she said doesn’t necessarily measure a student’s mastery of the material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you think about students as individuals, they don’t learn in any one way. They need multiple modes of learning and multiple modes of being assessed,” Kennison said. “Ideally you are giving them lots of different types of assessments, making lots of different opportunities for them to assess their own learning right in low-stakes ways. You still can have a final exam, but it doesn’t necessarily have to have that high stakes, high pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Inside some University of California academic departments and colleges, an atypical idea is gaining steam: deemphasizing, or even ditching, the A-F grading system and rethinking how to assess student learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Divisions like UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and UC Davis’s Department of Mathematics are deliberating whether to change how they grade students. In some cases, that means awarding students a pass or no-pass grade rather than a letter grade. Other times, it may mean allowing students to choose which assignments get the most weight in determining their grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Irvine, Academic Senate leaders are currently evaluating long-term options around grading and have met with officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students don’t receive letter grades for their first semester, to learn about that university’s approach.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Departments at other UC campuses also are experimenting with making changes to how they test students, putting less emphasis on high-stakes exams, because some students aren’t good test-takers but can demonstrate their understanding of the material in other ways. Some departments have begun using two-stage exams: Students take a standard individual exam before also taking a group test where they work with other students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes are especially being considered for first-year students to give them more time to get used to the rigors of college work and learn the material over the course of a semester rather than discourage them early on with low scores on tests and other assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the possibilities are a welcome development to Jody Greene, the associate vice provost of teaching and learning at UC Santa Cruz, who argues that letter grades aren’t necessarily indicative of whether a student has mastered the material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often, Greene said, what grades really measure is the student’s preparation to do college work. That could stem from the availability of rigorous courses in that student’s high school, such as Advanced Placement classes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar22/a3.pdf\">recent UC Board of Regents memo\u003c/a> noted that a student from an under-resourced high school “may perform poorly on initial assignments.” As they learn the material over the course of the term, the student may ultimately ace the final exam yet still end up with a below average grade because of those early assignments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greene is among some teaching staff across UC who have long advocated for changes to grading, but the pandemic has accelerated the willingness of many faculty members to get on board with those ideas, she said. According to the regents memo, faculty sensitivity to inequities in their students’ educational experiences “was heightened” during the pandemic, ramping up efforts across UC to improve grading and assessment, though officials acknowledge there’s no consensus across the system of the best approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will be better institutions for this,” said Greene, who is also the founding director of \u003ca href=\"https://citl.ucsc.edu/\">UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning\u003c/a>. “The changes that were happening in higher education at a glacial pace were put on a bullet train by COVID, and as painful as the last couple of years have been, we’re now having genuine conversations about how we can better serve the students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shift to reconsider how best to teach and assess students was a natural one for many faculty members amid the pandemic, said Rachel Kennison, executive director of \u003ca href=\"https://ceils.ucla.edu/\">UCLA’s Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences\u003c/a>. Once classes moved online, faculty had to think of new ways to engage students and couldn’t rely on traditional methods for assessing them, such as in-person, closed-book exams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was key because often, students who struggle in their first year of college to achieve high grades are discouraged and leave their majors. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/the-science-divide-why-do-latino-and-black-students-leave-stem-majors-at-higher-rates/2019/05/03/e386d318-4b32-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html\">problem is especially acute in STEM fields, and particularly among Black and Latino students\u003c/a> when they take \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/07/26/whos-getting-pulled-in-weed-out-courses-for-stem-majors/\">so-called weed-out classes\u003c/a>, difficult courses like chemistry or calculus that often determine whether a student sticks with their major.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>MIT's approach\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One college, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has found a system that may serve as a model for UC campuses. That university uses what Ian Waitz, MIT’s vice chancellor of undergraduate and graduate education, calls “ramp-up grading” for first-year students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For every class MIT students take their first semester, either they receive a passing grade or the course doesn’t show up on their transcript at all. In the second semester, they either get a letter grade of A, B or C or, if they earn a D or F, the class doesn’t appear on their transcript. By year two, students receive a standard A-F grade for most classes. That system for first-year grading has been in place at MIT since 2000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re gradually getting people acclimated, and they’re calibrating themselves to what it takes to succeed with our very rigorous academics,” Waitz said. That style of grading is valuable to students, who also are going through a massive life change as they start college. It’s a difficult transition for many students who are living away from home for the first time and need time to adjust.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Waitz acknowledged that there have been unintended consequences. For example, MIT requires all students to take certain rigorous physics and chemistry courses, and some students schedule those classes in their first semester “to get them out of the way” and not risk a poor letter grade, Waitz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part to combat that, MIT last year implemented a policy that lets students take any four classes on a pass/no record basis at any point after their first semester. Students don’t need to designate the class as pass/no record until after they’ve seen their potential letter grade. MIT officials hope that will encourage students to try as hard as possible in those classes to achieve a high letter grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Waitz recently met with leaders of UC Irvine’s Academic Senate to discuss MIT’s strategies as Irvine weighs its options on first-year grading. A spokesperson for Irvine said in an email that the senate “is still deliberating policies and there is nothing to share at this time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Changes brewing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Relying more on pass/no pass grading could be a natural transition for UC campuses after almost all of them relaxed their pass/no pass regulations during the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the state’s other four-year university system, the 23-campus California State University, there is currently no plan to rely less on letter grades, said Toni Molle, a spokesperson for the system-wide chancellor’s office. “While it’s possible that an individual campus could explore this tactic, we are not currently aware of any that are planning to do so,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the UC students who have benefited from pass/no pass classes is Timothy Tam Nguyen, a second-year math major at UC Irvine. Nguyen took a political science class and designated it as pass/no pass because he wasn’t confident he would get an A and wanted to focus more on classes in his major. The class was heavily essay-based, and Nguyen didn’t think the professor clearly explained the expectations for the essays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As I predicted, I ended up with a B+ in the class, mainly due to flaws in my essays that weren’t clearly articulated,” he said. Nguyen added that taking the class pass/no pass also was a stress reliever since it allowed him to “obsess less and live a more balanced life with friends and fitness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nguyen isn’t the only student who had lower stress levels while taking pass/no pass classes. Seeing how the increased availability of pass/no pass classes helped relieve student stress is among the main factors that motivated UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry to consider permanent changes to pass/no pass grading for first-year students. College leaders also believe it’s an equity issue and have noticed that students who enter college less prepared than their peers often finish their first year with lower GPAs as a result, according to the regents memo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some critics argue that designating too many classes as pass/no pass \u003ca href=\"https://hechingerreport.org/choosing-pass-fail-grades-may-help-college-students-now-but-could-cost-them-later/\">could have negative implications for students hoping to attend graduate school\u003c/a>, though Greene disputes that notion. She pointed out that, until 2001, UC Santa Cruz did not assign grades at all and still sent many students to graduate school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The UC campuses looking at grade changes are focusing on the first year and not a student’s entire undergraduate career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At UC Davis, meanwhile, the Department of Mathematics has considered using “contract grading,” which allows a student to choose how to be graded. One calculus instructor at that college gives students three options, each with a different distribution of weight across different assessments to determine the student’s grade. For example, one option could give more weight to exams, and another option could give more weight to homework and class engagement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere at Davis, an introductory biology class uses two-stage exams. After taking a traditional test, students work together in groups to solve questions that are the same or similar to the exam questions. “Students who preferred that approach said it provided an opportunity to debate and arrive at a better answer. Students also received immediate feedback on individual exam responses from peers,” states the regents memo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennison said rethinking exams is key to considerations around grading changes because not all students demonstrate their knowledge the same way. Other options for assessing students include allowing them to use their notes on tests or assigning projects instead of exams. Oftentimes, Kennison said, classes that rely too heavily on final exams are measuring students’ ability to memorize things and “spit it back out” under pressure, something she said doesn’t necessarily measure a student’s mastery of the material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you think about students as individuals, they don’t learn in any one way. They need multiple modes of learning and multiple modes of being assessed,” Kennison said. “Ideally you are giving them lots of different types of assessments, making lots of different opportunities for them to assess their own learning right in low-stakes ways. You still can have a final exam, but it doesn’t necessarily have to have that high stakes, high pressure.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What are your biggest ideas on how to solve the housing crisis? How has housing shaped your life?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout this season, we wanted to hear from you — the Sold Out audience. We asked you to get in touch, and you came through!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From voice memos to emails and social media, dozens of listeners reached out and shared stories of housing insecurity and loss, advocacy work, and visions for an equitable housing future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this bonus episode, hear from seven people for whom housing is at the center of everything. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch5 id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC9285725518&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/h5>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[TRANSCRIPT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MOLLY SOLOMON: \u003c/strong>Hi! I’m Molly Solomon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>ERIN BALDASSARI: \u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Erin Baldassari. You’re listening to Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, and today we’ve got something special for you from producer Natalia Aldana.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take it away, Natalia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[SOLD OUT THEME MUSIC BEGINS]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11841421\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 451px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11841421\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-800x530.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"451\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-1536x1018.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A red for sale sign outside a home with a “sold pending” sticker posted across the front. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA ALDANA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When it comes to the housing crisis, every Californian has something to say about it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT RINALDO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, it’s like — it’s like the air we breathe. It is literally, like, a fact of life if you live in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>NATALIA: \u003c/strong>We can all point to how it’s impacted us — affected our families, our neighborhoods, and our livelihoods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout this season of Sold Out, we’ve been asking for your thoughts and experiences when it comes to housing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So many of you got in touch. And today, you’ll hear from seven people whose stories might challenge you, empathize with you, and hopefully, inspire you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC – DECK LOFI]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First up, we have a listener who wants us to rethink how we live — literally\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who we share a roof with, and how the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">way \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">we understand family impacts our housing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam Coulter rents an apartment with his partner in San Jose. And Cam thinks the housing system favors homeowners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM COULTER: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is probably a little hot-take, but I wish I could write off my rent payments as tax-deductible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam recognizes that tax incentives are meant to motivate homeownership. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that might work in other parts of the country. But here I feel like it really just punishes the people who can’t afford to buy a home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although rent is not tax-deductible in California — the state does award a $60 renters tax credit for qualifying single filers who earn less than $43,533 a year. Since Cam and I last spoke, \u003ca href=\"https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/californias-renter-tax-credit-has-remained-unchanged-for-43-years-it-could-soon-increase/ar-AAW402s\">a state bill has been proposed that could potentially increase that credit to $500.\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT – DECK LOFI OUT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Cam\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> doesn’t really want to buy a h\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ome, they do want to build equity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I see the way that the desire to own a home is sort of constructed by the fact that it’s a great way to build wealth and have long-term stability. But I wish there were other ways to achieve that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911686\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 334px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11911686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-800x800.jpeg\" alt=\"A person sits on the grass.\" width=\"334\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-800x800.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-1020x1020.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-160x160.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-1920x1920.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cam Coulter wants KQED listeners to reimagine who we consider family, and how that might improve the housing crisis. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cam Coulter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> As for their other pie in the sky: Cam wants more \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ic.org/what-is-an-intentional-community-30th-birthday-day-13/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">intentional housing or co-housing communities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I stop and dream about what, like, a beautiful, sustainable, healthy future would look like, I see housing that looks more like this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve lived in intentional community before, and I’d like to do that again in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN – \u003c/b>\u003cb>SUNKISSED]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Live not just with my own, how to say, like, nuclear family, but with other people, and to share space with them, share grocery budgets, do communal activities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would love to live in a co-housing community where my partner and I could have some of our own space but also share common spaces with community. I would love to live in, like, a larger, multi-family home where maybe four to 10 adults, or kids, could comfortably live together without overcrowding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this could benefit a lot of multi-generational families who I know are already overcrowded in their small single-family home. I think we have too few of those options.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT – \u003c/b>\u003cb>SUNKISSED]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam is nonbinary, and says the connection between queer and trans folks living in found families has probably influenced this perspective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One thing that makes me frustrated is that so many of the housing units we have are designed for a nuclear family. Or perhaps, you know, you can have maybe grandparents or something, but they’re really designed as like single-family homes or small apartments, or just one or a couple of people. But that’s not really what I want.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the largest barriers to\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">building more co-housing is, no surprise, money. But,\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam is cheering on organizations like the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://southbayclt.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">South Bay Community Land Trust\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is working on acquiring their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://southbayclt.org/capital-campaign-reed-st-acquisition/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">first community-owned house in San Jose\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam believes co-housing can have additional benefits, like boosting our social health.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s like a really big issue these days, is that so many people are isolated. And when I lived in community before, I really loved just constantly having people around. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It did a lot of good for me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN – SEARCHING FOR TREASURE]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our next listener knows that\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the housing crisis should be attacked on every single front. So Santa Cruz renter Ernesto Anguiano is setting his sights on a culprit that some might consider a friend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You see… Ernesto wants to see cities change their zoning laws to allow for more multi-family housing. And he wants to see Bay Area cities built denser. He thinks one way to achieve that is by rethinking parking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911347\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911347 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-1020x689.jpg\" alt=\"A man stands on a mountainside with a board.\" width=\"536\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA.jpg 1818w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ernesto Anguiano rents in Santa Cruz and wants listeners to consider how their car might impact the housing crisis. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ernesto Anguiano)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT – SEARCHING FOR TREASURE]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERNESTO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a lot of things that affect your ability to purchase a home. And the parking one was a unique aspect on it\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When there are parking minimums for housing developments\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, spaces for cars eat up what could be spaces for housing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERNESTO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So you’re essentially subsidizing that parking space that you could be building valuable housing in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Ernesto sees it, denser cities create more transit options, so reducing a dependency on cars can help the environment, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and makes it possible to afford a home. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of these changes can help the housing crisis.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERNESTO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, everybody should have the opportunity and the ability to live where they want to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if you want to have, you know, your single-family home, or your single-family neighborhood, you know, I can respect that. But at the same time, you have to give others the opportunity to live in that same neighborhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: WURLY REGGAETON]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ernesto knows folks have a reliance on cars, but he hopes he’s planted the seed for more conversations in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next, we turn to Eva Hopkins who has a vision for Oakland, her hometown. She has big thoughts on gentrification and ways to address it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA HOPKINS:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You have to at least have one point something million dollars to get a good house, in a good area, in Oakland. And I essentially got priced out of Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When we spoke Eva had just sold her condo in Emeryville and was preparing to move into her new home in Hercules. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: WURLY REGGAETON]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She sees how Oakland has changed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11830938\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11830938\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Single-family homes near MacArthur BART station in Oakland, on Feb. 21, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All these developers coming in, and I’m going to say, white developers, coming in and kicking us all out, rebuilding stuff, and making it unaffordable for the people that were there before. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where you could have been paying $1,000 for rent, now you’re paying $4,000 for rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: DIZZY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because if you talk about poverty, and stuff like that, you’re pushing us into poverty because we can’t afford this, and people don’t have anywhere to go. So where does that push them? When you push them out, that pushes them on the streets, and there’s poverty right there, right? So it’s basically keeping us from rising on top, and pushing us straight to the bottom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s really important that when there are major developers coming in and redeveloping places, that they are community-driven. Get those construction companies that are in the community that you’re building in and get those residents working somehow, someway on this project so that they can live in the places that they build.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it’s not just Oakland\u003c/span>\u003cb> — \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eva works at a non-profit in San Francisco, and points to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf-hrc.org/sites/default/files/Dream%20Keeper%20Initiative_One%20Pager.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dream Keeper Initiative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as one tool to address gentrification there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: DIZZY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a city-wide effort to reinvest $120 million from law enforcement into San Francisco’s Black community. $10 million is allocated for housing and homeownership.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Eva navigated the buyer and seller’s market these past few months, she said similar programs and initiatives really helped her, and she hopes prospective home buyers will take advantage of resources out there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They are making it possible for people of color, and you know us, to buy homes, so take advantage of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taking advantage of programs is just one way to stabilize communities. But while that may not have been enough to help Eva own in Oakland, she said she’s proud to live in a Bay Area city and remain near her mom and brother.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC TRANSITION]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’re going to take a quick break. Coming up, one listener points to some legislation they think could make waves in affordability, a landlord who considered leaving the business, and someone who shows us the devastating effects of displacement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MIDROLL – ADVERTISEMENT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sean Ripley emailed us wanting to talk about a controversial policy in his city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Opportunity to Purchase Act, or OPA, would give current tenants, as well as qualifying nonprofits, the first shot at buying certain residential properties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SEAN RIPLEY: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hope is that this will create housing that has a permanent affordability to it, like the housing preservation that will happen over time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although OPA has been discussed in the city since \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofepa.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/housing/page/20967/2021.10.05_ppt_epa_opportunity_to_purchase_act_final.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2018\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it was first formally considered by the East Palo Alto City Council in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofepa.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/housing/page/20967/2021.10.05_ppt_epa_opportunity_to_purchase_act_final.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">October 2021\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — and the disagreements soon followed, through Facebook forums and city protests.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.noepaopa.com/home\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NO to EPA OPA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> website, one of the arguments against this ordinance is that it could damage the single-family housing market and property values.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911350\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 332px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911350 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-1020x1530.jpeg\" alt=\"A man smiles at the camera while wearing a bright red jacket, in front of a wall of bright red flowers.\" width=\"332\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-1020x1530.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-800x1200.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love.jpeg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 332px) 100vw, 332px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean Ripley, seen here posing for a local event, wants KQED listeners to know what’s happening in his city of East Palo Alto. \u003ccite>(Jerry Chang, courtesy of Sean Ripley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SEAN: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s kind of that part of the conversation, the financial argument on one side, against the kind of, housing and restorative justice aspect on the other side.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sean and his wife own a single-family home in East Palo Alto. As a homeowner, he recognizes that his property value could fall, but in the end, he says he wants to see everyone in his community have an equitable opportunity to grow and thrive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SEAN: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do care about the value of my house. But I would be willing to take a hit to that value if I knew that the neighbors around me would be able to be uplifted.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: ALWAYS ON THE UP HIP HOP]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because I know that them being uplifted raises everything, including myself. I don’t have to just focus on my property, in my silo, in my small piece of the world — I live in something bigger. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I spoke to Sean in February, a vote was expected on OPA on March 1st, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/03/02/east-palo-alto-tables-considers-diluting-controversial-tenants-rights-ordinance/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">but it’s since been postponed, likely, for up to 10 months.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This season of Sold Out talked about the loss of small landlords, and how the rise of corporate landlords has led to more evictions. But what makes a small landlord want to stop being a landlord?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny Johnston says so much of being a landlord has changed, and recently, she considered leaving the business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny lives in a Berkeley duplex she and her husband purchased in 2003, and they started renting it out to help pay their mortgage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, she says identifying a tenant was a lot easier. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: ALWAYS ON THE UP HIP HOP]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY JOHNSTON: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And at that time, we interviewed people and we did a background check, and we checked and saw what they were earning. We kind of basically just said, “Well, I don’t know, did you get a good feeling from those people or not?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But now, she says the pandemic’s impacts on the economy, plus the eviction moratorium have made it much more challenging to be a landlord.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11809882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11809882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-800x523.jpg\" alt=\"Two houses, side by side, one with boarded-up windows.\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-800x523.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-1020x666.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-1920x1254.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on evictions came after advocacy organizations and some state lawmakers made repeated calls to the governor to provide protection to renters when residents were told to shelter in place. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The criteria have gotten stricter. I needed to make sure that people had almost like an extra cushion, that they would be able to, you know — and maybe I’m very careful — like, you know, what if somebody was working for a restaurant or a bakery? Well, you know, it could shut down if business wasn’t good, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It even made Jenny question whether this was still a sustainable source of income.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I look back that far and I say, hey, if I had gotten out of this and just put the money into some mutual fund in the stock market or something, I would have actually done better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: PASTIME]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, companies own at least two-thirds of apartment buildings nationwide — a big change from the late 80’s when a majority of landlords were considered “mom and pop” shops.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny says she knows of other property owners who have stopped renting because the process has become too difficult to manage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I mean, I understand that during the pandemic the government didn’t want people to be kicked out of their housing because of the lack of rent, but I’ve heard of several cases of other friends of mine who have units who just stopped renting them because they didn’t want to rent out without knowing that they had some control over what was happening on their property.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny says regulations like eviction protections and rent payment postponement, have made renting more labor-intensive, and financially riskier for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: PASTIME]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She believes a way out of the crisis is to build more housing, rather than placing more restrictions on the limited housing available.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you take a number of places that already exist and start to make a lot of rules about how people can offer those, it doesn’t make more places for people to live, it actually makes it harder.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t hear that point of view very often. And I know that, you know, different people see this in different ways and that, you know, some protections are important, but just trying to make people offer their units in a certain way is not going to create new units or places for people to live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny continues to rent out her place in Berkeley, and says seeing more houses built in her East Bay community gives her hope.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: Lo Fi Fun Rap]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next, we’ll hear from two organizers — the experiences that brought them to this work, and the issues they’re determined to solve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEX MELENDREZ: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Housing is a human right.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alex Melendrez lives with his parents in San Bruno, where he pays rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And he has a guiding principle for his work.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cb>ALEX: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Everyone deserves a stable home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: Lo Fi Fun Rap]\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the son of Mexican and Afghan immigrants, Alex is concerned with how the housing crisis has led to overcrowding in immigrant and refugee communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEX: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of them will tell you finding permanently affordable housing is the biggest challenge to stabilizing community members who already face large barriers and cultural changes that make adjusting difficult.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not a recipe for success if you do not have a stable home.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911688\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 372px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11911688\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-800x1000.jpg\" alt=\"A young man stands in the snow.\" width=\"372\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 372px) 100vw, 372px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex Melendrez wrote to KQED wanting to talk about the effects the housing crisis has had on refugee communities. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alex Melendrez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Despite all the challenges surrounding the housing crisis, Alex remains hopeful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: PEACEFUL WONDER]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEX: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As cheesy as it sounds, never underestimate your power to be part of the solution. Sending an email, making public comments, participating in an upcoming housing discussion.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like to say any good organizer who loves policies or the debates around these conversations knows that policy isn’t what organizes people — it’s stories and impact.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: With that, we turn to our final conversation with someone who has experienced eviction very young — Margot Rinaldo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Knowing its effects firsthand has been a huge motivation in Margot’s work today, and it gives her a unique perspective on politics.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her story starts in San Jose — the place where she last felt stability during her childhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT RINALDO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was a two-story house. It was like a white building with, like, blue roofs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I lived in that house until I was 11. What I really remember about that home was like, it was ours, like, it was ours.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of that started changing around 2007, which is when my dad started receiving lots of calls from the bank.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: PEACEFUL WONDER]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then finally, in like 2008, I remember one day my dad telling us, we’re going to lose the house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This was during the Great Recession. Without an immediate place to go, her dad put their belongings in a storage unit.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>MARGOT:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I remember, like, just staring at a pile of my toys and thinking to myself, like, I’m not going to be able to take all of these with me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a child, Margot says she didn’t understand the foreclosure crisis, or why the things that comforted her were now going away.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She has a strong memory of sitting in her dad’s car.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like looking up at the sky and being like, I hope to God he finds a house soon. Like, that we can be a family again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot moved around a lot over the next few years — 4 different cities, 3 different high schools, and many different homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She told me about the place they moved into after losing her childhood home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The only house we could get was not equipped for people to be living in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just remember like constantly, like, scratching at my ankles, and like these open sores would be on my ankles for, like, days because of all the flea bites. And we also didn’t have any furniture in that house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Margot says housing instability dominoed into every part of her life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s largely like a lack of security, a lack of the ability to feel calm, a lack of the ability to relax or, you know, feel confident in your future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That lack of security affected\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot’s grades and social life. She remembers getting a D in Spanish class, despite being a native speaker.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember sitting at the Caltrain and, like, thinking, like, there’s no future for me to go to college or anything like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Margot remained determined to continue her education.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her senior year of high school, she worked 40 hours a week to save enough money for the first few months of rent in the college dorms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then for my 18th birthday present, my dad bought me a chance to take the S.A.T. and so that was my — I remember that was my 18th birthday present.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot’s experiences with the housing crisis set her on her life path.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911349\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 342px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911349 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1020x1360.jpeg\" alt=\"A young woman with red glasses takes a selfie while in a room decorated with books.\" width=\"342\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 342px) 100vw, 342px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margot Rinaldo wrote to KQED wanting to share how her childhood shaped her views on housing issues. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Margot Rinaldo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: NEW INQUIRY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She graduated from Sacramento State in December 2021 with a degree in political science. She now lives in Sacramento and is a community organizer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">also\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a regular at City Council meetings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you’re a homeowner, you’re listened to when you call into the City Council meetings and you tell them you don’t like the look of unhoused people living near your neighborhood. They’ll go and sweep those people because you’re a homeowner, like, you matter.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What’s clear to me is, like, certain people’s housing is a priority.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: NEW INQUIRY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Margot has learned throughout her childhood, her studies and her involvement in the community is that housing instability and displacement is not a failure of individuals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a collective failure of our society. Especially for folks who have gone through so much housing insecurity like it’s really important to like, reclaim your sense of self.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for solutions, Margot has a lot of ideas on how we can begin to chip away at the housing crisis, starting with more action from government leaders.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>You know, o\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ur local representatives need to start advocating at the state level. If they are being burdened by state policies that are not allowing them to move quickly enough for renters or for unhoused people, like, they need to start advocating at the state level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she’s got some advice on how to get started.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I hope if any young people are listening like you have power — you do have power. It takes a bit to organize and to, like, get to know where your supporters are in your community, but they’re there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only should you join an organization, but you should also be, like, reevaluating possibly how your individual circumstances are connected to the larger community around you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: LEAVING THE CITY]\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When I think of home, I think about how every time I go to the Bay now, I take the Amtrak. When I get off the Amtrak, the bus transfer is right in front of the biggest Chase Bank building you’ve ever seen. When I sit across the street from that building, I wonder who is allowed in the highest levels of that building?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know that my view of San Francisco is really different than theirs. And so in those moments, I’m really overcome with, like, bittersweet homesickness. That reminds me of when I was growing up there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel like the Bay Area for me has always been an art gallery, where the paintings are placed really high so only the tallest people are ever able to see them. And then as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to identify that the place that I’ve always considered home has always seemed to reject me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot has been dedicating her energy on political education, by organizing teach-ins on Sacramento’s history of housing segregation, how housing policies work, and how to inspire greater local advocacy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to everyone who shared their stories with me. That’s Cam Coulter, Ernesto Anguiano, Eva Hopkins, and Sean Ripley, Jenny Johnston, Alex Melendrez, and Margot Rinaldo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: LEAVING THE CITY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And to the many others who shared their housing experiences — thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[THEME MUSIC IN] \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For those of you who haven’t gotten in touch — and still want to — we’re here! Send us an email at \u003ca href=\"mailto:housing@kqed.org\">housing@kqed.org\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We always want to hear your experiences and your biggest, boldest and wildest idea for the future of housing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was Sold Out producer Natalia Aldana.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to everyone who shared a tweet, Instagram post, or called and emailed us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sold Out is a production of KQED. Natalia Aldana reported and produced this story. Editing by Kyana Moghadam and Jessica Placzek. Additional support came from Erika Kelly, Molly Solomon, and me, Erin Baldassari.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>MOLLY: \u003c/strong>Brendan Willard is our sound engineer. And Rob Speight wrote our theme song. Gerald Fermin is our engagement intern.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We couldn’t have made this season without Ethan Toven-Lindsey, Holly Kernan, Erika Aguilar and Vinnee Tong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>ERIN: \u003c/strong>Thanks so much for listening. That’s a wrap!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[THEME MUSIC OUT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"title": "Bonus: Your Stories and Solutions for the Housing Crisis | KQED",
"description": "What are your biggest ideas on how to solve the housing crisis? How has housing shaped your life? Throughout this season, we wanted to hear from you — the Sold Out audience. We asked you to get in touch, and you came through! From voice memos to emails and social media, dozens of listeners reached out and shared stories of housing insecurity and loss, advocacy work, and visions for an equitable housing future. In this bonus episode, hear from seven people for whom housing is at the center of everything. MOLLY SOLOMON: Hi! I’m Molly Solomon. ERIN BALDASSARI: And",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What are your biggest ideas on how to solve the housing crisis? How has housing shaped your life?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout this season, we wanted to hear from you — the Sold Out audience. We asked you to get in touch, and you came through!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From voice memos to emails and social media, dozens of listeners reached out and shared stories of housing insecurity and loss, advocacy work, and visions for an equitable housing future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this bonus episode, hear from seven people for whom housing is at the center of everything. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch5 id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC9285725518&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/h5>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[TRANSCRIPT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MOLLY SOLOMON: \u003c/strong>Hi! I’m Molly Solomon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>ERIN BALDASSARI: \u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Erin Baldassari. You’re listening to Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, and today we’ve got something special for you from producer Natalia Aldana.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Take it away, Natalia.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[SOLD OUT THEME MUSIC BEGINS]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11841421\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 451px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11841421\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-800x530.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"451\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut-1536x1018.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/RS16247_GettyImages-150582090-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A red for sale sign outside a home with a “sold pending” sticker posted across the front. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA ALDANA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When it comes to the housing crisis, every Californian has something to say about it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT RINALDO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Man, it’s like — it’s like the air we breathe. It is literally, like, a fact of life if you live in California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>NATALIA: \u003c/strong>We can all point to how it’s impacted us — affected our families, our neighborhoods, and our livelihoods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout this season of Sold Out, we’ve been asking for your thoughts and experiences when it comes to housing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So many of you got in touch. And today, you’ll hear from seven people whose stories might challenge you, empathize with you, and hopefully, inspire you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC – DECK LOFI]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First up, we have a listener who wants us to rethink how we live — literally\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">who we share a roof with, and how the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">way \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">we understand family impacts our housing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam Coulter rents an apartment with his partner in San Jose. And Cam thinks the housing system favors homeowners. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM COULTER: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is probably a little hot-take, but I wish I could write off my rent payments as tax-deductible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam recognizes that tax incentives are meant to motivate homeownership. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And that might work in other parts of the country. But here I feel like it really just punishes the people who can’t afford to buy a home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although rent is not tax-deductible in California — the state does award a $60 renters tax credit for qualifying single filers who earn less than $43,533 a year. Since Cam and I last spoke, \u003ca href=\"https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/californias-renter-tax-credit-has-remained-unchanged-for-43-years-it-could-soon-increase/ar-AAW402s\">a state bill has been proposed that could potentially increase that credit to $500.\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT – DECK LOFI OUT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Cam\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> doesn’t really want to buy a h\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ome, they do want to build equity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I see the way that the desire to own a home is sort of constructed by the fact that it’s a great way to build wealth and have long-term stability. But I wish there were other ways to achieve that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911686\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 334px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11911686\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-800x800.jpeg\" alt=\"A person sits on the grass.\" width=\"334\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-800x800.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-1020x1020.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-160x160.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter-1920x1920.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Cam-Coulter.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cam Coulter wants KQED listeners to reimagine who we consider family, and how that might improve the housing crisis. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cam Coulter)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> As for their other pie in the sky: Cam wants more \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ic.org/what-is-an-intentional-community-30th-birthday-day-13/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">intentional housing or co-housing communities\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I stop and dream about what, like, a beautiful, sustainable, healthy future would look like, I see housing that looks more like this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve lived in intentional community before, and I’d like to do that again in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN – \u003c/b>\u003cb>SUNKISSED]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Live not just with my own, how to say, like, nuclear family, but with other people, and to share space with them, share grocery budgets, do communal activities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would love to live in a co-housing community where my partner and I could have some of our own space but also share common spaces with community. I would love to live in, like, a larger, multi-family home where maybe four to 10 adults, or kids, could comfortably live together without overcrowding.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this could benefit a lot of multi-generational families who I know are already overcrowded in their small single-family home. I think we have too few of those options.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT – \u003c/b>\u003cb>SUNKISSED]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam is nonbinary, and says the connection between queer and trans folks living in found families has probably influenced this perspective.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One thing that makes me frustrated is that so many of the housing units we have are designed for a nuclear family. Or perhaps, you know, you can have maybe grandparents or something, but they’re really designed as like single-family homes or small apartments, or just one or a couple of people. But that’s not really what I want.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the largest barriers to\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">building more co-housing is, no surprise, money. But,\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam is cheering on organizations like the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://southbayclt.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">South Bay Community Land Trust\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is working on acquiring their \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://southbayclt.org/capital-campaign-reed-st-acquisition/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">first community-owned house in San Jose\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cam believes co-housing can have additional benefits, like boosting our social health.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CAM: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s like a really big issue these days, is that so many people are isolated. And when I lived in community before, I really loved just constantly having people around. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It did a lot of good for me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN – SEARCHING FOR TREASURE]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our next listener knows that\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the housing crisis should be attacked on every single front. So Santa Cruz renter Ernesto Anguiano is setting his sights on a culprit that some might consider a friend.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You see… Ernesto wants to see cities change their zoning laws to allow for more multi-family housing. And he wants to see Bay Area cities built denser. He thinks one way to achieve that is by rethinking parking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911347\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 536px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911347 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-1020x689.jpg\" alt=\"A man stands on a mountainside with a board.\" width=\"536\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA-1536x1038.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/ErnestoA.jpg 1818w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ernesto Anguiano rents in Santa Cruz and wants listeners to consider how their car might impact the housing crisis. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ernesto Anguiano)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT – SEARCHING FOR TREASURE]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERNESTO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s a lot of things that affect your ability to purchase a home. And the parking one was a unique aspect on it\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When there are parking minimums for housing developments\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, spaces for cars eat up what could be spaces for housing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERNESTO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So you’re essentially subsidizing that parking space that you could be building valuable housing in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Ernesto sees it, denser cities create more transit options, so reducing a dependency on cars can help the environment, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and makes it possible to afford a home. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of these changes can help the housing crisis.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERNESTO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, everybody should have the opportunity and the ability to live where they want to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if you want to have, you know, your single-family home, or your single-family neighborhood, you know, I can respect that. But at the same time, you have to give others the opportunity to live in that same neighborhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: WURLY REGGAETON]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ernesto knows folks have a reliance on cars, but he hopes he’s planted the seed for more conversations in the future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next, we turn to Eva Hopkins who has a vision for Oakland, her hometown. She has big thoughts on gentrification and ways to address it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA HOPKINS:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You have to at least have one point something million dollars to get a good house, in a good area, in Oakland. And I essentially got priced out of Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When we spoke Eva had just sold her condo in Emeryville and was preparing to move into her new home in Hercules. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: WURLY REGGAETON]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She sees how Oakland has changed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11830938\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11830938\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/07/RS41536_009_KQED_Housing_Oakland_02212020_3511-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Single-family homes near MacArthur BART station in Oakland, on Feb. 21, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All these developers coming in, and I’m going to say, white developers, coming in and kicking us all out, rebuilding stuff, and making it unaffordable for the people that were there before. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where you could have been paying $1,000 for rent, now you’re paying $4,000 for rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: DIZZY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because if you talk about poverty, and stuff like that, you’re pushing us into poverty because we can’t afford this, and people don’t have anywhere to go. So where does that push them? When you push them out, that pushes them on the streets, and there’s poverty right there, right? So it’s basically keeping us from rising on top, and pushing us straight to the bottom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s really important that when there are major developers coming in and redeveloping places, that they are community-driven. Get those construction companies that are in the community that you’re building in and get those residents working somehow, someway on this project so that they can live in the places that they build.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it’s not just Oakland\u003c/span>\u003cb> — \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eva works at a non-profit in San Francisco, and points to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf-hrc.org/sites/default/files/Dream%20Keeper%20Initiative_One%20Pager.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dream Keeper Initiative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as one tool to address gentrification there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: DIZZY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a city-wide effort to reinvest $120 million from law enforcement into San Francisco’s Black community. $10 million is allocated for housing and homeownership.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As Eva navigated the buyer and seller’s market these past few months, she said similar programs and initiatives really helped her, and she hopes prospective home buyers will take advantage of resources out there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They are making it possible for people of color, and you know us, to buy homes, so take advantage of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taking advantage of programs is just one way to stabilize communities. But while that may not have been enough to help Eva own in Oakland, she said she’s proud to live in a Bay Area city and remain near her mom and brother.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC TRANSITION]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We’re going to take a quick break. Coming up, one listener points to some legislation they think could make waves in affordability, a landlord who considered leaving the business, and someone who shows us the devastating effects of displacement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MIDROLL – ADVERTISEMENT]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sean Ripley emailed us wanting to talk about a controversial policy in his city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Opportunity to Purchase Act, or OPA, would give current tenants, as well as qualifying nonprofits, the first shot at buying certain residential properties.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SEAN RIPLEY: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hope is that this will create housing that has a permanent affordability to it, like the housing preservation that will happen over time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although OPA has been discussed in the city since \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofepa.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/housing/page/20967/2021.10.05_ppt_epa_opportunity_to_purchase_act_final.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">2018\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, it was first formally considered by the East Palo Alto City Council in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofepa.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/housing/page/20967/2021.10.05_ppt_epa_opportunity_to_purchase_act_final.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">October 2021\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — and the disagreements soon followed, through Facebook forums and city protests.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.noepaopa.com/home\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NO to EPA OPA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> website, one of the arguments against this ordinance is that it could damage the single-family housing market and property values.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911350\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 332px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911350 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-1020x1530.jpeg\" alt=\"A man smiles at the camera while wearing a bright red jacket, in front of a wall of bright red flowers.\" width=\"332\" height=\"498\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-1020x1530.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-800x1200.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Sean-Ripley-Day-of-Love.jpeg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 332px) 100vw, 332px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sean Ripley, seen here posing for a local event, wants KQED listeners to know what’s happening in his city of East Palo Alto. \u003ccite>(Jerry Chang, courtesy of Sean Ripley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SEAN: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s kind of that part of the conversation, the financial argument on one side, against the kind of, housing and restorative justice aspect on the other side.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sean and his wife own a single-family home in East Palo Alto. As a homeowner, he recognizes that his property value could fall, but in the end, he says he wants to see everyone in his community have an equitable opportunity to grow and thrive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SEAN: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do care about the value of my house. But I would be willing to take a hit to that value if I knew that the neighbors around me would be able to be uplifted.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: ALWAYS ON THE UP HIP HOP]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because I know that them being uplifted raises everything, including myself. I don’t have to just focus on my property, in my silo, in my small piece of the world — I live in something bigger. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I spoke to Sean in February, a vote was expected on OPA on March 1st, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/03/02/east-palo-alto-tables-considers-diluting-controversial-tenants-rights-ordinance/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">but it’s since been postponed, likely, for up to 10 months.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This season of Sold Out talked about the loss of small landlords, and how the rise of corporate landlords has led to more evictions. But what makes a small landlord want to stop being a landlord?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny Johnston says so much of being a landlord has changed, and recently, she considered leaving the business.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny lives in a Berkeley duplex she and her husband purchased in 2003, and they started renting it out to help pay their mortgage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back then, she says identifying a tenant was a lot easier. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: ALWAYS ON THE UP HIP HOP]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY JOHNSTON: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And at that time, we interviewed people and we did a background check, and we checked and saw what they were earning. We kind of basically just said, “Well, I don’t know, did you get a good feeling from those people or not?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But now, she says the pandemic’s impacts on the economy, plus the eviction moratorium have made it much more challenging to be a landlord.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11809882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11809882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-800x523.jpg\" alt=\"Two houses, side by side, one with boarded-up windows.\" width=\"800\" height=\"523\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-800x523.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-1020x666.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/04/RS612_foreclosure20120511-1920x1254.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on evictions came after advocacy organizations and some state lawmakers made repeated calls to the governor to provide protection to renters when residents were told to shelter in place. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The criteria have gotten stricter. I needed to make sure that people had almost like an extra cushion, that they would be able to, you know — and maybe I’m very careful — like, you know, what if somebody was working for a restaurant or a bakery? Well, you know, it could shut down if business wasn’t good, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It even made Jenny question whether this was still a sustainable source of income.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If I look back that far and I say, hey, if I had gotten out of this and just put the money into some mutual fund in the stock market or something, I would have actually done better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: PASTIME]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, companies own at least two-thirds of apartment buildings nationwide — a big change from the late 80’s when a majority of landlords were considered “mom and pop” shops.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny says she knows of other property owners who have stopped renting because the process has become too difficult to manage.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I mean, I understand that during the pandemic the government didn’t want people to be kicked out of their housing because of the lack of rent, but I’ve heard of several cases of other friends of mine who have units who just stopped renting them because they didn’t want to rent out without knowing that they had some control over what was happening on their property.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny says regulations like eviction protections and rent payment postponement, have made renting more labor-intensive, and financially riskier for her.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: PASTIME]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She believes a way out of the crisis is to build more housing, rather than placing more restrictions on the limited housing available.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JENNY:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you take a number of places that already exist and start to make a lot of rules about how people can offer those, it doesn’t make more places for people to live, it actually makes it harder.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t hear that point of view very often. And I know that, you know, different people see this in different ways and that, you know, some protections are important, but just trying to make people offer their units in a certain way is not going to create new units or places for people to live.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jenny continues to rent out her place in Berkeley, and says seeing more houses built in her East Bay community gives her hope.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: Lo Fi Fun Rap]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next, we’ll hear from two organizers — the experiences that brought them to this work, and the issues they’re determined to solve.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEX MELENDREZ: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Housing is a human right.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alex Melendrez lives with his parents in San Bruno, where he pays rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And he has a guiding principle for his work.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cb>ALEX: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Everyone deserves a stable home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: Lo Fi Fun Rap]\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the son of Mexican and Afghan immigrants, Alex is concerned with how the housing crisis has led to overcrowding in immigrant and refugee communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEX: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of them will tell you finding permanently affordable housing is the biggest challenge to stabilizing community members who already face large barriers and cultural changes that make adjusting difficult.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not a recipe for success if you do not have a stable home.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911688\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 372px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11911688\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-800x1000.jpg\" alt=\"A young man stands in the snow.\" width=\"372\" height=\"465\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-1020x1275.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Alex-Melendrez.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 372px) 100vw, 372px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex Melendrez wrote to KQED wanting to talk about the effects the housing crisis has had on refugee communities. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Alex Melendrez)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Despite all the challenges surrounding the housing crisis, Alex remains hopeful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: PEACEFUL WONDER]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEX: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As cheesy as it sounds, never underestimate your power to be part of the solution. Sending an email, making public comments, participating in an upcoming housing discussion.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like to say any good organizer who loves policies or the debates around these conversations knows that policy isn’t what organizes people — it’s stories and impact.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">: With that, we turn to our final conversation with someone who has experienced eviction very young — Margot Rinaldo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Knowing its effects firsthand has been a huge motivation in Margot’s work today, and it gives her a unique perspective on politics.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her story starts in San Jose — the place where she last felt stability during her childhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT RINALDO: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was a two-story house. It was like a white building with, like, blue roofs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I lived in that house until I was 11. What I really remember about that home was like, it was ours, like, it was ours.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of that started changing around 2007, which is when my dad started receiving lots of calls from the bank.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: PEACEFUL WONDER]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then finally, in like 2008, I remember one day my dad telling us, we’re going to lose the house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This was during the Great Recession. Without an immediate place to go, her dad put their belongings in a storage unit.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>MARGOT:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I remember, like, just staring at a pile of my toys and thinking to myself, like, I’m not going to be able to take all of these with me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a child, Margot says she didn’t understand the foreclosure crisis, or why the things that comforted her were now going away.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She has a strong memory of sitting in her dad’s car.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And like looking up at the sky and being like, I hope to God he finds a house soon. Like, that we can be a family again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot moved around a lot over the next few years — 4 different cities, 3 different high schools, and many different homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She told me about the place they moved into after losing her childhood home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The only house we could get was not equipped for people to be living in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I just remember like constantly, like, scratching at my ankles, and like these open sores would be on my ankles for, like, days because of all the flea bites. And we also didn’t have any furniture in that house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Margot says housing instability dominoed into every part of her life.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s largely like a lack of security, a lack of the ability to feel calm, a lack of the ability to relax or, you know, feel confident in your future.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That lack of security affected\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot’s grades and social life. She remembers getting a D in Spanish class, despite being a native speaker.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember sitting at the Caltrain and, like, thinking, like, there’s no future for me to go to college or anything like that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But Margot remained determined to continue her education.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In her senior year of high school, she worked 40 hours a week to save enough money for the first few months of rent in the college dorms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then for my 18th birthday present, my dad bought me a chance to take the S.A.T. and so that was my — I remember that was my 18th birthday present.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot’s experiences with the housing crisis set her on her life path.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911349\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 342px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911349 \" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1020x1360.jpeg\" alt=\"A young woman with red glasses takes a selfie while in a room decorated with books.\" width=\"342\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_5823-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 342px) 100vw, 342px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Margot Rinaldo wrote to KQED wanting to share how her childhood shaped her views on housing issues. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Margot Rinaldo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: NEW INQUIRY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She graduated from Sacramento State in December 2021 with a degree in political science. She now lives in Sacramento and is a community organizer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">also\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a regular at City Council meetings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you’re a homeowner, you’re listened to when you call into the City Council meetings and you tell them you don’t like the look of unhoused people living near your neighborhood. They’ll go and sweep those people because you’re a homeowner, like, you matter.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What’s clear to me is, like, certain people’s housing is a priority.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: NEW INQUIRY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Margot has learned throughout her childhood, her studies and her involvement in the community is that housing instability and displacement is not a failure of individuals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a collective failure of our society. Especially for folks who have gone through so much housing insecurity like it’s really important to like, reclaim your sense of self.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for solutions, Margot has a lot of ideas on how we can begin to chip away at the housing crisis, starting with more action from government leaders.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>You know, o\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ur local representatives need to start advocating at the state level. If they are being burdened by state policies that are not allowing them to move quickly enough for renters or for unhoused people, like, they need to start advocating at the state level. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And she’s got some advice on how to get started.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I hope if any young people are listening like you have power — you do have power. It takes a bit to organize and to, like, get to know where your supporters are in your community, but they’re there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Not only should you join an organization, but you should also be, like, reevaluating possibly how your individual circumstances are connected to the larger community around you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC IN: LEAVING THE CITY]\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MARGOT:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When I think of home, I think about how every time I go to the Bay now, I take the Amtrak. When I get off the Amtrak, the bus transfer is right in front of the biggest Chase Bank building you’ve ever seen. When I sit across the street from that building, I wonder who is allowed in the highest levels of that building?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know that my view of San Francisco is really different than theirs. And so in those moments, I’m really overcome with, like, bittersweet homesickness. That reminds me of when I was growing up there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel like the Bay Area for me has always been an art gallery, where the paintings are placed really high so only the tallest people are ever able to see them. And then as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to identify that the place that I’ve always considered home has always seemed to reject me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NATALIA: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Margot has been dedicating her energy on political education, by organizing teach-ins on Sacramento’s history of housing segregation, how housing policies work, and how to inspire greater local advocacy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to everyone who shared their stories with me. That’s Cam Coulter, Ernesto Anguiano, Eva Hopkins, and Sean Ripley, Jenny Johnston, Alex Melendrez, and Margot Rinaldo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[MUSIC OUT: LEAVING THE CITY]\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And to the many others who shared their housing experiences — thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[THEME MUSIC IN] \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For those of you who haven’t gotten in touch — and still want to — we’re here! Send us an email at \u003ca href=\"mailto:housing@kqed.org\">housing@kqed.org\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We always want to hear your experiences and your biggest, boldest and wildest idea for the future of housing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was Sold Out producer Natalia Aldana.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to everyone who shared a tweet, Instagram post, or called and emailed us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sold Out is a production of KQED. Natalia Aldana reported and produced this story. Editing by Kyana Moghadam and Jessica Placzek. Additional support came from Erika Kelly, Molly Solomon, and me, Erin Baldassari.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>MOLLY: \u003c/strong>Brendan Willard is our sound engineer. And Rob Speight wrote our theme song. Gerald Fermin is our engagement intern.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We couldn’t have made this season without Ethan Toven-Lindsey, Holly Kernan, Erika Aguilar and Vinnee Tong.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>ERIN: \u003c/strong>Thanks so much for listening. That’s a wrap!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "voracious-wildfires-rising-costs-school-closures-student-enrollment-plummets-in-rural-northern-california",
"title": "Voracious Wildfires, Rising Costs, School Closures: Student Enrollment Plummets in Rural Northern California",
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"headTitle": "Voracious Wildfires, Rising Costs, School Closures: Student Enrollment Plummets in Rural Northern California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Cheryl Kolb was growing up in Quincy, a picturesque Gold Rush town in the northern Sierra, kids would while away their days exploring the forests, swimming in the Feather River and getting milkshakes at the Polka Dot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, those trails and swimming holes are a lot quieter. Quincy High School, the largest high school in Plumas County, had only 301 students last year in grades 7-12 — fewer than half its enrollment when Kolb was a student there in the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been pretty hard to see all these families leave, because I love it here,” said Kolb, who’s lived in Quincy most of her life and has raised her three children there. “I’d prefer to stay here forever, but I guess if there was another disaster, another big fire, I’d have to consider leaving, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' citation='Linda Irving, superintendent, Sebastopol Union School District']‘It’s a depressing situation. The smaller you get, the fewer options you have, so it’s exponential.’[/pullquote]Even as the overall population in California’s rural north has remained steady or even grown over the past two decades, the number of children enrolled in public schools such as those in Quincy has shrunk. From the Pacific Coast to the inland mountains and valleys, dozens of schools have seen steep drops in enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faced with voracious wildfires that strike almost annually, unsteady local economies and an ever-escalating cost of living, families are fleeing to other counties and other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charter schools have siphoned away thousands of students, and as the pandemic wears on, more families are opting to homeschool their children rather than submit them to mask and vaccine mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s left schools in towns like Quincy and Dunsmuir and Alturas with empty classrooms and difficult choices. Because school funding in California is based on attendance, rural schools receive less money every year that enrollment drops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That forces them to lay off staff — a painful process in towns where jobs are scarce and everyone knows one another — or cut popular amenities like after-school programs and science labs. Closing schools is rarely an option because the district may have only one school serving a massive geographic area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These factors all combine to strain rural districts even further, often resulting in cuts that make schools even less attractive to prospective families. But the situation is not new, said Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School Districts’ Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Declining enrollment has been a challenge in rural areas for decades. Now that LA Unified has declining enrollment, everyone is saying, wow, this is really a problem,” Taylor said. “What we know is that it’s a heavy load, and the pressure falls on the superintendent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, enrollment had held steady over the past decade, until it plummeted during the pandemic, triggering the state Wednesday to form a task force to study its origins. But in many parts of rural Northern California, enrollment has been inching downward for two decades or more. Since 1999-20, schools in the rural north of the state have lost 5.02% of their enrollment. Some have lost far more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some rural districts in the region have seen enrollment drop by more than 60% over the past 20 years. Although they’re all facing the same challenges, each school has its own story and unique reasons for declining enrollment. Golden Feather Union Elementary School District in Butte County, where enrollment has dropped by 76% over the past 20 years, was ravaged by the Camp Fire in 2018, only to be threatened again by the Dixie Fire in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='small' citation='Ann Schulte, director of civic engagement, Cal State Chico']‘Plenty of people who grew up in small towns want to move back and settle there and raise kids. But there has to be more there than just their grandparents. There has to be a good cup of coffee and a place to hear music.’[/pullquote] Orick, in the redwoods of northern Humboldt County, has seen its population plummet as its six sawmills closed, one by one, leaving the K-8 Orick School with only 21 students last year. In the early 1990s, Orick School had almost 80 students. Schools in some counties, such as Trinity, Humboldt and Mendocino, have seen their attendance fluctuate based on the vagaries of the cannabis industry, which currently is flagging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sebastopol, in Sonoma County, has not been decimated by wildfires or unemployment. But, situated amid bucolic apple orchards and vineyards in the North Bay, it has been subject to a soaring cost of living. The average home price last month was $1.3 million, according to \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Sebastopol_CA/overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Realtor.com\u003c/a>, and rents jumped by more than 50% last year. It’s not unusual for families to pay more than $3,000 a month to rent a small house — a major hurdle in an area that’s primarily agricultural.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County also has a plethora of charter and private schools, and families can easily send their children to schools in districts other than the one in which they reside. The result is that the Sebastopol Union School District has to fight to attract and retain students, which is not always easy in an area that is rapidly changing. In 2000, the K-8 district had more than 1,200 students. Now it’s hovering at 400.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a depressing situation. The smaller you get, the fewer options you have, so it’s exponential,” said Superintendent Linda Irving. “I try to bring the board, unions and community together. That helps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sebastopol, shrinking enrollment means that Irving has to think of creative ways to attract new students. Using a small budget for marketing, she’s printed brochures for local real estate agents to give to new families, and upgraded the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sebastopolschools.org/\">district website\u003c/a>. She’s also used one-time money to fund ongoing services like science, technology, engineering and math programs — not an ideal choice but necessary to compete against better-funded schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rio Dell Elementary, a TK-8 district in Humboldt County, has been hit hard by COVID — and COVID regulations, said Superintendent Angela Johnson. The area has the highest COVID rate in the county, according to the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://humboldtgov.org/3246/COVID-19-Data-Dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services\u003c/a>, but school closures, mask mandates and vaccine requirements also have taken a toll, leading many frustrated families to pull their children from the local public school and homeschool them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often when the students return to school, they’re behind their classmates academically and need extra help catching up, placing a further burden on the 290-student, mostly lower-income district, Johnson said. She dreads any further COVID requirements from Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re closely watching to see what the Legislature does with vaccine mandates. It’s going to be crucial in rural communities like ours,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enrollment at Happy Valley Union Elementary, near Redding, hasn’t slipped nearly as much as other rural schools. The K-8 district in the upper Sacramento Valley had only 34% fewer students last year than it did 20 years ago, compared with the estimated 50% drop many districts have suffered. But attendance has been a challenge. Early in the school year, roughly 13% of students were absent daily, largely due to COVID restrictions that led families to keep their children at home, said Superintendent Shelly Craig.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Craig is grateful for the supportive community in Happy Valley, an unincorporated area in Shasta County surrounded by farms and ranches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our schools are at the center of our close-knit community. Several students are second- and third-generation students. Until last year, when several teachers and staff members retired, the majority of our teachers had served in the community for decades,” Craig said. “Our students and staff are part of a school family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That strong sense of community is one asset that small towns can offer prospective families and young people looking to settle down, said Ann Schulte, head of civic engagement at California State University, Chico and an education professor who works closely with rural districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if those towns want families and young people to stay, they need to listen more closely to what young people want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plenty of people who grew up in small towns want to move back and settle there and raise kids,” she said. “But there has to be more there than just their grandparents. There has to be a good cup of coffee and a place to hear music. There has to be some culture and economic opportunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to declining enrollment and other issues facing rural youth, school leaders in Shasta, Tehama, Siskiyou, Modoc and Trinity counties, with help from the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.mcconnellfoundation.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">McConnell Foundation\u003c/a>, launched an organization called North State Together, which convenes schools, local businesses, families, tribal groups and others to strengthen local schools and improve outcomes for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schulte is optimistic that these towns will revitalize and more families will decide to stay and raise their children there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are suddenly paying attention to what’s happening in rural areas, and they’re realizing these are beautiful, undervalued places that have a lot to offer,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Plumas County, longtime Quincy resident Kolb is hopeful that her community will be spared another disaster like the Dixie Fire, which roared perilously close to Quincy last summer, and that life will return to normal post-pandemic. Ultimately, she said, Quincy and towns like it are wonderful places to grow up, settle down and raise kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I loved growing up here. It was safe, it was fun. Our parents never knew where we were, and that was OK,” said Kolb, who works at the Quincy Chamber of Commerce. “It was an awesome place to be. It still is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Voracious Wildfires, Rising Costs, School Closures: Student Enrollment Plummets in Rural Northern California | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Cheryl Kolb was growing up in Quincy, a picturesque Gold Rush town in the northern Sierra, kids would while away their days exploring the forests, swimming in the Feather River and getting milkshakes at the Polka Dot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, those trails and swimming holes are a lot quieter. Quincy High School, the largest high school in Plumas County, had only 301 students last year in grades 7-12 — fewer than half its enrollment when Kolb was a student there in the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been pretty hard to see all these families leave, because I love it here,” said Kolb, who’s lived in Quincy most of her life and has raised her three children there. “I’d prefer to stay here forever, but I guess if there was another disaster, another big fire, I’d have to consider leaving, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Even as the overall population in California’s rural north has remained steady or even grown over the past two decades, the number of children enrolled in public schools such as those in Quincy has shrunk. From the Pacific Coast to the inland mountains and valleys, dozens of schools have seen steep drops in enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faced with voracious wildfires that strike almost annually, unsteady local economies and an ever-escalating cost of living, families are fleeing to other counties and other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charter schools have siphoned away thousands of students, and as the pandemic wears on, more families are opting to homeschool their children rather than submit them to mask and vaccine mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s left schools in towns like Quincy and Dunsmuir and Alturas with empty classrooms and difficult choices. Because school funding in California is based on attendance, rural schools receive less money every year that enrollment drops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That forces them to lay off staff — a painful process in towns where jobs are scarce and everyone knows one another — or cut popular amenities like after-school programs and science labs. Closing schools is rarely an option because the district may have only one school serving a massive geographic area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These factors all combine to strain rural districts even further, often resulting in cuts that make schools even less attractive to prospective families. But the situation is not new, said Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School Districts’ Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Declining enrollment has been a challenge in rural areas for decades. Now that LA Unified has declining enrollment, everyone is saying, wow, this is really a problem,” Taylor said. “What we know is that it’s a heavy load, and the pressure falls on the superintendent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Statewide, enrollment had held steady over the past decade, until it plummeted during the pandemic, triggering the state Wednesday to form a task force to study its origins. But in many parts of rural Northern California, enrollment has been inching downward for two decades or more. Since 1999-20, schools in the rural north of the state have lost 5.02% of their enrollment. Some have lost far more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some rural districts in the region have seen enrollment drop by more than 60% over the past 20 years. Although they’re all facing the same challenges, each school has its own story and unique reasons for declining enrollment. Golden Feather Union Elementary School District in Butte County, where enrollment has dropped by 76% over the past 20 years, was ravaged by the Camp Fire in 2018, only to be threatened again by the Dixie Fire in 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Orick, in the redwoods of northern Humboldt County, has seen its population plummet as its six sawmills closed, one by one, leaving the K-8 Orick School with only 21 students last year. In the early 1990s, Orick School had almost 80 students. Schools in some counties, such as Trinity, Humboldt and Mendocino, have seen their attendance fluctuate based on the vagaries of the cannabis industry, which currently is flagging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sebastopol, in Sonoma County, has not been decimated by wildfires or unemployment. But, situated amid bucolic apple orchards and vineyards in the North Bay, it has been subject to a soaring cost of living. The average home price last month was $1.3 million, according to \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Sebastopol_CA/overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Realtor.com\u003c/a>, and rents jumped by more than 50% last year. It’s not unusual for families to pay more than $3,000 a month to rent a small house — a major hurdle in an area that’s primarily agricultural.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County also has a plethora of charter and private schools, and families can easily send their children to schools in districts other than the one in which they reside. The result is that the Sebastopol Union School District has to fight to attract and retain students, which is not always easy in an area that is rapidly changing. In 2000, the K-8 district had more than 1,200 students. Now it’s hovering at 400.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a depressing situation. The smaller you get, the fewer options you have, so it’s exponential,” said Superintendent Linda Irving. “I try to bring the board, unions and community together. That helps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sebastopol, shrinking enrollment means that Irving has to think of creative ways to attract new students. Using a small budget for marketing, she’s printed brochures for local real estate agents to give to new families, and upgraded the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sebastopolschools.org/\">district website\u003c/a>. She’s also used one-time money to fund ongoing services like science, technology, engineering and math programs — not an ideal choice but necessary to compete against better-funded schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rio Dell Elementary, a TK-8 district in Humboldt County, has been hit hard by COVID — and COVID regulations, said Superintendent Angela Johnson. The area has the highest COVID rate in the county, according to the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://humboldtgov.org/3246/COVID-19-Data-Dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services\u003c/a>, but school closures, mask mandates and vaccine requirements also have taken a toll, leading many frustrated families to pull their children from the local public school and homeschool them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often when the students return to school, they’re behind their classmates academically and need extra help catching up, placing a further burden on the 290-student, mostly lower-income district, Johnson said. She dreads any further COVID requirements from Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re closely watching to see what the Legislature does with vaccine mandates. It’s going to be crucial in rural communities like ours,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enrollment at Happy Valley Union Elementary, near Redding, hasn’t slipped nearly as much as other rural schools. The K-8 district in the upper Sacramento Valley had only 34% fewer students last year than it did 20 years ago, compared with the estimated 50% drop many districts have suffered. But attendance has been a challenge. Early in the school year, roughly 13% of students were absent daily, largely due to COVID restrictions that led families to keep their children at home, said Superintendent Shelly Craig.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Craig is grateful for the supportive community in Happy Valley, an unincorporated area in Shasta County surrounded by farms and ranches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our schools are at the center of our close-knit community. Several students are second- and third-generation students. Until last year, when several teachers and staff members retired, the majority of our teachers had served in the community for decades,” Craig said. “Our students and staff are part of a school family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That strong sense of community is one asset that small towns can offer prospective families and young people looking to settle down, said Ann Schulte, head of civic engagement at California State University, Chico and an education professor who works closely with rural districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if those towns want families and young people to stay, they need to listen more closely to what young people want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plenty of people who grew up in small towns want to move back and settle there and raise kids,” she said. “But there has to be more there than just their grandparents. There has to be a good cup of coffee and a place to hear music. There has to be some culture and economic opportunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to declining enrollment and other issues facing rural youth, school leaders in Shasta, Tehama, Siskiyou, Modoc and Trinity counties, with help from the \u003ca class=\"external\" href=\"https://www.mcconnellfoundation.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">McConnell Foundation\u003c/a>, launched an organization called North State Together, which convenes schools, local businesses, families, tribal groups and others to strengthen local schools and improve outcomes for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schulte is optimistic that these towns will revitalize and more families will decide to stay and raise their children there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People are suddenly paying attention to what’s happening in rural areas, and they’re realizing these are beautiful, undervalued places that have a lot to offer,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Plumas County, longtime Quincy resident Kolb is hopeful that her community will be spared another disaster like the Dixie Fire, which roared perilously close to Quincy last summer, and that life will return to normal post-pandemic. Ultimately, she said, Quincy and towns like it are wonderful places to grow up, settle down and raise kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I loved growing up here. It was safe, it was fun. Our parents never knew where we were, and that was OK,” said Kolb, who works at the Quincy Chamber of Commerce. “It was an awesome place to be. It still is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "'They See Us As Expendable': Oakland Families of Children With Disabilities Call School Closure Plan Discriminatory",
"title": "'They See Us As Expendable': Oakland Families of Children With Disabilities Call School Closure Plan Discriminatory",
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"content": "\u003cp>Eight-year-old Max Pezold has bounced around Oakland public schools since preschool, a fairly typical path in this district for students with special education needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diagnosed with autism and profound learning delays when he was 2 years old, Max began his formal education at a preschool program for children with autism at Montclair Elementary School. He then was mistakenly placed in a special kindergarten language program at Edison Elementary — which didn’t work out, because he is nonverbal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a short, challenging stint in what his parents described as a disastrously run classroom at Piedmont Elementary, Max finally landed at Carl B. Munck Elementary, a small school in the Oakland hills near Merritt College with a culture of inclusiveness, where nearly 18% of the students have disabilities. The school has been so welcoming that Max’s dad says he gets emotional describing it.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Carl Pezold, parent\"]'It seems like the deck is stacked against you. You have a hard enough time trying to raise a kid with disabilities and then they throw this at you.'[/pullquote]“You know, my son, he's a lovely boy, but he doesn't talk, he doesn't look at people in the eye,” Carl Pezold said. “But the other … kids, they greet him, they know his name. They say, ‘Hi, Max!,’ you know, [even though] he’ll just kind of barrel past them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike in some other schools, where students with disabilities can be isolated from the rest of the school in portable classrooms, Max and his classmates are in centrally located rooms. They share hallways and other facilities with general education students, and join conventional classes twice a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When children in general education classes empathize with and accept kids like Max, it can be a profound experience for everyone involved, but one that’s all too rare in Oakland Unified, Pezold says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, in the special education community or in the disabled community, what we want is to be seen. That's what they can do in this small school environment,” Pezold said of Munck, where half the students are Black and the vast majority come from other parts of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s why Pezold and other parents here were stunned to learn in February that the district was planning to shut down the school at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. That means families must enroll in a new school for the following year by this coming fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911750\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911750\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max.jpg\" alt=\"A young boy wearing a swim shirt and swim suit sits in folding chair on a beach.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1632\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-800x680.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-1020x867.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-160x136.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-1536x1306.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Max Pezold, 8, who has autism, attended several OUSD elementary schools before coming to Carl B. Munck Elementary, where his family says he is thriving. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Carl Pezold)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Munck is one of the five small schools slated for closure next year, part of the district’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11904618/oakland-moves-to-close-seven-schools-despite-fierce-community-opposition\">larger school-consolidation plan\u003c/a> to address declining enrollments and ongoing budget concerns. The schools on the chopping block, which include Grass Valley and Brookfield Elementary, collectively serve 224 students with special education requirements — like Max — about half of whom have moderate to severe disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the families affected say the district is targeting its most vulnerable students, noting that the closures will disproportionately affect students of color with disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the district maintains it is currently “overinvesting” in small, under-enrolled schools like Munck, which has just 227 students. The district says it wants to create cost-saving efficiencies by consolidating many of its schools that have fewer than 400 students and reinvesting in neighborhood schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because less than 6% of Munck’s families come from the immediate area — with most, like Max’s family, driving from elsewhere in the city — it is not considered a neighborhood school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when Munck closes, Max’s world will get turned upside down — again\u003cem>, \u003c/em>Pezold says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The strides that he's making are going to be reversed, whether it be on toileting, whether it be on his language or some of his behavior. It's a shame, when he's doing so well,” he said. “It seems like the deck is stacked against you. You have a hard enough time trying to raise a kid with disabilities and then they throw this at you. You feel [the district] sees you as expendable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The special day classes for students like Max usually have no more than 10 children, less than half the size of a conventional elementary school classroom in the district, and require extra support staff — all of which can greatly increase a school’s operational costs. Students with significant support needs also tend to be absent more often, which lowers the per-pupil funding a school receives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A small group of children sitting in a classroom, looking at a screen with an animated video on it.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1598\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-1020x637.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-1536x959.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-2048x1278.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-1920x1199.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jolanda Murphy says her daughter, Dalaine, pictured here in a pink shirt on April 7, 2022, has been thriving in a small special day class at Carl B. Munck Elementary in Oakland for children with moderate to severe education needs. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite those factors, Munck’s principal, Denise Burroughs, has made it a policy to welcome these students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once they come across the threshold, they know we're going to take care of them and we're going to interact with them, speak to them,” said Burroughs, who has led the school for nearly 20 years. “My moderate-to-severe children, many of them are nonverbal, but I'm seeing some of them react because we react with them.”[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"ousd\"]Jennifer Blake, OUSD’s executive director of special education, agrees that Munck is a good example of how schools can better integrate students with disabilities into the general school culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the district says it simply doesn’t have the dollars to sustain Munck’s small-school model, and has cited “over-investment” in its small schools as part of its justification for shuttering many of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we're talking about my dream-world scenario, we would have adequate base funding and adequate special-education funding at both the federal and state level to be able to ensure that we are able to build and foster schools that are small and highly specialized by design,” Blake said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She acknowledges the optics of the current closure plans and the pain it’s inflicting on families, but says the closures will ultimately strengthen programs in larger, neighborhood schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know there was no intention to be able to target students with disabilities exclusively,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blake says she wants to create more inclusive programs like the one at Munck, with TK-5 programs available at more schools throughout the district, so kids like Max don't have to bounce around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jolanda Murphy, whose 9-year-old daughter, Dalaine, also attends Munck, says the district’s decision to close this school seems outwardly discriminatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You're basically telling parents that do have kids with special needs that we don't care. We’d rather put the focus and the time and energy into something else,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dalaine, who is in a special day class at the school, has cerebral palsy, and is prone to seizures. When she was diagnosed as an infant, hospital staff said she would never walk or talk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911747\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911747\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs.jpg\" alt=\"A middle-aged woman with glasses.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1364\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-800x568.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-1020x725.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-160x114.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-1536x1091.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carl B. Munck Principal Denise Burroughs, in her office on April 7, 2022. She says her small school is under-enrolled in part because some white families in the Oakland hills are reluctant to send their children to a majority Black school. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“But I told them that I serve a God who is going to do bigger and better things for her,” Murphy said. By 16 months Dalaine was crawling, and by age 4 she walked into preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And her teacher cried, because she knew how much I wanted Dalaine to walk,\" Murphy recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Max, Dalaine is nonverbal but very expressive. Murphy says she has seen her make real progress at Munck, where she uses touch screens and flash cards to learn to count and identify letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her effort to stop the closure of her daughter’s school, Murphy recently joined the district’s Community Advisory Committee for Special Education, which sent letters to the school board, the county, the state superintendent and the governor accusing OUSD of negligent treatment of disabled students — particularly Black students, who make up 27% of students with disabilities in the district.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Jolanda Murphy, parent\"]'You're basically telling parents that do have kids with special needs that we don't care. We’d rather put the focus and the time and energy into something else.'[/pullquote]The ACLU also has asked California’s attorney general to investigate whether the district took racial equity into account in its closure plans, as it is required to do under the district's Reparations for Black Students resolution that the school board passed last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Unified, by its own admission, has a history of chronically underfunding historically Black schools, says Linnea Nelson, a senior staff attorney in the ACLU of Northern California’s Racial and Economic Justice Program. “It now has created the very conditions that it is now citing to justify disrupting tight-knit school communities and displacing literally hundreds of Black students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its part, the district has said it remains focused on improving outcomes for underserved populations, particularly Black students, and that its closure plans are part of a broader strategy to redirect resources toward larger neighborhood schools that serve a greater number of kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Murphy believes the district is specifically targeting Munck, in part, because it wants to repurpose the property the school sits on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is prime real estate,” Murphy pointed out. “If they close the school completely, they're going to tear it down and build houses. Period. Point blank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law makes it hard for districts to sell off school properties, but those plots can more easily be declared surplus and leased out to private schools and charter schools, or used for teacher housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Carl B. Munck has a beautiful view of Oakland,” she said. “If you go up there, you can sit up there and just lose yourself because of the view of our beautiful city. You can see San Francisco, San Mateo just from their view of the school. It's such a beautiful campus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Munck’s serene location, largely devoid of sirens or traffic sounds, is particularly ideal for students with special education needs, Murphy notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911749\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911749\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley.jpg\" alt=\"A mother puts her hands on the hips of her daughter, who stands in front of her.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jolanda Murphy with her daughter, Dalaine, 9, who has cerebral palsy, at their home in Oakland on April 7, 2022, during a 'sensory day,' when Dalaine is allowed to rip up paper, put things on the ground and be more 'loose' and less regulated, to calm her down after a stressful experience. Murphy says Carl B. Munck Elementary, which Dalaine currently attends, is the best place for her. Murphy is fighting the school's closure. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the predominantly white Oakland hills also is an area where discriminatory housing policies have, for nearly a century, largely denied Black families the opportunity to buy homes and attend schools here. And both Murphy and Burroughs, Munck’s principal, believe that racism remains a factor in the district’s decision-making.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, over the years, I’ve actually had people say things like, ‘Well, I like the school, but I just feel like my child would be in a minority here,’ because there were so many children of African descent and color here. I’ve actually had people say that, judge the school that way,” said Burroughs, who is Black and has lived much of her life in Oakland. “It feels like you want to erase these kids from being here. That’s what it feels like to me. Because truly, if it’s just about under-enrollment, the goal would have been, ‘Let’s figure out how to increase enrollment,’ right?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Murphy, she says she and other parents are not giving up in their fight to keep the school open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just feel that for my daughter, she needs to have the best,” she said. “And right now, the best is Carl Munck.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Carl B. Munck Elementary School in the Oakland hills is among the five small OUSD schools slated for closure next year. Those schools collectively serve 224 students with special education requirements.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Eight-year-old Max Pezold has bounced around Oakland public schools since preschool, a fairly typical path in this district for students with special education needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diagnosed with autism and profound learning delays when he was 2 years old, Max began his formal education at a preschool program for children with autism at Montclair Elementary School. He then was mistakenly placed in a special kindergarten language program at Edison Elementary — which didn’t work out, because he is nonverbal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a short, challenging stint in what his parents described as a disastrously run classroom at Piedmont Elementary, Max finally landed at Carl B. Munck Elementary, a small school in the Oakland hills near Merritt College with a culture of inclusiveness, where nearly 18% of the students have disabilities. The school has been so welcoming that Max’s dad says he gets emotional describing it.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“You know, my son, he's a lovely boy, but he doesn't talk, he doesn't look at people in the eye,” Carl Pezold said. “But the other … kids, they greet him, they know his name. They say, ‘Hi, Max!,’ you know, [even though] he’ll just kind of barrel past them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike in some other schools, where students with disabilities can be isolated from the rest of the school in portable classrooms, Max and his classmates are in centrally located rooms. They share hallways and other facilities with general education students, and join conventional classes twice a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When children in general education classes empathize with and accept kids like Max, it can be a profound experience for everyone involved, but one that’s all too rare in Oakland Unified, Pezold says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, in the special education community or in the disabled community, what we want is to be seen. That's what they can do in this small school environment,” Pezold said of Munck, where half the students are Black and the vast majority come from other parts of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s why Pezold and other parents here were stunned to learn in February that the district was planning to shut down the school at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. That means families must enroll in a new school for the following year by this coming fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911750\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911750\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max.jpg\" alt=\"A young boy wearing a swim shirt and swim suit sits in folding chair on a beach.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1632\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-800x680.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-1020x867.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-160x136.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Max-1536x1306.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Max Pezold, 8, who has autism, attended several OUSD elementary schools before coming to Carl B. Munck Elementary, where his family says he is thriving. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Carl Pezold)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Munck is one of the five small schools slated for closure next year, part of the district’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11904618/oakland-moves-to-close-seven-schools-despite-fierce-community-opposition\">larger school-consolidation plan\u003c/a> to address declining enrollments and ongoing budget concerns. The schools on the chopping block, which include Grass Valley and Brookfield Elementary, collectively serve 224 students with special education requirements — like Max — about half of whom have moderate to severe disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of the families affected say the district is targeting its most vulnerable students, noting that the closures will disproportionately affect students of color with disabilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the district maintains it is currently “overinvesting” in small, under-enrolled schools like Munck, which has just 227 students. The district says it wants to create cost-saving efficiencies by consolidating many of its schools that have fewer than 400 students and reinvesting in neighborhood schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because less than 6% of Munck’s families come from the immediate area — with most, like Max’s family, driving from elsewhere in the city — it is not considered a neighborhood school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when Munck closes, Max’s world will get turned upside down — again\u003cem>, \u003c/em>Pezold says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The strides that he's making are going to be reversed, whether it be on toileting, whether it be on his language or some of his behavior. It's a shame, when he's doing so well,” he said. “It seems like the deck is stacked against you. You have a hard enough time trying to raise a kid with disabilities and then they throw this at you. You feel [the district] sees you as expendable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The special day classes for students like Max usually have no more than 10 children, less than half the size of a conventional elementary school classroom in the district, and require extra support staff — all of which can greatly increase a school’s operational costs. Students with significant support needs also tend to be absent more often, which lowers the per-pupil funding a school receives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A small group of children sitting in a classroom, looking at a screen with an animated video on it.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1598\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-1020x637.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-1536x959.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-2048x1278.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/IMG_7478-1920x1199.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jolanda Murphy says her daughter, Dalaine, pictured here in a pink shirt on April 7, 2022, has been thriving in a small special day class at Carl B. Munck Elementary in Oakland for children with moderate to severe education needs. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite those factors, Munck’s principal, Denise Burroughs, has made it a policy to welcome these students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once they come across the threshold, they know we're going to take care of them and we're going to interact with them, speak to them,” said Burroughs, who has led the school for nearly 20 years. “My moderate-to-severe children, many of them are nonverbal, but I'm seeing some of them react because we react with them.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Jennifer Blake, OUSD’s executive director of special education, agrees that Munck is a good example of how schools can better integrate students with disabilities into the general school culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the district says it simply doesn’t have the dollars to sustain Munck’s small-school model, and has cited “over-investment” in its small schools as part of its justification for shuttering many of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we're talking about my dream-world scenario, we would have adequate base funding and adequate special-education funding at both the federal and state level to be able to ensure that we are able to build and foster schools that are small and highly specialized by design,” Blake said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She acknowledges the optics of the current closure plans and the pain it’s inflicting on families, but says the closures will ultimately strengthen programs in larger, neighborhood schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know there was no intention to be able to target students with disabilities exclusively,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blake says she wants to create more inclusive programs like the one at Munck, with TK-5 programs available at more schools throughout the district, so kids like Max don't have to bounce around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Jolanda Murphy, whose 9-year-old daughter, Dalaine, also attends Munck, says the district’s decision to close this school seems outwardly discriminatory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You're basically telling parents that do have kids with special needs that we don't care. We’d rather put the focus and the time and energy into something else,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dalaine, who is in a special day class at the school, has cerebral palsy, and is prone to seizures. When she was diagnosed as an infant, hospital staff said she would never walk or talk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911747\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911747\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs.jpg\" alt=\"A middle-aged woman with glasses.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1364\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-800x568.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-1020x725.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-160x114.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Denise-Burroughs-1536x1091.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carl B. Munck Principal Denise Burroughs, in her office on April 7, 2022. She says her small school is under-enrolled in part because some white families in the Oakland hills are reluctant to send their children to a majority Black school. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“But I told them that I serve a God who is going to do bigger and better things for her,” Murphy said. By 16 months Dalaine was crawling, and by age 4 she walked into preschool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And her teacher cried, because she knew how much I wanted Dalaine to walk,\" Murphy recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Max, Dalaine is nonverbal but very expressive. Murphy says she has seen her make real progress at Munck, where she uses touch screens and flash cards to learn to count and identify letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her effort to stop the closure of her daughter’s school, Murphy recently joined the district’s Community Advisory Committee for Special Education, which sent letters to the school board, the county, the state superintendent and the governor accusing OUSD of negligent treatment of disabled students — particularly Black students, who make up 27% of students with disabilities in the district.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The ACLU also has asked California’s attorney general to investigate whether the district took racial equity into account in its closure plans, as it is required to do under the district's Reparations for Black Students resolution that the school board passed last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Unified, by its own admission, has a history of chronically underfunding historically Black schools, says Linnea Nelson, a senior staff attorney in the ACLU of Northern California’s Racial and Economic Justice Program. “It now has created the very conditions that it is now citing to justify disrupting tight-knit school communities and displacing literally hundreds of Black students,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its part, the district has said it remains focused on improving outcomes for underserved populations, particularly Black students, and that its closure plans are part of a broader strategy to redirect resources toward larger neighborhood schools that serve a greater number of kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Murphy believes the district is specifically targeting Munck, in part, because it wants to repurpose the property the school sits on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is prime real estate,” Murphy pointed out. “If they close the school completely, they're going to tear it down and build houses. Period. Point blank.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California law makes it hard for districts to sell off school properties, but those plots can more easily be declared surplus and leased out to private schools and charter schools, or used for teacher housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Carl B. Munck has a beautiful view of Oakland,” she said. “If you go up there, you can sit up there and just lose yourself because of the view of our beautiful city. You can see San Francisco, San Mateo just from their view of the school. It's such a beautiful campus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Munck’s serene location, largely devoid of sirens or traffic sounds, is particularly ideal for students with special education needs, Murphy notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911749\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11911749\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley.jpg\" alt=\"A mother puts her hands on the hips of her daughter, who stands in front of her.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Jolanda-Murphy-and-Dalaine-Whaley-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jolanda Murphy with her daughter, Dalaine, 9, who has cerebral palsy, at their home in Oakland on April 7, 2022, during a 'sensory day,' when Dalaine is allowed to rip up paper, put things on the ground and be more 'loose' and less regulated, to calm her down after a stressful experience. Murphy says Carl B. Munck Elementary, which Dalaine currently attends, is the best place for her. Murphy is fighting the school's closure. \u003ccite>(Julia McEvoy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the predominantly white Oakland hills also is an area where discriminatory housing policies have, for nearly a century, largely denied Black families the opportunity to buy homes and attend schools here. And both Murphy and Burroughs, Munck’s principal, believe that racism remains a factor in the district’s decision-making.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, over the years, I’ve actually had people say things like, ‘Well, I like the school, but I just feel like my child would be in a minority here,’ because there were so many children of African descent and color here. I’ve actually had people say that, judge the school that way,” said Burroughs, who is Black and has lived much of her life in Oakland. “It feels like you want to erase these kids from being here. That’s what it feels like to me. Because truly, if it’s just about under-enrollment, the goal would have been, ‘Let’s figure out how to increase enrollment,’ right?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Murphy, she says she and other parents are not giving up in their fight to keep the school open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just feel that for my daughter, she needs to have the best,” she said. “And right now, the best is Carl Munck.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After years of prioritizing English-only classes for students who spoke other languages at home, California now is pushing to expand bilingual programs for all students. But the state has a huge hurdle: It needs more bilingual teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part, the low number of bilingual teachers is a legacy of Proposition 227, which voters passed in 1998 and then \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2017/a-new-era-for-bilingual-education-explaining-californias-proposition-58/574852\">repealed in 2016\u003c/a>. Proposition 227 required English learners to be taught in English-only classrooms unless their parents signed a waiver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as Prop. 227 passed, a lot of higher education programs stopped offering bilingual credentials, especially in public institutions,” said Magaly Lavadenz, professor of English learner research, and executive director of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, only 42 of 80 teacher preparation programs in the state offer bilingual authorizations — a specialization in addition to the general teaching credential. The number of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/commission/reports/data/other-teacher-supply-bilingual-authorizations\">teachers receiving bilingual authorizations\u003c/a> in California has grown each year since 2016, but districts still struggle to find bilingual teachers, and demand is growing as more schools plan to open more bilingual programs.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Guillermo Castillo, director, Future Educator Support\"]‘We are looking for teachers in the wrong places. We’re not going to find the number of teachers that we need at universities. We need to find these folks in our communities.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new bill, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1701\">Assembly Bill 1701\u003c/a>, would fund a program for California State University campuses to recruit and retain college professors for bilingual authorization programs. The CSU system issues about 45% of teaching credentials. About 49% of credentials are issued by private colleges. The University of California system provides 6%. Another bill, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2465\">Assembly Bill 2465\u003c/a>, would pay for preparing and credentialing 500 new bilingual teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some experts say the state needs not only to expand the number of programs that offer bilingual teaching authorizations, but also to encourage current teachers who teach only in English to be trained in bilingual education and to recruit new potential teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are looking for teachers in the wrong places. We’re not going to find the number of teachers that we need at universities. We need to find these folks in our communities,” said Guillermo Castillo, director of Future Educator Support, a program of the Butte County Office of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Future Educator Support helps people who already work in education, like bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teacher’s aides, to get their teaching credential and, for those who are bilingual, their bilingual authorization, with funding from the California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program.[aside postID=\"news_11907019\" label=\"Related Post\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ed’d Luna Bhagwandeen was working as a school library media specialist and thought their dream of becoming a teacher was far out of reach, when they heard of the program. After college, Bhagwandeen felt discouraged by the credentialing process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I tried to do it on my own, there were all these different tests, and hours that you had to meet. I was like, ‘How do people do this when they’re working to survive?’ It became further and further away from being feasible,” Bhagwandeen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the help of Future Educator Support, Bhagwandeen was able to take the classes and tests needed to get a teaching credential with a bilingual authorization from San Diego State University and is now working as a teacher on special assignment at Centralia Elementary School District, teaching children Spanish and helping organize a dual-language program that will open next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bhagwandeen says the impact of bilingual education is clear: Parents say their children now attempt to speak to their grandparents when they hadn’t before. Students say, “This class has helped me. I know I’m bilingual now.” To Bhagwandeen, who has family roots in Mexico and whose grandfather was prohibited from speaking Spanish at school when growing up, this is particularly significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a time when we’re so isolated during COVID, them finding an appreciation of themselves and feeling good about themselves is super important,” Bhagwandeen said. “I know that I’m doing the kind of work I want to be doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Offering personalized support for getting through all the requirements for a bilingual authorization is crucial, said Future Educator Support administrator Holly Harding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The thing they report so often is that our program feels like familia. They can reach out to us at any time of day. We meet on weekends, we meet at night, we meet early in the morning. We individualize our support to them, and they love that,” Harding said. “They feel they can be vulnerable with us. Many are English learners themselves. We help them to overcome language barriers, financial barriers, just self-doubt, no matter what it is that they are feeling is a barrier to getting their credential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many potential bilingual teachers have not even considered the possibility, said Guadalupe Díaz Lara, who teaches child and adolescent studies at CSU Fullerton. She said many of her students want to be teachers, and the vast majority are bilingual in Spanish and English, but they are not aware of the possibility of getting a bilingual credential or working in bilingual education. Díaz Lara believes that is partly because they attended English-only programs themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They acknowledge the impact of having those experiences in school where their home language wasn’t valued,” Díaz Lara said. “They are definitely passionate about working with minority families. A lot of them want to go back to their communities and give back to their communities, but they don’t know that bilingual education is an option for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the case for Alejandra Silva, another graduate of the Future Educator Support program, who received her credential from San Diego State and now teaches in a dual-language program at Escondido Union School District. She was finishing her bachelor’s degree and working as a school speech therapist aide when she found out about the classified employee grant program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to be a teacher, but I hadn’t really considered being a bilingual teacher. I know Spanish, but I didn’t really consider it as an asset or a tool. I just knew that bilingual education had kind of fallen off but didn’t really look into why or realize that it was coming back,” Silva said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavadenz, of Loyola Marymount University, said schools should begin encouraging students to become bilingual teachers, beginning before they graduate from high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to make teaching overall a desirable, important and valuable career. We need to do more promotion of that in K-12 and in the public sector,” Lavadenz said. “We need a tune-up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, many teachers who currently teach in English are in fact bilingual and could receive a bilingual authorization with the right support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ps/btpdpgrants.asp\">Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program\u003c/a>, which began in 2018 and \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2021/why-training-california-bilingual-teachers-just-got-harder/656558\">ended in 2021,\u003c/a> helped prepare about 350 teachers for bilingual credentials, according to the California Department of Education. Since the program ended, some school districts, particularly smaller ones, have been struggling to prepare more teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still being asked by our districts, especially those that are building up their bilingual programs, ‘Can you help us?’” said Martha Martinez, director of research and evaluation at SEAL, a nonprofit organization that provides training and assistance to elementary schools and preschools across the state to help them implement strong bilingual programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some school districts have partnered with colleges themselves to set up residency programs where students work in classrooms as student teachers for a full year, while they get their credential. One such district is Oak Grove School District in San José, which has partnered with San José State University. Both student-teachers and the teachers working with them take classes with SEAL on best practices for bilingual education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mentor teachers are expressing they’re learning so much going through the courses themselves. The student-teachers are expressing they’re so prepared to step into the classroom,” said Jennifer Diehl, director of innovation and strategic design at SEAL.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After years of prioritizing English-only classes for students who spoke other languages at home, California now is pushing to expand bilingual programs for all students. But the state has a huge hurdle: It needs more bilingual teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In part, the low number of bilingual teachers is a legacy of Proposition 227, which voters passed in 1998 and then \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2017/a-new-era-for-bilingual-education-explaining-californias-proposition-58/574852\">repealed in 2016\u003c/a>. Proposition 227 required English learners to be taught in English-only classrooms unless their parents signed a waiver.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as Prop. 227 passed, a lot of higher education programs stopped offering bilingual credentials, especially in public institutions,” said Magaly Lavadenz, professor of English learner research, and executive director of the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, only 42 of 80 teacher preparation programs in the state offer bilingual authorizations — a specialization in addition to the general teaching credential. The number of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/commission/reports/data/other-teacher-supply-bilingual-authorizations\">teachers receiving bilingual authorizations\u003c/a> in California has grown each year since 2016, but districts still struggle to find bilingual teachers, and demand is growing as more schools plan to open more bilingual programs.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new bill, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1701\">Assembly Bill 1701\u003c/a>, would fund a program for California State University campuses to recruit and retain college professors for bilingual authorization programs. The CSU system issues about 45% of teaching credentials. About 49% of credentials are issued by private colleges. The University of California system provides 6%. Another bill, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2465\">Assembly Bill 2465\u003c/a>, would pay for preparing and credentialing 500 new bilingual teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some experts say the state needs not only to expand the number of programs that offer bilingual teaching authorizations, but also to encourage current teachers who teach only in English to be trained in bilingual education and to recruit new potential teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are looking for teachers in the wrong places. We’re not going to find the number of teachers that we need at universities. We need to find these folks in our communities,” said Guillermo Castillo, director of Future Educator Support, a program of the Butte County Office of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Future Educator Support helps people who already work in education, like bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teacher’s aides, to get their teaching credential and, for those who are bilingual, their bilingual authorization, with funding from the California Classified School Employee Teacher Credentialing Program.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ed’d Luna Bhagwandeen was working as a school library media specialist and thought their dream of becoming a teacher was far out of reach, when they heard of the program. After college, Bhagwandeen felt discouraged by the credentialing process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I tried to do it on my own, there were all these different tests, and hours that you had to meet. I was like, ‘How do people do this when they’re working to survive?’ It became further and further away from being feasible,” Bhagwandeen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the help of Future Educator Support, Bhagwandeen was able to take the classes and tests needed to get a teaching credential with a bilingual authorization from San Diego State University and is now working as a teacher on special assignment at Centralia Elementary School District, teaching children Spanish and helping organize a dual-language program that will open next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bhagwandeen says the impact of bilingual education is clear: Parents say their children now attempt to speak to their grandparents when they hadn’t before. Students say, “This class has helped me. I know I’m bilingual now.” To Bhagwandeen, who has family roots in Mexico and whose grandfather was prohibited from speaking Spanish at school when growing up, this is particularly significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a time when we’re so isolated during COVID, them finding an appreciation of themselves and feeling good about themselves is super important,” Bhagwandeen said. “I know that I’m doing the kind of work I want to be doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Offering personalized support for getting through all the requirements for a bilingual authorization is crucial, said Future Educator Support administrator Holly Harding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The thing they report so often is that our program feels like familia. They can reach out to us at any time of day. We meet on weekends, we meet at night, we meet early in the morning. We individualize our support to them, and they love that,” Harding said. “They feel they can be vulnerable with us. Many are English learners themselves. We help them to overcome language barriers, financial barriers, just self-doubt, no matter what it is that they are feeling is a barrier to getting their credential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many potential bilingual teachers have not even considered the possibility, said Guadalupe Díaz Lara, who teaches child and adolescent studies at CSU Fullerton. She said many of her students want to be teachers, and the vast majority are bilingual in Spanish and English, but they are not aware of the possibility of getting a bilingual credential or working in bilingual education. Díaz Lara believes that is partly because they attended English-only programs themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They acknowledge the impact of having those experiences in school where their home language wasn’t valued,” Díaz Lara said. “They are definitely passionate about working with minority families. A lot of them want to go back to their communities and give back to their communities, but they don’t know that bilingual education is an option for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the case for Alejandra Silva, another graduate of the Future Educator Support program, who received her credential from San Diego State and now teaches in a dual-language program at Escondido Union School District. She was finishing her bachelor’s degree and working as a school speech therapist aide when she found out about the classified employee grant program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to be a teacher, but I hadn’t really considered being a bilingual teacher. I know Spanish, but I didn’t really consider it as an asset or a tool. I just knew that bilingual education had kind of fallen off but didn’t really look into why or realize that it was coming back,” Silva said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavadenz, of Loyola Marymount University, said schools should begin encouraging students to become bilingual teachers, beginning before they graduate from high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to make teaching overall a desirable, important and valuable career. We need to do more promotion of that in K-12 and in the public sector,” Lavadenz said. “We need a tune-up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, many teachers who currently teach in English are in fact bilingual and could receive a bilingual authorization with the right support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ps/btpdpgrants.asp\">Bilingual Teacher Professional Development Program\u003c/a>, which began in 2018 and \u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2021/why-training-california-bilingual-teachers-just-got-harder/656558\">ended in 2021,\u003c/a> helped prepare about 350 teachers for bilingual credentials, according to the California Department of Education. Since the program ended, some school districts, particularly smaller ones, have been struggling to prepare more teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still being asked by our districts, especially those that are building up their bilingual programs, ‘Can you help us?’” said Martha Martinez, director of research and evaluation at SEAL, a nonprofit organization that provides training and assistance to elementary schools and preschools across the state to help them implement strong bilingual programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some school districts have partnered with colleges themselves to set up residency programs where students work in classrooms as student teachers for a full year, while they get their credential. One such district is Oak Grove School District in San José, which has partnered with San José State University. Both student-teachers and the teachers working with them take classes with SEAL on best practices for bilingual education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mentor teachers are expressing they’re learning so much going through the courses themselves. The student-teachers are expressing they’re so prepared to step into the classroom,” said Jennifer Diehl, director of innovation and strategic design at SEAL.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education says it will retroactively help millions of federal student loan borrowers who have been hurt and held back by its troubled income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, calling the plans’ longstanding flaws and mismanagement “inexcusable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s announcement comes after \u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">years of complaints\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-nations-largest-student-loan-company-navient-failing-borrowers-every-stage-repayment/\">lawsuits\u003c/a> and, most recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">an NPR investigation\u003c/a> that revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">these IDR plans, which promise affordable monthly payments as low as $0 and loan forgiveness after 20-25 years, have been badly mismanaged\u003c/a> by the department and the loan servicing companies it employs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers enrolled in IDR plans,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=\"news_11910436,news_11910169\" label=\"Related Stories\"]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that the changes will result in immediate debt cancellation for at least 40,000 borrowers who will now qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. In addition, several thousand borrowers will now qualify for debt cancellation under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">This follows a 2021 revelation\u003c/a> that, at the time, 4.4 million borrowers had been repaying their loans for at least 20 years but only 32 had had debts canceled under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result of Tuesday’s news, millions more borrowers will also receive months and, in some cases, years of new credit toward eventual cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what the department is committing to do:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Borrowers with long-term forbearances will get credit toward debt cancellation\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department and its office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) pledge to conduct a “one-time account adjustment” to give borrowers credit for time spent in what it considers unjustifiably long forbearances: more than 12 consecutive months or more than 36 cumulative months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forbearance allows borrowers in financial trouble to pause their payments, but interest continues to accrue and capitalize, meaning the interest itself ends up accruing interest. Income-driven repayment plans can offer the same, or nearly the same, reprieve from high monthly payments, and, unlike forbearance, they give borrowers a path toward loan cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After July 2009 when IDR plans became widely available, forbearance should have been loan servicers’ tool of last resort for distressed borrowers. Instead, the department says, a new review found that servicers’ use of long-term forbearance was “remarkably widespread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the department, between July 2009 and March 2020, more than 13% of all Direct Loan borrowers were in forbearance for at least 36 months, suggesting “loan servicers placed borrowers into forbearance in violation of Department rules, even when their monthly payment under an IDR plan could have been as low as zero dollars.” \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/lower-payments/get-temporary-relief/forbearance\">The department generally limits forbearance to 12 consecutive months or three years total\u003c/a>, after which payments should resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s remedy means that borrowers will be given credit toward loan cancellation for some of these long-term forbearances. For example, a borrower who spent 16 consecutive months in forbearance would be given credit for 16 qualifying payments toward cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that 3.6 million borrowers will receive at least three years of new credit toward cancellation. Many more borrowers will benefit but receive less than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan excludes one prominent group of borrowers: those who spent less than 12 consecutive months and less than 36 cumulative months in forbearance, though it does promise an “account review” for those who choose to file a complaint with FSA’s ombudsman.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Inaccuracies in how qualifying payments were counted will be corrected\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">NPR reporting earlier this month revealed pervasive inaccuracies\u003c/a> in loan servicers’ counts of borrowers’ qualifying IDR payments, which the department now acknowledges and pledges to address with a one-time revision of past payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any months in which borrowers made payments will count toward IDR, regardless of repayment plan,” the department’s release says. “Payments made prior to consolidation on consolidated loans will also count. This fix is necessary to correct for data problems and past implementation inaccuracies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After acquiring internal department documents, NPR found a litany of irregularities in how loan servicers were counting — or failing to count — qualifying IDR payments, thereby delaying borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness. For example, $0 monthly payments were not being adequately tracked, potentially hurting the lowest-income borrowers. Also, borrowers appeared to erroneously lose credit for previous progress made toward IDR after emerging from default.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Improving the way borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation gets tracked\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department is offering two remedies for another serious problem highlighted in NPR’s recent investigation — that loan servicers weren’t uniformly tracking borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation, and some weren’t tracking their progress \u003cem>at all\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FSA now says it will issue new guidance to servicers to make sure the companies’ records are accurate and uniform. Perhaps more importantly, the department says in 2023 it will begin tracking IDR payments on its own system and displaying borrowers’ progress at StudentAid.gov.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>These changes will happen automatically — but it may take awhile\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department says it will make these adjustments to borrower records automatically, but first it will need to upgrade its antiquated National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). As such, loan cancellations won’t officially begin until fall of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The overhaul comes amid mounting political pressure\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department unveiled its overhaul plans amid mounting pressure from lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, citing NPR’s reporting, the chairs of both House and Senate education committees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/newsroom/press/murray-scott-push-biden-administration-to-fix-longstanding-failures-with-income-driven-student-loan-repayment-system\">Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a letter to “provide immediate relief and undo past harms.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Borrowers have for too long, lived with ballooning debts and the false promise of loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in income-driven repayment,” the letter said. “Payments must be corrected retroactively in order to provide relief to borrowers who have already been harmed by this broken safety net.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the department’s proposal addresses some of Scott’s and Murray’s demands, it falls short in at least one area. The top Democrats implored the department to retroactively give borrowers credit toward loan cancellation for \u003cem>all\u003c/em> past periods of forbearance, not just long-term pauses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Scott said “today’s announcement means that borrowers in Income-Driven Repayment will finally have reliable access to the loan forgiveness that they were promised and have been working toward… However, while the Department has taken a significant step to support borrowers, we know we must do more to fix our broken student loan system, including the Income-Driven Repayment program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, leading Senate Democrats, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092804056/student-loan-debt-investigation-response\">Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, also sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra\u003c/a>, calling for his agency to investigate and “use all of its authorities to ensure borrowers are accessing IDR program benefits and receive the student loan forgiveness they have earned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s announcement also comes not long before the U.S. Government Accountability Office is expected to release the results of its own investigation into IDR’s failures.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR is committed to reporting on pressing issues that matter to you, like student loans. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/ed\">\u003cem>Sign up for our Education newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to stay up to date. You can support NPR’s trusted, vital coverage by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/donations/support\">\u003cem>donating to your local NPR station today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Student+loan+borrowers+will+get+help+after+an+NPR+report+and+years+of+complaints&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The U.S. Department of Education says it will retroactively help millions of federal student loan borrowers who have been hurt and held back by its troubled income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, calling the plans’ longstanding flaws and mismanagement “inexcusable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s announcement comes after \u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">years of complaints\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-nations-largest-student-loan-company-navient-failing-borrowers-every-stage-repayment/\">lawsuits\u003c/a> and, most recently, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">an NPR investigation\u003c/a> that revealed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">these IDR plans, which promise affordable monthly payments as low as $0 and loan forgiveness after 20-25 years, have been badly mismanaged\u003c/a> by the department and the loan servicing companies it employs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today, the Department of Education will begin to remedy years of administrative failures that effectively denied the promise of loan forgiveness to certain borrowers enrolled in IDR plans,” U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that the changes will result in immediate debt cancellation for at least 40,000 borrowers who will now qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. In addition, several thousand borrowers will now qualify for debt cancellation under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/student_loans/IB_IDR.pdf\">This follows a 2021 revelation\u003c/a> that, at the time, 4.4 million borrowers had been repaying their loans for at least 20 years but only 32 had had debts canceled under IDR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result of Tuesday’s news, millions more borrowers will also receive months and, in some cases, years of new credit toward eventual cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what the department is committing to do:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Borrowers with long-term forbearances will get credit toward debt cancellation\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department and its office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) pledge to conduct a “one-time account adjustment” to give borrowers credit for time spent in what it considers unjustifiably long forbearances: more than 12 consecutive months or more than 36 cumulative months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forbearance allows borrowers in financial trouble to pause their payments, but interest continues to accrue and capitalize, meaning the interest itself ends up accruing interest. Income-driven repayment plans can offer the same, or nearly the same, reprieve from high monthly payments, and, unlike forbearance, they give borrowers a path toward loan cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After July 2009 when IDR plans became widely available, forbearance should have been loan servicers’ tool of last resort for distressed borrowers. Instead, the department says, a new review found that servicers’ use of long-term forbearance was “remarkably widespread.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the department, between July 2009 and March 2020, more than 13% of all Direct Loan borrowers were in forbearance for at least 36 months, suggesting “loan servicers placed borrowers into forbearance in violation of Department rules, even when their monthly payment under an IDR plan could have been as low as zero dollars.” \u003ca href=\"https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/lower-payments/get-temporary-relief/forbearance\">The department generally limits forbearance to 12 consecutive months or three years total\u003c/a>, after which payments should resume.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s remedy means that borrowers will be given credit toward loan cancellation for some of these long-term forbearances. For example, a borrower who spent 16 consecutive months in forbearance would be given credit for 16 qualifying payments toward cancellation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department estimates that 3.6 million borrowers will receive at least three years of new credit toward cancellation. Many more borrowers will benefit but receive less than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plan excludes one prominent group of borrowers: those who spent less than 12 consecutive months and less than 36 cumulative months in forbearance, though it does promise an “account review” for those who choose to file a complaint with FSA’s ombudsman.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Inaccuracies in how qualifying payments were counted will be corrected\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-investigation\">NPR reporting earlier this month revealed pervasive inaccuracies\u003c/a> in loan servicers’ counts of borrowers’ qualifying IDR payments, which the department now acknowledges and pledges to address with a one-time revision of past payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any months in which borrowers made payments will count toward IDR, regardless of repayment plan,” the department’s release says. “Payments made prior to consolidation on consolidated loans will also count. This fix is necessary to correct for data problems and past implementation inaccuracies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After acquiring internal department documents, NPR found a litany of irregularities in how loan servicers were counting — or failing to count — qualifying IDR payments, thereby delaying borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness. For example, $0 monthly payments were not being adequately tracked, potentially hurting the lowest-income borrowers. Also, borrowers appeared to erroneously lose credit for previous progress made toward IDR after emerging from default.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Improving the way borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation gets tracked\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department is offering two remedies for another serious problem highlighted in NPR’s recent investigation — that loan servicers weren’t uniformly tracking borrowers’ progress toward loan cancellation, and some weren’t tracking their progress \u003cem>at all\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FSA now says it will issue new guidance to servicers to make sure the companies’ records are accurate and uniform. Perhaps more importantly, the department says in 2023 it will begin tracking IDR payments on its own system and displaying borrowers’ progress at StudentAid.gov.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>These changes will happen automatically — but it may take awhile\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department says it will make these adjustments to borrower records automatically, but first it will need to upgrade its antiquated National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). As such, loan cancellations won’t officially begin until fall of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The overhaul comes amid mounting political pressure\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The department unveiled its overhaul plans amid mounting pressure from lawmakers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, citing NPR’s reporting, the chairs of both House and Senate education committees, \u003ca href=\"https://www.help.senate.gov/chair/newsroom/press/murray-scott-push-biden-administration-to-fix-longstanding-failures-with-income-driven-student-loan-repayment-system\">Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a letter to “provide immediate relief and undo past harms.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Borrowers have for too long, lived with ballooning debts and the false promise of loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in income-driven repayment,” the letter said. “Payments must be corrected retroactively in order to provide relief to borrowers who have already been harmed by this broken safety net.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the department’s proposal addresses some of Scott’s and Murray’s demands, it falls short in at least one area. The top Democrats implored the department to retroactively give borrowers credit toward loan cancellation for \u003cem>all\u003c/em> past periods of forbearance, not just long-term pauses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Scott said “today’s announcement means that borrowers in Income-Driven Repayment will finally have reliable access to the loan forgiveness that they were promised and have been working toward… However, while the Department has taken a significant step to support borrowers, we know we must do more to fix our broken student loan system, including the Income-Driven Repayment program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, leading Senate Democrats, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092804056/student-loan-debt-investigation-response\">Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, also sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra\u003c/a>, calling for his agency to investigate and “use all of its authorities to ensure borrowers are accessing IDR program benefits and receive the student loan forgiveness they have earned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department’s announcement also comes not long before the U.S. Government Accountability Office is expected to release the results of its own investigation into IDR’s failures.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>NPR is committed to reporting on pressing issues that matter to you, like student loans. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/ed\">\u003cem>Sign up for our Education newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to stay up to date. You can support NPR’s trusted, vital coverage by \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/donations/support\">\u003cem>donating to your local NPR station today\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Student+loan+borrowers+will+get+help+after+an+NPR+report+and+years+of+complaints&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "A Small Town in Kern County Might Turn Its Library Into a Police Station",
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"content": "\u003cp>The fate of McFarland’s community library has become a hot topic of conversation in the small, agricultural town of over 14,000 just off Highway 99 in northern Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"5\">City leaders have rallied around a proposal to acquire the Clara M. Jackson branch and convert it into a revamped headquarters for its police department. The city council, the local district superintendent and McFarland’s Recreation and Park District director recently penned letters to the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"6\">“With even a cursory review of the police department’s facility, it becomes glaringly obvious that the Department’s lack of space hinders them from efficiently and effectively carrying out their law enforcement duties,” wrote Aaron Resendez, superintendent of the McFarland Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"7\">The city council cited “minimal objection” from the public in its letter, but since word spread about the proposal, it has faced stronger opposition, including an \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/save-the-mcfarland-library\" data-reader-unique-id=\"8\">online petition\u003c/a> that’s amassed more than 1,500 signatures. Some of the biggest proponents of keeping the library where it is are young patrons themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Elias Ahumada, local resident\"]'Rewarding a police department, with a long history of corruption, with the city's only public library is disgraceful and negligent.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"9\">“Our memories are here,” said Jazmine Ciciliano, 12. “We grew up in this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"10\">“We want it to stay a library forever,” said Yazmine Olivera, 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"11\">“I get it, we need more safety, but this library is basically safety to us,” said Nicole Franco, 10. “It just feels like home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"12\">When school lets out, students walk to the library, and many spend their afternoons there until the library closes at 6 p.m. They worry about what will happen after school if the library disappears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"13\">“It will ruin friendships,” said Ruben Abundis, 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"14\">“What am I supposed to do, jump on my bed?” asked Natalie Lara, 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"15\">Money is the key factor in how many hours a library location is open, and Kern County has the worst-funded county library system in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"16\">Kern County is about the size of New Jersey but has more people than San Francisco. It also has more than twice as many children, according to census figures. In rural areas like McFarland, the rates of children are higher: Here, 41.9% of residents are under 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"17\">Within its 8,131 square miles, Kern County has 22 libraries with an operating budget of $9 million this year. By contrast, San Francisco has 28 locations within its 47 square miles with a budget of $171 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"18\">Currently, every branch in San Francisco is open five to seven days a week, but in Kern County, most branches are open two or three days a week. The central Bakersfield library is the only branch open five days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"19\">The discrepancy in funding among library systems is a consequence of the fact that California’s 1,130 public libraries are funded almost entirely locally. Last year, local governments provided 94% of California public libraries’ $1.84 billion. Federal and state contributions typically come in the form of grants for targeted programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"20\">On a Friday afternoon, the McFarland library is bustling. Branch supervisor Frank Cervantes shows patrons how to make jester hats. Children wander the stacks. Young patrons pepper the reference desk with questions. Two boys get help to find a copy of “Sideways Stories from Wayside School.” Toddlers play in a kitchen set. The computers are full. A young girl receives tutoring at a back table. As the arts and crafts program winds down, Cervantes announces that it’s story time, and patrons gather to listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"21\">“I’m getting mixed feelings from everybody,” said Kenny Williams, who serves as the city’s police chief as well as its city manager. “It’s something close to people’s heart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"22\">But, Williams said, the police department’s current facilities at City Hall need to be modernized for a growing city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"23\">He rattles off a list of problems: The officer workspace is cramped, there’s no meeting space, there’s one locker room for both sexes, four sergeants share one office, paper-thin walls require the chief to use a sound machine to preserve confidentiality, parking for both staff as well as cars seized as evidence is inadequate, and property is increasingly stored in trailers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"24\">“It’s a terrible way to operate,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"25\">Williams said the city has enough money to acquire and complete the modifications on an existing building but not to build a headquarters from scratch. \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcfarlandcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/2476/City-of-McFarland-Annual-Operating-Budget-FY-2021-2022\">McFarland’s most recent budget\u003c/a> indicates it has $2 million set aside from a bond measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"27\">Williams was sworn in as police chief last year, and he later began serving as city manager as well. He said the city council has charged him with bringing stability and accountability to the city. McFarland has been wracked with a steady stream of scandal and financial struggle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"28\">In 2009, the city reestablished its police department, but low salaries and lax screening turned the department into a haven for \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/11/how-did-this-california-police-department-hire-so-many-officers-with-troubling-pasts/\">officers and even chiefs with their own serious misconduct records\u003c/a>, according to a report from UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program. In 2011, residents marched on City Hall to complain about a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/jose-gaspar-maricopa-and-mcfarland-face-city-problems/article_d8e8cb11-d975-5de1-aef8-00c005ecedd8.html\" data-reader-unique-id=\"30\">towing contract\u003c/a> that incentivized the city and police to stop residents for minor infractions. A suit settled in 2017 claimed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/columnists/jose-gaspar/jose-gaspar-mcfarland-cops-claim-obstruction-of-justice-retaliation-for-speaking-out/article_9262d107-b09b-58ea-9418-2b594a68c546.html\">city leaders quashed a search warrant on behalf of a city councilmember’s son\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"32\">In 2019, then-City Manager John Wooner went missing for months before his body was found in a Dodge Durango at the bottom of the Kern River. An \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/delano-record/bpd-report-deceased-mcfarland-city-manager-was-facing-various-pressures-when-he-went-missing/article_b9133ab6-cdd4-11e9-8966-efc9aefdde4a.html\">investigation suggested\u003c/a> that before his disappearance, Wooner was distraught over a $180,000 shortfall in the city budget. In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/arvin-police-chief-pleads-no-contest-to-misdemeanor-resigns-from-department/article_83fd97c0-5a67-11ea-87e2-3330218cf80c.html\">a former police chief pleaded no contest\u003c/a> to charges involving padding the paychecks of police officers performing renovation work on his home; a police investigation found that Wooner knew about the misappropriation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"35\">Locals haven’t forgotten this history, and there’s skepticism about new leadership. The petition to save the library, started by resident Elias Ahumada, states, “Rewarding a police department, with a long history of corruption, with the city’s only public library is disgraceful and negligent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"36\">Ahumada grew up in Wasco and Delano, communities on either side of McFarland. They are home to the Wasco State Prison, North Kern State Prison and Kern Valley State Prison. In 2020, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility opened in McFarland — the deal with the private contractors brings revenue into the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"37\">“We have a lot of money that we pour into prisons. We have prisons and police departments,” Ahumada said. “What we lack is educational and community resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"38\">Williams said the council has instructed him to consider alternatives. All the initial suggestions assumed the library would move. Williams pointed to the schools, which have their own libraries. He said there might be some room in the building’s current meeting room for the library. Council members floated the idea of using a bookmobile or seeking private funds to build another library. A community member suggested setting up a computer lab for adults. But at a city council meeting last week, Williams said he is looking into other options, “not just an elimination of that library.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"39\">Phil Corr, president of Friends of the McFarland Library, believes these vague promises to seek alternatives are inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"40\">“I really think the library is being viewed as an afterthought,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"41\">Schools won’t allow just any adult to come onto campus to visit the library, Corr said. School libraries typically aren’t open for students late after school, during breaks and in the summer. And Natalie, 9, has one big complaint about her school library: She’s only allowed to check out two books at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"42\">Kern County Library spokesperson Jasmin LoBasso said the idea of libraries as a mere book depository is a nostalgic one. Libraries are also a place to find multiple perspectives and verify facts in an era of information overload. Patrons come into libraries with basic questions or big ones, like how to find a new job, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"43\">“It’s important that we have a library there,” LoBasso said. “At this point in time, we don’t have plans to depart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"44\">But one of the main arguments for acquiring the library is that the building is hardly used. The McFarland branch is currently open only Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"45\">“It’s only used twice a week, and we would use it 24/7,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"46\">Some young patrons have their own solution to that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"47\">“Open it every day,” Natalie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic threw a wrench into operating hours for many libraries. But two or three days have been standard in rural areas like McFarland for over a decade, according to LoBasso, except for a few years when there was extra funding to open them an extra day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"123\">When Shafter, a small rural town about 20 miles southwest of McFarland, launched a program called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.shafterlearning.com/education-partnership\" data-reader-unique-id=\"124\">Education Partnership\u003c/a> in 2010, the city paid to extend public library hours an extra day each week as it rolled out tutoring and college prep programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"125\">David Franz, director of Education Partnership, said the city has been able to dedicate 5% of its budget to the program this year because Shafter is in a better financial position than most small cities in the valley. It has not had to make a hard decision between public safety and education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"126\">But Franz also discovered an unfortunate truth in his work with Shafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"127\">“Our libraries are horrifically underfunded,” said Franz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"130\">In Kern County, local government contributed $6.17 per person for library services for the 2020-21 year, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/statistics/#tools-and-data-for-and-about-california-public-libraries\" data-reader-unique-id=\"131\">survey of California public libraries\u003c/a>. That put it just behind Imperial, Del Norte, Madera and Yuba counties, all of which received less than $10 per person, according to the same survey. The library systems of Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alpine counties, on the other hand, received over $100 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"132\">Many counties and municipalities have special funding mechanisms for community libraries. In 1994, San Francisco voted in favor of a property tax to fund its libraries. In 1998, Fresno County voted in favor of a one-eighth-cent sales tax, which has helped to ensure libraries have $33 million to operate this year — and that doesn’t include $25.2 million in capital funding for new libraries in Clovis and Reedley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"133\">The Kern County Library has no dedicated fund through property or sales taxes and is almost entirely reliant on the county’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"134\">“That’s one of the biggest differences between Kern County and other library systems,” said LoBasso.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"135\">Libraries must jockey for priority against other county departments. In 2016, then-Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green argued against across-the-board cuts at a Board of Supervisors meeting. She said public safety funding for deputies and prosecutors should be spared even “if that means closing every library in this county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"136\">Kern County had the opportunity to change this in 2016. A ballot measure would have raised funds for the library with a one-eighth-cent sales tax measure, modeled on Fresno’s. It was launched after a failed effort by the Board of Supervisors to privatize the library system. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/truthaboutmeasuref/\">the measure faced opposition\u003c/a> from local taxpayer groups, Republicans and Kern County Supervisor David Couch, whose district now includes McFarland. It failed to meet the necessary two-thirds threshold with 51.68% of the vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"138\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/kern-county-libraries-to-get-reprieve-under-new-budget-adjustment/article_1831517c-bfe7-11ea-974d-67612e4c6f8c.html\">Kern County’s budget, and therefore its library, was uncertain in 2020-21.\u003c/a> Residents in Shafter received word that their library would not be on the list of branches to reopen after the pandemic, and they worried it could be shuttered entirely. That spurred a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/shafter-residents-on-a-mission-to-save-the-shafter-library/article_0f8c4ec6-d36c-11ea-8da1-cf8e18f43dac.html\" data-reader-unique-id=\"140\">“Save the Shafter Library” movement\u003c/a>, which resulted in the city’s library seceding from the county library system entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"141\">In January, the Shafter Library and Learning Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/we-wont-take-no-for-an-answer-shafter-library-reopens-with-high-hopes/article_28401662-78b8-11ec-83ac-f31249d1df6f.html\" data-reader-unique-id=\"142\">reopened as an independent library\u003c/a> thanks to the city and Bakersfield College, which now provide staffing. It is now open five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. — more than any other library in Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"143\">Franz, of Education Partnership, said libraries are good investments for communities. The number of books children have access to at home is correlated with educational achievement, income and the likelihood of participating in crime. But there are intangible benefits for the community that can’t be measured, and the city has tried to support that, too, with a community mural. He said there’s been a real hunger for a community library in Shafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"144\">“There’s a community spirit that grows up around the library,” Franz said. “There’s a joy around this public space that is fun and welcoming to families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The fate of McFarland’s community library has become a hot topic of conversation in the small, agricultural town of over 14,000 just off Highway 99 in northern Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"5\">City leaders have rallied around a proposal to acquire the Clara M. Jackson branch and convert it into a revamped headquarters for its police department. The city council, the local district superintendent and McFarland’s Recreation and Park District director recently penned letters to the county.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"6\">“With even a cursory review of the police department’s facility, it becomes glaringly obvious that the Department’s lack of space hinders them from efficiently and effectively carrying out their law enforcement duties,” wrote Aaron Resendez, superintendent of the McFarland Unified School District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"7\">The city council cited “minimal objection” from the public in its letter, but since word spread about the proposal, it has faced stronger opposition, including an \u003ca href=\"https://www.change.org/p/save-the-mcfarland-library\" data-reader-unique-id=\"8\">online petition\u003c/a> that’s amassed more than 1,500 signatures. Some of the biggest proponents of keeping the library where it is are young patrons themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"9\">“Our memories are here,” said Jazmine Ciciliano, 12. “We grew up in this place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"10\">“We want it to stay a library forever,” said Yazmine Olivera, 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"11\">“I get it, we need more safety, but this library is basically safety to us,” said Nicole Franco, 10. “It just feels like home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"12\">When school lets out, students walk to the library, and many spend their afternoons there until the library closes at 6 p.m. They worry about what will happen after school if the library disappears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"13\">“It will ruin friendships,” said Ruben Abundis, 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"14\">“What am I supposed to do, jump on my bed?” asked Natalie Lara, 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"15\">Money is the key factor in how many hours a library location is open, and Kern County has the worst-funded county library system in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"16\">Kern County is about the size of New Jersey but has more people than San Francisco. It also has more than twice as many children, according to census figures. In rural areas like McFarland, the rates of children are higher: Here, 41.9% of residents are under 18.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"17\">Within its 8,131 square miles, Kern County has 22 libraries with an operating budget of $9 million this year. By contrast, San Francisco has 28 locations within its 47 square miles with a budget of $171 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"18\">Currently, every branch in San Francisco is open five to seven days a week, but in Kern County, most branches are open two or three days a week. The central Bakersfield library is the only branch open five days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"19\">The discrepancy in funding among library systems is a consequence of the fact that California’s 1,130 public libraries are funded almost entirely locally. Last year, local governments provided 94% of California public libraries’ $1.84 billion. Federal and state contributions typically come in the form of grants for targeted programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"20\">On a Friday afternoon, the McFarland library is bustling. Branch supervisor Frank Cervantes shows patrons how to make jester hats. Children wander the stacks. Young patrons pepper the reference desk with questions. Two boys get help to find a copy of “Sideways Stories from Wayside School.” Toddlers play in a kitchen set. The computers are full. A young girl receives tutoring at a back table. As the arts and crafts program winds down, Cervantes announces that it’s story time, and patrons gather to listen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"21\">“I’m getting mixed feelings from everybody,” said Kenny Williams, who serves as the city’s police chief as well as its city manager. “It’s something close to people’s heart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"22\">But, Williams said, the police department’s current facilities at City Hall need to be modernized for a growing city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"23\">He rattles off a list of problems: The officer workspace is cramped, there’s no meeting space, there’s one locker room for both sexes, four sergeants share one office, paper-thin walls require the chief to use a sound machine to preserve confidentiality, parking for both staff as well as cars seized as evidence is inadequate, and property is increasingly stored in trailers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"24\">“It’s a terrible way to operate,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"25\">Williams said the city has enough money to acquire and complete the modifications on an existing building but not to build a headquarters from scratch. \u003ca href=\"https://www.mcfarlandcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/2476/City-of-McFarland-Annual-Operating-Budget-FY-2021-2022\">McFarland’s most recent budget\u003c/a> indicates it has $2 million set aside from a bond measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"27\">Williams was sworn in as police chief last year, and he later began serving as city manager as well. He said the city council has charged him with bringing stability and accountability to the city. McFarland has been wracked with a steady stream of scandal and financial struggle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"28\">In 2009, the city reestablished its police department, but low salaries and lax screening turned the department into a haven for \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/11/how-did-this-california-police-department-hire-so-many-officers-with-troubling-pasts/\">officers and even chiefs with their own serious misconduct records\u003c/a>, according to a report from UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program. In 2011, residents marched on City Hall to complain about a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/jose-gaspar-maricopa-and-mcfarland-face-city-problems/article_d8e8cb11-d975-5de1-aef8-00c005ecedd8.html\" data-reader-unique-id=\"30\">towing contract\u003c/a> that incentivized the city and police to stop residents for minor infractions. A suit settled in 2017 claimed that \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/columnists/jose-gaspar/jose-gaspar-mcfarland-cops-claim-obstruction-of-justice-retaliation-for-speaking-out/article_9262d107-b09b-58ea-9418-2b594a68c546.html\">city leaders quashed a search warrant on behalf of a city councilmember’s son\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"32\">In 2019, then-City Manager John Wooner went missing for months before his body was found in a Dodge Durango at the bottom of the Kern River. An \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/delano-record/bpd-report-deceased-mcfarland-city-manager-was-facing-various-pressures-when-he-went-missing/article_b9133ab6-cdd4-11e9-8966-efc9aefdde4a.html\">investigation suggested\u003c/a> that before his disappearance, Wooner was distraught over a $180,000 shortfall in the city budget. In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/arvin-police-chief-pleads-no-contest-to-misdemeanor-resigns-from-department/article_83fd97c0-5a67-11ea-87e2-3330218cf80c.html\">a former police chief pleaded no contest\u003c/a> to charges involving padding the paychecks of police officers performing renovation work on his home; a police investigation found that Wooner knew about the misappropriation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"35\">Locals haven’t forgotten this history, and there’s skepticism about new leadership. The petition to save the library, started by resident Elias Ahumada, states, “Rewarding a police department, with a long history of corruption, with the city’s only public library is disgraceful and negligent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"36\">Ahumada grew up in Wasco and Delano, communities on either side of McFarland. They are home to the Wasco State Prison, North Kern State Prison and Kern Valley State Prison. In 2020, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility opened in McFarland — the deal with the private contractors brings revenue into the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"37\">“We have a lot of money that we pour into prisons. We have prisons and police departments,” Ahumada said. “What we lack is educational and community resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"38\">Williams said the council has instructed him to consider alternatives. All the initial suggestions assumed the library would move. Williams pointed to the schools, which have their own libraries. He said there might be some room in the building’s current meeting room for the library. Council members floated the idea of using a bookmobile or seeking private funds to build another library. A community member suggested setting up a computer lab for adults. But at a city council meeting last week, Williams said he is looking into other options, “not just an elimination of that library.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"39\">Phil Corr, president of Friends of the McFarland Library, believes these vague promises to seek alternatives are inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"40\">“I really think the library is being viewed as an afterthought,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"41\">Schools won’t allow just any adult to come onto campus to visit the library, Corr said. School libraries typically aren’t open for students late after school, during breaks and in the summer. And Natalie, 9, has one big complaint about her school library: She’s only allowed to check out two books at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"42\">Kern County Library spokesperson Jasmin LoBasso said the idea of libraries as a mere book depository is a nostalgic one. Libraries are also a place to find multiple perspectives and verify facts in an era of information overload. Patrons come into libraries with basic questions or big ones, like how to find a new job, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"43\">“It’s important that we have a library there,” LoBasso said. “At this point in time, we don’t have plans to depart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"44\">But one of the main arguments for acquiring the library is that the building is hardly used. The McFarland branch is currently open only Thursdays and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"45\">“It’s only used twice a week, and we would use it 24/7,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"46\">Some young patrons have their own solution to that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"47\">“Open it every day,” Natalie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pandemic threw a wrench into operating hours for many libraries. But two or three days have been standard in rural areas like McFarland for over a decade, according to LoBasso, except for a few years when there was extra funding to open them an extra day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"123\">When Shafter, a small rural town about 20 miles southwest of McFarland, launched a program called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.shafterlearning.com/education-partnership\" data-reader-unique-id=\"124\">Education Partnership\u003c/a> in 2010, the city paid to extend public library hours an extra day each week as it rolled out tutoring and college prep programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"125\">David Franz, director of Education Partnership, said the city has been able to dedicate 5% of its budget to the program this year because Shafter is in a better financial position than most small cities in the valley. It has not had to make a hard decision between public safety and education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"126\">But Franz also discovered an unfortunate truth in his work with Shafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"127\">“Our libraries are horrifically underfunded,” said Franz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"130\">In Kern County, local government contributed $6.17 per person for library services for the 2020-21 year, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.library.ca.gov/services/to-libraries/statistics/#tools-and-data-for-and-about-california-public-libraries\" data-reader-unique-id=\"131\">survey of California public libraries\u003c/a>. That put it just behind Imperial, Del Norte, Madera and Yuba counties, all of which received less than $10 per person, according to the same survey. The library systems of Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alpine counties, on the other hand, received over $100 per person.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"132\">Many counties and municipalities have special funding mechanisms for community libraries. In 1994, San Francisco voted in favor of a property tax to fund its libraries. In 1998, Fresno County voted in favor of a one-eighth-cent sales tax, which has helped to ensure libraries have $33 million to operate this year — and that doesn’t include $25.2 million in capital funding for new libraries in Clovis and Reedley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"133\">The Kern County Library has no dedicated fund through property or sales taxes and is almost entirely reliant on the county’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"134\">“That’s one of the biggest differences between Kern County and other library systems,” said LoBasso.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"135\">Libraries must jockey for priority against other county departments. In 2016, then-Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green argued against across-the-board cuts at a Board of Supervisors meeting. She said public safety funding for deputies and prosecutors should be spared even “if that means closing every library in this county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"136\">Kern County had the opportunity to change this in 2016. A ballot measure would have raised funds for the library with a one-eighth-cent sales tax measure, modeled on Fresno’s. It was launched after a failed effort by the Board of Supervisors to privatize the library system. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/truthaboutmeasuref/\">the measure faced opposition\u003c/a> from local taxpayer groups, Republicans and Kern County Supervisor David Couch, whose district now includes McFarland. It failed to meet the necessary two-thirds threshold with 51.68% of the vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"138\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/kern-county-libraries-to-get-reprieve-under-new-budget-adjustment/article_1831517c-bfe7-11ea-974d-67612e4c6f8c.html\">Kern County’s budget, and therefore its library, was uncertain in 2020-21.\u003c/a> Residents in Shafter received word that their library would not be on the list of branches to reopen after the pandemic, and they worried it could be shuttered entirely. That spurred a \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/shafter-residents-on-a-mission-to-save-the-shafter-library/article_0f8c4ec6-d36c-11ea-8da1-cf8e18f43dac.html\" data-reader-unique-id=\"140\">“Save the Shafter Library” movement\u003c/a>, which resulted in the city’s library seceding from the county library system entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"141\">In January, the Shafter Library and Learning Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.bakersfield.com/news/we-wont-take-no-for-an-answer-shafter-library-reopens-with-high-hopes/article_28401662-78b8-11ec-83ac-f31249d1df6f.html\" data-reader-unique-id=\"142\">reopened as an independent library\u003c/a> thanks to the city and Bakersfield College, which now provide staffing. It is now open five days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. — more than any other library in Kern County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"143\">Franz, of Education Partnership, said libraries are good investments for communities. The number of books children have access to at home is correlated with educational achievement, income and the likelihood of participating in crime. But there are intangible benefits for the community that can’t be measured, and the city has tried to support that, too, with a community mural. He said there’s been a real hunger for a community library in Shafter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp data-reader-unique-id=\"144\">“There’s a community spirit that grows up around the library,” Franz said. “There’s a joy around this public space that is fun and welcoming to families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California students who use the school library aren’t likely to find a credentialed teacher librarian behind the desk. Instead, they will probably be helped by someone without a bachelor’s degree, teaching credential or much formal training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/full-time-equivalent?gclid=CjwKCAjwur-SBhB6EiwA5sKtjgjby35RD2GUp86qzhd06fq4mQ-HU2lVYh6CgxkoCOA5pYcP9WDfIhoC658QAvD_BwE&aceid=\">number of school librarians in the state dropped\u003c/a> from the equivalent of 811 full-time positions in 2014-15 to 621 in 2020-21, the\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/elsi/tablegenerator.aspx\"> latest year data\u003c/a> was available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that California schools had one full-time teacher librarian for every 9,667 students last school year, the highest ratio of the 48 states, along with Washington, D.C., that provided numbers to NCES. The state’s Model School Library Standards calls for a ratio of one full-time teacher librarian for every 785 students.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Nina Jackson, president, California School Library Association\"]‘Most schools and/or districts don’t want to pay a teacher’s salary for the library.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One-third of K-12 students have never had a teacher librarian, said Lesley Farmer, professor of library media at CSU Long Beach and one of the authors of the state’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/librarystandards.pdf\"> Model School Library Standards\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lack of designated state funding for school libraries may be at the root of the scarcity of teacher librarians. School libraries are mostly funded with district general funds and by fundraising, making them a target for cutbacks whenever school finances need tightening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most schools and or districts don’t want to pay a teacher’s salary for the library,” said Nina Jackson, president of the California School Library Association. “They feel like all they need is someone to run a library and keep the books on track. They don’t see the need for someone who teaches digital literacy, media safety and research. They don’t see a need for it and, in education, it comes down to money.”[aside postID=\"forum_2010101888588,mindshift_58892\" label=\"Related Posts\"]A review of job openings on \u003ca href=\"https://www.edjoin.org/\">EDJOIN\u003c/a> — an online education job board — on April 6 showed 13 advertisements for credentialed teacher librarians, with salaries from about $42,000 to $105,000, and 116 openings for classified school library workers with pay ranging from $15 to $30 an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ideally, school libraries would have a teacher librarian to work with classroom teachers and students, as well as a library technician to check out and repair books and assist with book fairs,” Jackson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of teacher librarians could be hurting California students academically. Research shows that teacher librarians positively affect student achievement at all grade levels, Farmer said. Research she co-authored shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133320301531?via%3Dihub\">the impact of librarians on high school academic achievement follows students into college\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/teacher-librarian-services-credential-(cl-562)\">Teacher librarians are required to have:\u003c/a> a bachelor’s degree, a California teaching credential and a teacher librarian services credential, which authorizes them to operate school and district libraries, instruct students in the handling of library materials, and supervise classified staff, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Requirements for classified library workers vary by district, with some requiring a high school diploma and others an associate degree in library science or a specified number of college units.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Juan Unified librarian holds fundraisers to buy books\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Susan Sloan, the teacher librarian at Bella Vista High School in Sacramento County, says an important part of her job is teaching digital literacy to ensure students can differentiate between biased and unbiased information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bella Vista library, which features books displayed on easels and bookmarks for sale at checkout, looks more like a bookstore than a high school library. The library’s collection has been carefully curated by Sloan and updated to include books that appeal to a diverse population of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Juan Unified doesn’t have dedicated funds for library books or materials, so Sloan raises about $10,000 annually to buy most of what is needed. The principal also has provided school funds for some materials. With the help of volunteers, Sloan spends many of her evenings and weekends hosting book fairs and holding fundraisers, like the one last year that sold \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjuan.edu/site/Default.aspx?PageID=37928\">artwork created with old books\u003c/a>. She also applies for grants from corporations and posts wish lists on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/bvlibraryprojects\">Donors Choose\u003c/a> website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent day last month, Sloan was straightening up the library at the end of the school day. Stacks of books with topics like drug addiction, alcoholism, nicotine and hallucinogens had been placed on tables around the room. Sloan explained the books were part of a health class exercise that had students rotating in groups from stack to stack while filling out a chart with basic information about each topic. The idea was to teach students about these health hazards, as well as how to glean information from written materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some administrators think all we do is check in and check out books, and the rest of the time we aren’t doing anything,” Sloan said. “I am the first one on campus, other than the registrar. So, I’m here at 6:30 in the morning, and yesterday I didn’t leave until a quarter to 5. And that’s pretty typical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Juan Unified has certificated teacher librarians at all nine of its comprehensive high schools, but not at its 33 elementary schools, eight K-8 schools, nine middle schools or its continuation high schools. The middle schools are staffed by media/library technicians and elementary schools by clerk typists, said Raj Rai, district spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly there are multiple factors that have contributed to this library staffing structure in the district, including investments based on student needs at the site level and the availability of teacher librarians,” Rai said. “There continues to be a shortage of certificated teacher librarians, and we did have a hard time filling an open position last year at one of our high schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State law dictating who runs school libraries is unclear\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Juan Unified officials said they are not required to have a teacher librarian at every school. The \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC§ionNum=18120.#:~:text=18120.,(Amended%20by%20Stats.\">California education code\u003c/a> says that school districts “may appoint a librarian or librarians to staff the libraries provided they qualify as librarians.” The word “may” is often interpreted as meaning the hiring of librarians is optional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing website tries to clarify the issue, saying that while it would be ideal for each library to have a credentialed teacher librarian, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/assignment-resources/challenges-with-library-assignments\">it is not always feasible\u003c/a>. Instead, the commission says that small school districts can form a consortium with other districts to employ a single credentialed teacher librarian, and larger school districts can employ the number of teacher librarians necessary to select library materials, coordinate library programs and manage library services, along with other duties outlined in the credential. Districts also can contract with a public library for services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if districts are out of compliance, it’s not clear which agency would sanction them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where the Education Code is not completely clear, districts apply their own interpretation, and the CDE does not act as a compliance agency,” stated an email from the California Department of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my view, the statutes are purposely vague because education management, boards and superintendents want maximum flexibility in staffing,” said Jeff Frost, a lobbyist for the California School Library Association. “It is why in good economic times, more teacher librarians are hired, but in bad economic times, those same TLs [teacher librarians] are often eliminated from school libraries and often laid off or bumped back into classrooms based on seniority.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Small districts are most likely to go without a school librarian\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Konocti Unified, a district serving 3,600 students in Lake County, hasn’t had a teacher librarian in its schools for at least 15 years, said Emily Kasmier, the district’s lead librarian. Kasmier, a classified employee, is a library media integration specialist II at Lower Lake Elementary School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kasmier has many duties. Along with helping students select and check out books, she manages and trains library staff, reads to the younger students and manages an online program that measures students’ reading and math comprehension. She’s also the afternoon crossing guard and is in charge of checking out the school’s Chromebooks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Outside of that time, I’m shelving books like a madwoman,” she said. “About 1,000 to 1,200 a week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Konocti Unified requires its library specialists to have an associate degree or 48 college credits, or have a high school diploma and pass a test. The district has struggled to fill teaching and other staff positions because of its remote location and distance from universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto Unified, on the other hand, has a librarian in each school library. Librarians are essential to the district’s reading initiatives, said Anne Brown, assistant superintendent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a big focus on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pausd.org/school-life/learning/esri\">Every Student Reads Initiative\u003c/a>, and we want children to love reading, so our libraries are comfortable, safe places for students to hang out, read books and talk to librarians,” Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teacher librarians can be hard to find\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto Unified has had no problem filling teacher librarian positions, which rarely come open, Brown said. But other districts, including San Juan Unified and Tracy Unified, have had difficulty finding them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracy Unified School District had so much trouble finding the six teacher librarians it needed to expand lessons in digital literacy and the use of library resources to middle and elementary schools, that it is offering to pay up to $20,000 of the cost associated with earning librarian certification in exchange for a three-year commitment to the district, said Tammy Jalique, associate superintendent of human resources for the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far three teachers from outside the district have signed on to work as school librarians on provisional permits while they earn their library certification. To earn certification as a teacher librarian, a credentialed teacher must take an additional nine to 10 courses, Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The difficulty filling teacher librarian jobs could be because of the low number of teacher librarian credentials issued in California — 94 in 2020. That’s a slight increase over each of the previous four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three California universities offer the coursework required to earn certification as a teacher librarian: California State University Long Beach, San José State University and Fresno Pacific University, according to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmer says there is a perception that no one is hiring librarians, so many potential candidates are earning master’s degrees in library science instead of a teaching credential and taking jobs in public libraries, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state needs to turn out 200 teacher librarians a year,” Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 10 and 15 teacher librarians complete their certification at Long Beach each year, Farmer said. The university has 50 in the pipeline right now. Many of the candidates are full-time teachers who take one or two classes a semester, Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need more people entering the field,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "California lags far behind other states on its librarian-to-student ratio. The number of school librarians in the state dropped from the equivalent of 811 full-time positions in 2014-15, to 621 in 2020-21.",
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"title": "Where Are All of California's School Librarians? | KQED",
"description": "California lags far behind other states on its librarian-to-student ratio. The number of school librarians in the state dropped from the equivalent of 811 full-time positions in 2014-15, to 621 in 2020-21.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California students who use the school library aren’t likely to find a credentialed teacher librarian behind the desk. Instead, they will probably be helped by someone without a bachelor’s degree, teaching credential or much formal training.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/full-time-equivalent?gclid=CjwKCAjwur-SBhB6EiwA5sKtjgjby35RD2GUp86qzhd06fq4mQ-HU2lVYh6CgxkoCOA5pYcP9WDfIhoC658QAvD_BwE&aceid=\">number of school librarians in the state dropped\u003c/a> from the equivalent of 811 full-time positions in 2014-15 to 621 in 2020-21, the\u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/elsi/tablegenerator.aspx\"> latest year data\u003c/a> was available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This means that California schools had one full-time teacher librarian for every 9,667 students last school year, the highest ratio of the 48 states, along with Washington, D.C., that provided numbers to NCES. The state’s Model School Library Standards calls for a ratio of one full-time teacher librarian for every 785 students.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Most schools and/or districts don’t want to pay a teacher’s salary for the library.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One-third of K-12 students have never had a teacher librarian, said Lesley Farmer, professor of library media at CSU Long Beach and one of the authors of the state’s\u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/librarystandards.pdf\"> Model School Library Standards\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lack of designated state funding for school libraries may be at the root of the scarcity of teacher librarians. School libraries are mostly funded with district general funds and by fundraising, making them a target for cutbacks whenever school finances need tightening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most schools and or districts don’t want to pay a teacher’s salary for the library,” said Nina Jackson, president of the California School Library Association. “They feel like all they need is someone to run a library and keep the books on track. They don’t see the need for someone who teaches digital literacy, media safety and research. They don’t see a need for it and, in education, it comes down to money.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A review of job openings on \u003ca href=\"https://www.edjoin.org/\">EDJOIN\u003c/a> — an online education job board — on April 6 showed 13 advertisements for credentialed teacher librarians, with salaries from about $42,000 to $105,000, and 116 openings for classified school library workers with pay ranging from $15 to $30 an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ideally, school libraries would have a teacher librarian to work with classroom teachers and students, as well as a library technician to check out and repair books and assist with book fairs,” Jackson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of teacher librarians could be hurting California students academically. Research shows that teacher librarians positively affect student achievement at all grade levels, Farmer said. Research she co-authored shows that \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133320301531?via%3Dihub\">the impact of librarians on high school academic achievement follows students into college\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/teacher-librarian-services-credential-(cl-562)\">Teacher librarians are required to have:\u003c/a> a bachelor’s degree, a California teaching credential and a teacher librarian services credential, which authorizes them to operate school and district libraries, instruct students in the handling of library materials, and supervise classified staff, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Requirements for classified library workers vary by district, with some requiring a high school diploma and others an associate degree in library science or a specified number of college units.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Juan Unified librarian holds fundraisers to buy books\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Susan Sloan, the teacher librarian at Bella Vista High School in Sacramento County, says an important part of her job is teaching digital literacy to ensure students can differentiate between biased and unbiased information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bella Vista library, which features books displayed on easels and bookmarks for sale at checkout, looks more like a bookstore than a high school library. The library’s collection has been carefully curated by Sloan and updated to include books that appeal to a diverse population of students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Juan Unified doesn’t have dedicated funds for library books or materials, so Sloan raises about $10,000 annually to buy most of what is needed. The principal also has provided school funds for some materials. With the help of volunteers, Sloan spends many of her evenings and weekends hosting book fairs and holding fundraisers, like the one last year that sold \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjuan.edu/site/Default.aspx?PageID=37928\">artwork created with old books\u003c/a>. She also applies for grants from corporations and posts wish lists on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.donorschoose.org/classroom/bvlibraryprojects\">Donors Choose\u003c/a> website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent day last month, Sloan was straightening up the library at the end of the school day. Stacks of books with topics like drug addiction, alcoholism, nicotine and hallucinogens had been placed on tables around the room. Sloan explained the books were part of a health class exercise that had students rotating in groups from stack to stack while filling out a chart with basic information about each topic. The idea was to teach students about these health hazards, as well as how to glean information from written materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some administrators think all we do is check in and check out books, and the rest of the time we aren’t doing anything,” Sloan said. “I am the first one on campus, other than the registrar. So, I’m here at 6:30 in the morning, and yesterday I didn’t leave until a quarter to 5. And that’s pretty typical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Juan Unified has certificated teacher librarians at all nine of its comprehensive high schools, but not at its 33 elementary schools, eight K-8 schools, nine middle schools or its continuation high schools. The middle schools are staffed by media/library technicians and elementary schools by clerk typists, said Raj Rai, district spokesperson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Certainly there are multiple factors that have contributed to this library staffing structure in the district, including investments based on student needs at the site level and the availability of teacher librarians,” Rai said. “There continues to be a shortage of certificated teacher librarians, and we did have a hard time filling an open position last year at one of our high schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>State law dictating who runs school libraries is unclear\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>San Juan Unified officials said they are not required to have a teacher librarian at every school. The \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC§ionNum=18120.#:~:text=18120.,(Amended%20by%20Stats.\">California education code\u003c/a> says that school districts “may appoint a librarian or librarians to staff the libraries provided they qualify as librarians.” The word “may” is often interpreted as meaning the hiring of librarians is optional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing website tries to clarify the issue, saying that while it would be ideal for each library to have a credentialed teacher librarian, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/assignment-resources/challenges-with-library-assignments\">it is not always feasible\u003c/a>. Instead, the commission says that small school districts can form a consortium with other districts to employ a single credentialed teacher librarian, and larger school districts can employ the number of teacher librarians necessary to select library materials, coordinate library programs and manage library services, along with other duties outlined in the credential. Districts also can contract with a public library for services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if districts are out of compliance, it’s not clear which agency would sanction them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where the Education Code is not completely clear, districts apply their own interpretation, and the CDE does not act as a compliance agency,” stated an email from the California Department of Education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In my view, the statutes are purposely vague because education management, boards and superintendents want maximum flexibility in staffing,” said Jeff Frost, a lobbyist for the California School Library Association. “It is why in good economic times, more teacher librarians are hired, but in bad economic times, those same TLs [teacher librarians] are often eliminated from school libraries and often laid off or bumped back into classrooms based on seniority.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Small districts are most likely to go without a school librarian\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Konocti Unified, a district serving 3,600 students in Lake County, hasn’t had a teacher librarian in its schools for at least 15 years, said Emily Kasmier, the district’s lead librarian. Kasmier, a classified employee, is a library media integration specialist II at Lower Lake Elementary School.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kasmier has many duties. Along with helping students select and check out books, she manages and trains library staff, reads to the younger students and manages an online program that measures students’ reading and math comprehension. She’s also the afternoon crossing guard and is in charge of checking out the school’s Chromebooks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Outside of that time, I’m shelving books like a madwoman,” she said. “About 1,000 to 1,200 a week.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Konocti Unified requires its library specialists to have an associate degree or 48 college credits, or have a high school diploma and pass a test. The district has struggled to fill teaching and other staff positions because of its remote location and distance from universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto Unified, on the other hand, has a librarian in each school library. Librarians are essential to the district’s reading initiatives, said Anne Brown, assistant superintendent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a big focus on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pausd.org/school-life/learning/esri\">Every Student Reads Initiative\u003c/a>, and we want children to love reading, so our libraries are comfortable, safe places for students to hang out, read books and talk to librarians,” Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Teacher librarians can be hard to find\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto Unified has had no problem filling teacher librarian positions, which rarely come open, Brown said. But other districts, including San Juan Unified and Tracy Unified, have had difficulty finding them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracy Unified School District had so much trouble finding the six teacher librarians it needed to expand lessons in digital literacy and the use of library resources to middle and elementary schools, that it is offering to pay up to $20,000 of the cost associated with earning librarian certification in exchange for a three-year commitment to the district, said Tammy Jalique, associate superintendent of human resources for the district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far three teachers from outside the district have signed on to work as school librarians on provisional permits while they earn their library certification. To earn certification as a teacher librarian, a credentialed teacher must take an additional nine to 10 courses, Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The difficulty filling teacher librarian jobs could be because of the low number of teacher librarian credentials issued in California — 94 in 2020. That’s a slight increase over each of the previous four years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three California universities offer the coursework required to earn certification as a teacher librarian: California State University Long Beach, San José State University and Fresno Pacific University, according to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmer says there is a perception that no one is hiring librarians, so many potential candidates are earning master’s degrees in library science instead of a teaching credential and taking jobs in public libraries, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The state needs to turn out 200 teacher librarians a year,” Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 10 and 15 teacher librarians complete their certification at Long Beach each year, Farmer said. The university has 50 in the pipeline right now. Many of the candidates are full-time teachers who take one or two classes a semester, Farmer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need more people entering the field,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "California Public School Enrollment Drops Below 6 Million for First Time in Decades",
"title": "California Public School Enrollment Drops Below 6 Million for First Time in Decades",
"headTitle": "CALmatters | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>For the first time in decades, fewer than 6 million students are enrolled in California's K-12 public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's according to new data released Monday by the state Department of Education, showing \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr22/yr22rel20.asp\">a decline in enrollment for the fifth straight year\u003c/a>. That downward trend is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2022/01/california-schools-budgets/\">stoking fears of additional budget cuts\u003c/a> and long-term financial instability for schools, whose funding is largely determined by total enrollment numbers and daily attendance levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among key takeaways from the newly released data:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Statewide enrollment for the 2021-22 school year — including traditional public \u003cem>and\u003c/em> charter schools — is at 5,892,240, down 1.8%, or about 110,000 students, from the previous year. That dip, however, is less steep than the 2.6% drop during the first year of the pandemic.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Compared to the last school year, enrollment this year dropped 3.6% for Black students, 1.9% for Asian Americans, 0.9% for Latinos and 4.9% for white students.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Grades one, four, seven and nine had the largest enrollment decreases this year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Kindergarten enrollment increased slightly this school year over the prior year, although enrollment is still nowhere near prepandemic levels. Enrollment in 12th grade also ticked up slightly.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>For the better part of a decade, public school enrollment has been in steady decline in California, due largely to a lack of affordable housing, according to education officials. But when the pandemic reached California, early job losses collided with that trend, exacerbating that decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Barrera, a board trustee at San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest district, said families already were moving out of the district, especially families in gentrifying areas, resulting in disproportionate losses for schools in those neighborhoods. Then workers started to lose jobs in 2020, and more families had to relocate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we opened up the schools last year, those schools had lower in-person attendance,” Barrera said. “It’s just more expensive for people with kids to live in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the years before the pandemic, enrollment in traditional, noncharter public schools fell by about 1% a year. During the first year of the pandemic, however, enrollment dropped by more than 3%, or about 175,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even charter school enrollment slid, losing 12,600 students this year, a major reversal of historical trends. Since 2015, charter schools had seen only increases of at least 10,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/9333229/embed\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State education officials did not have a clear explanation for this sudden drop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Charter Schools Association President Myrna Castrejón said this decline illustrates how charter schools “are facing the same statewide challenges as noncharter public schools.” She called for equitable funding for charters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For noncharter schools, much of the enrollment drop during the first year of the pandemic was due to tens of thousands of parents opting not to enroll their children in kindergarten. Most school campuses were closed at the time and children were learning online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, with school buildings open, kindergarten enrollment went up by more than 7,000 students, recovering slightly from last year’s 60,000-student plunge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enrollment numbers for first graders, however, dropped by 18,000 students this year — one of the steepest drops for a single grade level — suggesting that many students who were of kindergarten age in 2020 did not return to public schools for first grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State education officials would not comment on where those students went. Some school district officials said they also are looking for answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"education\"]“It’s a problem across all grade levels,” said Barrett Snider of Capitol Advisors, a lobbying firm for school districts. “We just aren’t sure where they’ve gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because most of California’s public schools are funded based on a combination of enrollment and attendance, small school districts are especially feeling the pain. Just a few students leaving can mean large chunks of money gone from their budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had declining enrollment since the turn of the century,” said Linda Irving, superintendent of Sebastopol Union School District. “As a school gets smaller, it gets more difficult to provide quality programming, like music classes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her 788-student district has been using one-time state grants to cover its costs, Irving said, but she needs a more permanent solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can be depressing working at a school where the student population is shrinking, Irving said. Administrators have a marketing budget to attract more families, yet they also are being forced to cut staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was driving home from the gym yesterday, and I heard another superintendent on the radio,” Irving said. “We’re competing against each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brett McFadden, superintendent of the Nevada Joint Union High School District, said a large portion of the residents in his rural community work in the service industry and had to seek other jobs when businesses closed during the pandemic. Others left more recently, as the state began enforcing masking rules and issuing vaccine mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s tough to do exit interviews, but our takeaway is that people left because of jobs,” McFadden said. “Or they left because private schools weren’t enforcing mask mandates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to state data, the enrollment in McFadden's district was stable before the pandemic, at around 2,800 students. Enrollment is currently down to 2,605, and McFadden notes that he lost 197 students since the school year started, which translates to more than $2 million in lost funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Declining enrollment cannot be fixed,” he said. “I think we have to recognize that declining enrollment is part of broader demographic trends that are happening in our state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Softening the blow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>State leaders are floating measures to lessen the pain of declining enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his proposed budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would allow school districts to use a three-year average attendance rate to calculate next year’s funding. This could be a substantial help, especially because attendance at most schools plummeted during this year’s omicron surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat from Glendale, authored \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB830\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate Bill 830\u003c/a>, which would pay districts based on enrollment rather than attendance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the policy debate over enrollment- versus attendance-based funding has been ongoing for years, Portantino said this is the right time to make the change because of the state’s surplus and the acute crisis schools are facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“School districts have to budget based on enrollment,” Portantino said. “It makes no sense to penalize them if you have absences throughout the year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under his proposal, districts would still be funded based on attendance but could apply for additional money based on enrollment. The bill would require that districts use 30% of the additional funding to address chronic absenteeism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these proposals might ease the fiscal effects of ebbing enrollments, district leaders still don’t have a clear picture of why \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2020/12/south-los-angeles-school-pandemic/\">so many students are leaving\u003c/a>. And many feel powerless to reverse the trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Schools have been reacting to a public-health crisis and trying to keep their lights on, so when kids disappear there’s not a lot of capacity to chase them down and see what happened,” said Snider, the lobbyist. “But I think that’s going to be a big focus as we climb out of this.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Statewide public school enrollment fell for the fifth year in a row, with about 110,000 fewer students in K-12 traditional and charter public schools this academic year, a roughly 1.8% drop from last year. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time in decades, fewer than 6 million students are enrolled in California's K-12 public schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's according to new data released Monday by the state Department of Education, showing \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr22/yr22rel20.asp\">a decline in enrollment for the fifth straight year\u003c/a>. That downward trend is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2022/01/california-schools-budgets/\">stoking fears of additional budget cuts\u003c/a> and long-term financial instability for schools, whose funding is largely determined by total enrollment numbers and daily attendance levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among key takeaways from the newly released data:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Statewide enrollment for the 2021-22 school year — including traditional public \u003cem>and\u003c/em> charter schools — is at 5,892,240, down 1.8%, or about 110,000 students, from the previous year. That dip, however, is less steep than the 2.6% drop during the first year of the pandemic.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Compared to the last school year, enrollment this year dropped 3.6% for Black students, 1.9% for Asian Americans, 0.9% for Latinos and 4.9% for white students.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Grades one, four, seven and nine had the largest enrollment decreases this year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Kindergarten enrollment increased slightly this school year over the prior year, although enrollment is still nowhere near prepandemic levels. Enrollment in 12th grade also ticked up slightly.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>For the better part of a decade, public school enrollment has been in steady decline in California, due largely to a lack of affordable housing, according to education officials. But when the pandemic reached California, early job losses collided with that trend, exacerbating that decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard Barrera, a board trustee at San Diego Unified, the state’s second-largest district, said families already were moving out of the district, especially families in gentrifying areas, resulting in disproportionate losses for schools in those neighborhoods. Then workers started to lose jobs in 2020, and more families had to relocate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we opened up the schools last year, those schools had lower in-person attendance,” Barrera said. “It’s just more expensive for people with kids to live in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the years before the pandemic, enrollment in traditional, noncharter public schools fell by about 1% a year. During the first year of the pandemic, however, enrollment dropped by more than 3%, or about 175,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even charter school enrollment slid, losing 12,600 students this year, a major reversal of historical trends. Since 2015, charter schools had seen only increases of at least 10,000 students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/9333229/embed\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State education officials did not have a clear explanation for this sudden drop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Charter Schools Association President Myrna Castrejón said this decline illustrates how charter schools “are facing the same statewide challenges as noncharter public schools.” She called for equitable funding for charters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For noncharter schools, much of the enrollment drop during the first year of the pandemic was due to tens of thousands of parents opting not to enroll their children in kindergarten. Most school campuses were closed at the time and children were learning online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, with school buildings open, kindergarten enrollment went up by more than 7,000 students, recovering slightly from last year’s 60,000-student plunge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enrollment numbers for first graders, however, dropped by 18,000 students this year — one of the steepest drops for a single grade level — suggesting that many students who were of kindergarten age in 2020 did not return to public schools for first grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State education officials would not comment on where those students went. Some school district officials said they also are looking for answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s a problem across all grade levels,” said Barrett Snider of Capitol Advisors, a lobbying firm for school districts. “We just aren’t sure where they’ve gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because most of California’s public schools are funded based on a combination of enrollment and attendance, small school districts are especially feeling the pain. Just a few students leaving can mean large chunks of money gone from their budgets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve had declining enrollment since the turn of the century,” said Linda Irving, superintendent of Sebastopol Union School District. “As a school gets smaller, it gets more difficult to provide quality programming, like music classes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her 788-student district has been using one-time state grants to cover its costs, Irving said, but she needs a more permanent solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can be depressing working at a school where the student population is shrinking, Irving said. Administrators have a marketing budget to attract more families, yet they also are being forced to cut staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was driving home from the gym yesterday, and I heard another superintendent on the radio,” Irving said. “We’re competing against each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brett McFadden, superintendent of the Nevada Joint Union High School District, said a large portion of the residents in his rural community work in the service industry and had to seek other jobs when businesses closed during the pandemic. Others left more recently, as the state began enforcing masking rules and issuing vaccine mandates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s tough to do exit interviews, but our takeaway is that people left because of jobs,” McFadden said. “Or they left because private schools weren’t enforcing mask mandates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to state data, the enrollment in McFadden's district was stable before the pandemic, at around 2,800 students. Enrollment is currently down to 2,605, and McFadden notes that he lost 197 students since the school year started, which translates to more than $2 million in lost funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Declining enrollment cannot be fixed,” he said. “I think we have to recognize that declining enrollment is part of broader demographic trends that are happening in our state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Softening the blow\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>State leaders are floating measures to lessen the pain of declining enrollment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his proposed budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would allow school districts to use a three-year average attendance rate to calculate next year’s funding. This could be a substantial help, especially because attendance at most schools plummeted during this year’s omicron surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat from Glendale, authored \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB830\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate Bill 830\u003c/a>, which would pay districts based on enrollment rather than attendance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the policy debate over enrollment- versus attendance-based funding has been ongoing for years, Portantino said this is the right time to make the change because of the state’s surplus and the acute crisis schools are facing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“School districts have to budget based on enrollment,” Portantino said. “It makes no sense to penalize them if you have absences throughout the year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under his proposal, districts would still be funded based on attendance but could apply for additional money based on enrollment. The bill would require that districts use 30% of the additional funding to address chronic absenteeism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While these proposals might ease the fiscal effects of ebbing enrollments, district leaders still don’t have a clear picture of why \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2020/12/south-los-angeles-school-pandemic/\">so many students are leaving\u003c/a>. And many feel powerless to reverse the trend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"order": 9
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"order": 15
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 18
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
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"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"source": "American Public Media"
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"order": 11
},
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"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
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"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"perspectives": {
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"order": 14
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
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},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/730YpdUSNlMyPQwNnyjp4k"
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},
"pri-the-world": {
"id": "pri-the-world",
"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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