Santa Clara County Education Digest

Following CalMatters reporting, California’s Republican representatives are calling for the U.S. Department of Education and Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate how California’s community colleges are handling financial aid fraud.

After the ousting of the long-serving former superintendent and a six month search for a successor, the Santa Clara County Board of Education has appointed David Toston as the new superintendent of schools.

443 students will need to find new schools next year following the announcement of the closure of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funded The Primary School in East Palo Alto.

The UC has grown its enrollment of California undergraduates by 16,000 in the last five years. University officials say they won’t be able to continue that growth if state funding is cut.

This interactive map shows kindergartners’ vaccination rates at more than 6,000 public and private schools across California. According to the state health department, at least 95% of students need the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine to maintain herd immunity and prevent outbreaks. Yet in many parts of the state — including areas around Sacramento, Oakland, the Central Valley, and Los Angeles — vaccination rates fall short of that threshold, raising concerns about community vulnerability.

Federal programs offer financial aid and counseling to low-income and first-generation college students. California was allowed to include students without legal status, which the Trump administration is now ending.

The Gilroy Teachers Association and the Gilroy Unified School District School District reached a tentative contract agreement on April 15.

Dual enrollment courses are growing on high school and college campuses but access gaps linger, particularly for students in rural areas of California as well as for Black and Hispanic male students.

Schools had until March 2026 to spend remaining COVID relief money. The U.S. Department of Education cut those funds, amounting to about $200 million for California K-12 schools.

In 1971 California’s Supreme Court issued one of its most important and far-reaching decisions, declaring that the state’s system of financing public schools — primarily via locally levied property taxes — was unconstitutionally unfair.

In an April 3 meeting, the Mountain View Wiseman School District Board voted to offer two months free rent to add an incentive for district staff to lease units in its Shoreline Boulevard apartments.

Interim Superintendent Jeff Baier of Mountain View Wiseman School District has been hired under a new three-year contract.

It’s hard to find the disciplinary history of for-profit colleges regulated by California. CalMatters is making it easier.

Nearly 60% of third graders aren’t reading at grade level. A new bill would require schools to use a phonics-based approach to teach students

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has regularly worked side jobs at Bay Area nonprofits to earn extra income because he says the state pay is insufficient.

Infrastructure issues at California’s public universities are hindering students and faculty’s ability to learn and work on campus. Lawmakers and system leaders are hoping more state support can help them bring down the $17 billion price tag to fix their academic buildings.

New principals have been named for three elementary schools in the Mountain View Whisman School District.

More than 17,400 high school seniors last fall got the sweetest news any anxious student can get: Congratulations, because of your high school GPA, you’re automatically admitted to one of 10 California State University campuses of your choice — and they’re all relatively affordable.

Across California, only one in five eligible college students receive CalFresh due to complicated requirements and an arduous application process. With two-thirds of students experiencing food insecurity, many campuses have started helping them apply for CalFresh.

The community maker space Hacker Dojo is seeking to open a second facility, but is short on funds.

For the last century, the money has gone to counties with large amounts of federal land that can’t be taxed. Congress failed to include it in the upcoming budget.

In their March 20 meeting, the Mountain View Whisman school board approved $29 million for the purchase of the land upon which it built its 144-unit teacher housing project. Read on for details.

In 2019, his first year in office, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched the Cradle-to-Career Data System, a new state entity that aims to track students’ progress from preschool through employment. The data system was supposed to release its first public dashboard last spring.

Some of California’s most acclaimed schools right now aren’t in elite suburbs or wealthy urban enclaves. They’re in a small city in the San Joaquin Valley, an outpost on Highway 99 surrounded by almond trees and orange groves.

After the Trump administration threw out policies dating back to 2011 limiting immigration arrests at “sensitive locations,” California colleges and universities are providing resources to support students, but can’t stop immigration enforcement from entering public spaces. Some advocates say more must be done.

In their March 11 meeting, the Los Altos City Council voted to proceed with the library courtyard project despite concerns about the impact on the adjacent Los Altos Heritage Orchard.

Just one bill invests in bilingual education programs and its focus on instructional materials is a far cry from the systemic change advocates have called for.

Under Trump’s directive the Department of Education laid off half its staff. The lawsuit argues Trump has no authority to make such drastic changes.

As the first tenants move into recently completed staff housing, the Mountain View Wiseman board considered tough choices about how to allocate funds for the project and other needs in a two and a half hour meeting on March 6. Read on for details.

University of California laboratory technicians, information technologists, museum and health care workers went on strike Wednesday to protest what they say are staffing shortages and other grievances.

Feather River College is still reeling from the 2021 Dixie Fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes in the surrounding community and warped the housing market. The college is one of many schools that have tried — and failed — to secure state grants to build more student housing.

California is giving students more time to apply for college aid due to a drop in completed applications.