Santa Cruz County Education Digest

California colleges doubt the U.S. Department of Education’s plans will do much to help campuses struggling with delays in awarding financial aid.

One year after California became the first state to require its public universities to provide the abortion pill to students, basic information on where or how students can obtain the medication is lacking.

San Diego State’s Dual Language & English Learner Education department requires students in the credential program to visit schools in Tijuana.

Learning loss during the pandemic hit California’s low-income students hardest. An agreement requires the state to focus spending there.

The financial aid expansion is aimed at making good on a pledge last fall when trustees approve a tuition hike.

About 20,000 student assistants at all 23 California State University campuses are coming together for a vote that would create the largest undergraduate student worker union in U.S. history.

Five former California superintendents shared potential solutions for reducing the increasing turnover rate in their profession.

California is removing degree requirements from jobs, but state leaders differ about the right approach.

Districts are trying to create or expand vocational training programs that “integrate” students with disabilities into careers and into society.

The proposal aims to help working artists become arts teachers in elementary schools.

After the historic Alba Schoolhouse in Ben Lomond burned down in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire, there was hope for rebuilding. But insurance payments complicated those plans.

Families have a lot of questions right now about how much help they’ll get paying for college—questions that financial aid offices can’t yet answer.

A Cal State systemwide strike secured what more than half a year of negotiations and partial strikes couldn’t: a deal.

Nearly 100 teams of young hackers gathered at UC Santa Cruz for the 10th annual "CruzHacks" hackathon event, with teams of coders, designers and entrepreneurial types come together for a weekend-long coding bender.

Last spring, a former professor at the University of Toronto filed a lawsuit over UCSC’s requirement for a DEI statement. The case was dismissed by a federal judge because the plaintiff never actually applied for a job.

After UC Irvine-affiliated groups on the platform Discord were targeted by trolls spreading gory images, students banded together to block the attack.

Community college students who have taken two years off can apply to have a limited number of units cleared from their GPA.

The Golden State earned a moderate rating from the National Council on Teacher Quality, showing strength in some areas and weakness in others. Only 12 states earned a strong rating.

We need to have a serious discussion about supporting our education investments with stable revenue.

UC Santa Cruz will provide a ”first of its kind” bachelor of arts in Creative Technologies beginning in fall 2024.

After months of negotiations, university officials offer a 5% pay raise. The union is seeking 12 percent and plans to strike at the end of January.

The 2024 California Children’s Report Card from an organization called Children Now noted that the state has failed to improve economic disparities for students. The report also dings the state for things like STEM offerings, early intervention and special education.

After a years-long, pandemic-related hiatus, the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair will return to the London Nelson Community Center next weekend.

San Diego Unified School District has received more than $700 million in federal and state relief funds since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with these funds ending, some schools could be facing serious deficits.

Two-thirds of community college students in California admit to struggling to meet basic needs. The California Community Colleges’ Student Ambassador Program has empowered more than 50 students to act as resource guides to help them.

“Progress remains slow,” according to a recent report on faculty diversity at California’s community colleges. For Nikia Chaney, the sole full-time Black faculty member at Cabrillo College, the experience is personal.

Emery Unified took a targeted approach, including paying teachers extra to stay after school and tutor students.

In a report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, researchers instead lay out a plan for what society might do to improve adolescents’ interactions with social media.

During the pandemic, Gary Butler and Denise Silva quietly opened a bookstore in Pleasure Point close to Capitola. Just two years later, Two Birds Books was named one of the country’s five best bookstores.

For more than 16 years, Watsonville’s Nature Center operated out of a small trailer at Ramsay Park—the only free, bilingual environmental conservation center in the Monterey Bay region.

The financial aid application for undocumented students is cumbersome and confusing, and many students aren’t completing the forms. A new law streamlines the process.

The California Faculty Association has announced it will strike in January at the state’s 23 CSU campuses. It’s part of an ongoing effort by the group to obtain a 12% raise for the 29,000 professors and lecturers it represents.