Santa Cruz County Education Digest

A budget deal between lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newson includes $227 million more for the state’s Middle Class Scholarship, part of a commitment to eventually remove any reason for public university students to go into debt. The revised program debuted last year, sending an average of nearly $2,000 to 300,000 students.

Breaking from over a decade of traditionally not raising tuition for its students, Cal State leaders on Thursday released a proposal that would start annual increases in fall 2024. They say it’s the only way to make up a shortfall between operating costs and revenues.

The Live Oak School District Board of Trustees granted a two-month eviction extension, meant to give time to finish negotiating a longer lease agreement that’s been in the works for months.

Advocates supporting a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to a high-quality education say they want to hold schools accountable. But critics fear its vague language could unleash a barrage of lawsuits.

After months of deliberations and planning, Cabrillo College leaders on Wednesday revealed the top five potential new names for the school at a community meeting in Aptos.

The arguments made by the Los Angeles Unified School District to fight a 2021 lawsuit attempting to reopen schools sparked a campaign to enshrine a constitutional right to a high-quality education. Let the politics begin.

The Cabrillo College Board Name Exploration Subcommittee will host three forums to reveal the top five potential new names and provide an opportunity for the community to discuss.

Last year, California created a $500 million program to help prepare students for careers. With the state facing a $31.5 billion budget deficit, lawmakers want to claw back $400 million of the program.

With a conservative Supreme Court expected to rule this summer in favor of ending or restricting affirmative action in college admissions, California’s private universities are worried about the potential impact on campus diversity. College administrators are revamping admissions and doing more high school outreach, while student activists are campaigning against a potential ban.

Workers who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and are enrolling in a college program have until June 15 to apply for a California relief grant to receive up to $2,500 as state lawmakers seek to cut programs to plug a budget hole.

Proposed cuts stemming from California’s budget deficit mean community colleges may be unable to improve AC and heating, make safety upgrades or follow through on major programs and infrastructure projects.

After a more than two-year vacancy, the UC Santa Cruz Police Department has a new top cop.

The UC Student Association is calling for California to spend millions more on disability services at the university, as disabled students report long wait times to access the academic accommodations they say they need to succeed.

Former assistant professor of psychology filed a lawsuit against the University of California president and UC Santa Cruz officials over the employment application requirement to include a DEI statement.

As the state moves to require dyslexia screening in public schools, experts say teachers need to embrace the “science of reading” approach that emphasizes phonics.

With Santa Cruz County’s K-12 schools seeing the largest annual decline in enrollment in almost 30 years, officials at the county and district levels are examining cost-saving strategies and ways to keep families in neighborhoods and to maximize resources.

Newsom is closing and downsizing prisons across the state, putting the future of over a thousand incarcerated students at risk. College administrators say they have few resources to help.

Seabright residents gathered en masse to check out the grand reopening of the Branciforte Branch Library, which had been closed for about three years. The library's childrens room in the new building was named in honor of Allison Endert, an active member of the Seabright community, who was struck by a car and killed in 2020.

The pilot project trained five teams of education professionals from school districts in Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Santa Clara and Sacramento that were tasked with developing customized and comprehensive three-year roadmaps for bolstering digital literary in their respective districts and schools.

With thousands of homeless and food-insecure students, state legislators funded new programs to offer support to community colleges. CalMatters explores how it’s going.

In February, Pajaro Valley Unified School District announced that it would be shuttering the kindergarten-through-sixth-grade portion of its Virtual Academy.

Amid soaring housing costs, Camper Park, a trailer park owned and operated by UC Santa Cruz, has become one of the most coveted housing options at the school, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A state bill could end suspensions for students who defy teachers’ orders, disrupt school activities, or engage in other types of “willful defiance”—requiring teachers to de-escalate such incidents instead of forcing a child from the classroom.

In “Making An Exoneree” class, students from UCSC and Georgetown bring investigation and storytelling together in the pursuit of justice.

More than a year of mudslinging between the higher education systems has led to delays and anger over the issue of awarding bachelor’s degrees at community colleges.

Remove by X, housed at the Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, is an exhibition of flyers, newsletters, brochures, and posters archived from UC Santa Cruz’s 1965 inception to 2000. This content chronicles important campus happenings, from anti-war protests to student-run art shows.

AFSCME 3299 is demanding a $25 minimum wage for UC employees, and for employees already making $25 or more an hour to have their current wage raised by 5%.

With about 400 suggested new names for Cabrillo College, community members will convene in April for the first of a series of meetings, aiming to whittle those suggestions to a shortlist of three to five.

Marion Joseph died last year, but her years-long battle to improve the reading skills of California youngsters through phonics instruction lives on.

After a unanimous selection by the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees during a meeting that lasted nearly four hours, Martha Victoria Vega was sworn to the Area 5 seat.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to delay state funds to student housing because of the state’s budget deficit. Lawmakers have different ideas on what kind of compromise might be reached.

County School Superintendent Faris Sabbah writes about a 12-year-old girl who overdosed on fentanyl in downtown Santa Cruz, a shocking reminder that the national opioid epidemic is in our backyard.