Our education coverage examines the inequities students face in Bay Area and California schools, and reports on what it will take to educate the next generation.
Lowell High School Group Sues SFUSD Over Newly Adopted Ethnic Studies Curriculum
California Reading Scores Are Up, Thanks to Literacy Investments. Can the State Do More?
How 2 Exiled Russian Journalists Took Refuge in the Bay Area
As Kids Grapple With a Mid-Summer Heat Wave, New State Laws Try to Help
Trump Administration Launches Crackdown on Teacher Sexual Misconduct Following KQED-ProPublica Investigation
Newsom’s Final Budget Sends More Than a Billion Dollars to University of California, Cal State
How a College of Marin Professor’s Influence Reshaped Students’ Academic Paths
These Advocates Say Black English Belongs in Preschool Classrooms
California Budget Expands Subsidized Childcare, Preschool for School Employees
Newsom’s Education Overhaul Strips Power From California’s Next Elected Schools Chief
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(Kevin Wolf/AP Photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One activity asked students to role-play as Israeli soldiers putting Palestinians into refugee camps, and another slide deck compared the civil rights movements to the Red Guards, an often-violent youth movement supporting Mao Zedong during China’s cultural revolution in the 1960s. Some ethnic studies teachers told KQED at the time they had never taught or seen the materials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In response, Superintendent Maria Su \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046580/sf-school-district-wont-cancel-ethnic-studies-but-pauses-its-homegrown-curriculum\">paused the curriculum\u003c/a> developed by district educators over the last decade, and launched a pilot of \u003cem>Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey\u003c/em>, published by the textbook and curriculum provider Gibbs Smith Education, last fall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In April, the school board approved a plan to purchase and implement \u003cem>Voices\u003c/em> permanently after a vetting process that district leaders said included parent, student and teacher surveys, interviews and focus groups and classroom observations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prior to the vote, the Friends of Lowell Foundation sent a demand letter to the district asking it to postpone the decision. The group said that the way SFUSD agendized the vote — folded into the same agenda item as other history and social science materials — violated the state’s Brown Act, which guarantees the public right to attend and participate in local legislative body meetings. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the petition, the public received no clear notice that the board would permanently adopt the curriculum, and the publicly posted agenda for the April 28 meeting does not explicitly mention that it would include approving the ethnic studies course.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This curriculum was rushed through without the transparency families deserve, and it was paid for with money San Francisco voters restricted for our children’s enrichment,” Friends of Lowell board member Sarah Stettler said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, under California state law, ethnic studies is considered a social science, and the new textbook was adopted alongside new social studies curricula for much of the district.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The petition also alleges that SFUSD refused to provide parents access to the curriculum prior to the vote, citing publisher copyright. Friends of Lowell said that California law requires that the district itself makes instructional materials available for review regardless of copyright restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Board Vice President Jaime Huling contested that claim during the meeting, saying that there was a physical copy of the textbook at SFUSD’s headquarters, and the materials were accessible to the general public through a two-week free trial. She said she’d also requested a full digital copy from the publisher prior to last year’s vote on the pilot, and was granted access.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Board member Supryia Ray, who cast the lone dissenting vote against adopting \u003cem>Voices\u003c/em>, said at the time that she was unable to access the full curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of Lowell have asked the court to set aside the April 28 vote, among other remedies. The group is being represented by the same firm that successfully litigated the Foundation’s challenge against eliminating merit-based admissions at Lowell.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Friends of Lowell Foundation, a nonprofit group formed by Lowell High School alumni to protect merit-based admissions at the magnet school, filed a petition for a court order challenging San Francisco Unified School District’s adoption of a permanent ethnic studies program for ninth graders — meant to replace its homegrown course, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046122/sfusd-was-a-pioneer-in-ethnic-studies-now-the-program-could-be-put-on-pause\">which came under fire\u003c/a> last year. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Everyone needs to scrutinize this curriculum, and that did not happen here,” Friends of Lowell Foundation secretary Frank Cheung said in a statement. “Rather than restoring public trust, the District again chose to circumvent the laws designed to ensure transparency and accountability.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The original course had been under scrutiny for years after parents and a national education group raised concerns about biased and “activist-driven” lesson plans and materials, some of which were exposed in media reports and by a national education group last spring. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Superintendent Maria Su was asked to answer questions about the course at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086884/sfusd-chief-maria-su-defends-trans-student-policies-ethnic-studies-at-heated-house-hearing\">a Congressional hearing about LGBTQ+ students\u003c/a> and diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools this spring.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In response, Superintendent Maria Su \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046580/sf-school-district-wont-cancel-ethnic-studies-but-pauses-its-homegrown-curriculum\">paused the curriculum\u003c/a> developed by district educators over the last decade, and launched a pilot of \u003cem>Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey\u003c/em>, published by the textbook and curriculum provider Gibbs Smith Education, last fall.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the petition, the public received no clear notice that the board would permanently adopt the curriculum, and the publicly posted agenda for the April 28 meeting does not explicitly mention that it would include approving the ethnic studies course.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Friends of Lowell have asked the court to set aside the April 28 vote, among other remedies. The group is being represented by the same firm that successfully litigated the Foundation’s challenge against eliminating merit-based admissions at Lowell.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The school district’s ethnic studies program, originally adopted in the 1990s, has been embroiled in controversy over its former homegrown curriculum in recent years.",
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"title": "Lowell High School Group Sues SFUSD Over Newly Adopted Ethnic Studies Curriculum | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A group of San Francisco parents sued the city’s school district this week over \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12081794/sfusd-new-ethnic-studies-curriculum-adopted-over-controversy-and-some-parents-complaints\">its controversial ethnic studies course\u003c/a>, alleging officials violated public meeting laws while approving a new permanent curriculum this spring. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Friends of Lowell Foundation, a nonprofit group formed by Lowell High School alumni to protect merit-based admissions at the magnet school, filed a petition for a court order challenging San Francisco Unified School District’s adoption of a permanent ethnic studies program for ninth graders — meant to replace its homegrown course, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046122/sfusd-was-a-pioneer-in-ethnic-studies-now-the-program-could-be-put-on-pause\">which came under fire\u003c/a> last year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Everyone needs to scrutinize this curriculum, and that did not happen here,” Friends of Lowell Foundation secretary Frank Cheung said in a statement. “Rather than restoring public trust, the District again chose to circumvent the laws designed to ensure transparency and accountability.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>SFUSD said it does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We remain focused on student outcomes and do not have additional information to share on this matter at this time,” a spokesperson said via email.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original course had been under scrutiny for years after parents and a national education group raised concerns about biased and “activist-driven” lesson plans and materials, some of which were exposed in media reports and by a national education group last spring. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Superintendent Maria Su was asked to answer questions about the course at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086884/sfusd-chief-maria-su-defends-trans-student-policies-ethnic-studies-at-heated-house-hearing\">a Congressional hearing about LGBTQ+ students\u003c/a> and diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools this spring.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MariaSuAP2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12086920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MariaSuAP2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MariaSuAP2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/MariaSuAP2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Maria Su testifies during a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on parental rights and school content policies, on June 10, 2026, in Washington. (Kevin Wolf/AP Photo)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One activity asked students to role-play as Israeli soldiers putting Palestinians into refugee camps, and another slide deck compared the civil rights movements to the Red Guards, an often-violent youth movement supporting Mao Zedong during China’s cultural revolution in the 1960s. Some ethnic studies teachers told KQED at the time they had never taught or seen the materials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In response, Superintendent Maria Su \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046580/sf-school-district-wont-cancel-ethnic-studies-but-pauses-its-homegrown-curriculum\">paused the curriculum\u003c/a> developed by district educators over the last decade, and launched a pilot of \u003cem>Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey\u003c/em>, published by the textbook and curriculum provider Gibbs Smith Education, last fall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In April, the school board approved a plan to purchase and implement \u003cem>Voices\u003c/em> permanently after a vetting process that district leaders said included parent, student and teacher surveys, interviews and focus groups and classroom observations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Prior to the vote, the Friends of Lowell Foundation sent a demand letter to the district asking it to postpone the decision. The group said that the way SFUSD agendized the vote — folded into the same agenda item as other history and social science materials — violated the state’s Brown Act, which guarantees the public right to attend and participate in local legislative body meetings. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the petition, the public received no clear notice that the board would permanently adopt the curriculum, and the publicly posted agenda for the April 28 meeting does not explicitly mention that it would include approving the ethnic studies course.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This curriculum was rushed through without the transparency families deserve, and it was paid for with money San Francisco voters restricted for our children’s enrichment,” Friends of Lowell board member Sarah Stettler said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>However, under California state law, ethnic studies is considered a social science, and the new textbook was adopted alongside new social studies curricula for much of the district.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The petition also alleges that SFUSD refused to provide parents access to the curriculum prior to the vote, citing publisher copyright. Friends of Lowell said that California law requires that the district itself makes instructional materials available for review regardless of copyright restrictions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Board Vice President Jaime Huling contested that claim during the meeting, saying that there was a physical copy of the textbook at SFUSD’s headquarters, and the materials were accessible to the general public through a two-week free trial. She said she’d also requested a full digital copy from the publisher prior to last year’s vote on the pilot, and was granted access.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Board member Supryia Ray, who cast the lone dissenting vote against adopting \u003cem>Voices\u003c/em>, said at the time that she was unable to access the full curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of Lowell have asked the court to set aside the April 28 vote, among other remedies. The group is being represented by the same firm that successfully litigated the Foundation’s challenge against eliminating merit-based admissions at Lowell.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Reading Scores Are Up, Thanks to Literacy Investments. Can the State Do More?",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not quite the “Mississippi Miracle,” but California’s reading scores have been inching upwards since the state poured billions into changing the way students learn to read. A shortage of literacy coaches, however, may be preventing students from improving even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, before California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/The-Golden-State-Literacy-Plan.pdf\">overhauled its literacy program\u003c/a> in K-12 schools, the state ranked \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2013/pdf/2014464CA4.pdf\">47th nationally\u003c/a> for fourth grade reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. Only 27% of students scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the reading test, given every two years to students across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following year California released a new English language arts framework that encourages schools to focus on phonics, vocabulary and other nuts-and-bolts methods when teaching children to read. Phonics-based instruction won’t \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/10/phonics-california/\">become mandatory\u003c/a> until next year, but most schools have been gradually adopting the method.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Next came new curriculum materials, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/04/reading-california-phonics/\">a dyslexia screener\u003c/a> and updates to teacher credential programs. The state also expanded \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/08/california-tk/\">transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> and implemented new guidelines for English learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But perhaps the biggest literacy investment came in 2023 with $500 million in grants set aside for schools to hire literacy coaches and take other steps to boost reading skills. The coaches – typically, former classroom teachers with extra training in reading – work directly with teachers to help them effectively teach children to read. Last year the state added $215 million, and the most recent budget includes an \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2026-27/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/TK-12Education.pdf\">additional $350 million\u003c/a> for literacy coaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mississippi, whose reading scores went from 49th in the country in 2013 to 9th in 2024, partially credits the turnaround to literacy coaches and other teacher training tactics. Mississippi’s reading framework is similar to California’s, but Mississippi invested heavily in training teachers to implement it, while California rolled out its training program over several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Reading scores inch up\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s reading scores have improved gradually – but significantly – since 2013. Last year, California ranked \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/states/achievement/?grade=4\">around the middle of the pack\u003c/a> nationwide, with 13 states scoring higher and the rest scoring the same or lower. This happened at the same time that national scores began falling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On statewide tests, the number of fourth graders reading at grade level jumped from \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2015&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=4&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">40%\u003c/a> in 2014 to \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=4&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">46%\u003c/a> last year. Before the pandemic, the percentage was close to 50%, dropped a few points when schools switched to remote learning, but has been inching back up since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089327\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089327\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1374\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty-1536x1055.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom walks with students from Clinton Elementary School to announce support for literacy with The Golden State Literacy Plan at Clinton Elementary School in Compton on June 5, 2025. \u003ccite>(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fourth grade is a key benchmark for literacy because by fifth grade, students need reading skills sufficient to understand other subjects such as history and science. Students who aren’t proficient readers by fourth grade are more likely to lag academically in other subjects. \u003ca href=\"https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/child-illiteracy\">Studies\u003c/a> have found that adults with low literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed, incarcerated or face other challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Novicoff, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/policy-brief-lessons-from-californias-early-literacy-policies/\">conducted a study\u003c/a> that found that California’s literacy investments have paid off – with a caveat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve absolutely had a positive impact,” Novicoff said. “But we have an opportunity to do an even better job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Novicoff found that nearly 60% of school districts used their grant money to hire literacy coaches to work with teachers, reading specialists to work directly with students, or otherwise arranged for teacher training related to literacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School districts that made those investments saw significant improvements in reading scores, including among English learners, she found. Results varied by district, but in general students scored 6 points higher on state tests within two years of the investments, she found. She expects the scores to rise further over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Some districts struggle to hire literacy coaches\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But plenty of school districts hired no literacy coaches. Not because they didn’t want to, but because there were none to hire. In fact, 42% of districts said they had trouble hiring coaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d love to hire a literacy coach,” said Patricia Gunderson, superintendent of the Lassen County Office of Education. “It’s great the state is offering the money, but we just can’t do it. We don’t have the capacity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In remote and rural parts of the state, finding literacy coaches has proved to be nearly impossible – and has hindered improvement, Novicoff found. For example, Lassen County, along the northern Nevada border, can barely find enough credentialed teachers, let alone education professionals with advanced specialty degrees. And even if schools could hire literacy coaches, they couldn’t find enough substitutes to fill in for teachers undergoing training.[aside postID=news_12089920 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RUSSIANJOURNALISTSEXILE-05-BL-KQED.jpg']But Lassen has been creative in finding ways to boost literacy. In 2023, for example, it held a weeklong summer training course for teachers, where teachers were paid to learn the new curriculum and the course didn’t interrupt the school year. Gunderson said it was a big success; state reading test scores jumped more than 7 percentage points, although still lag behind the state average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Siskiyou County, along the Oregon border, county superintendent Allan Carver said he welcomes the state’s investment in literacy coaches, but it’s created another problem: Teachers are opting to become literacy coaches, possibly because it’s less stressful or pays a bit more, leaving vacancies in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We work to solve one issue and further exacerbate the teacher shortage,” Carver said. “We have to develop the literacy coach pipeline before we simply allocate funds and expectations for training.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Baldwin Park, in the San Gabriel Valley, principal Laura Rodriguez said literacy coaches have been instrumental in turning around her school’s reading scores. Using state grant money, Tracy Elementary has added a literacy coach who works closely with the school’s teachers, aides and reading specialist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The literacy coach, Claudia Barba, holds workshops for teachers and parents, trains the aides, assesses the students, analyzes data, and gives feedback to teachers. She’s also devised a literacy plan that looks closely at the causes for the low scores and specifically addresses the reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086386\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086386\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rocio Guzman, a two-way immersion teacher, works with students during a reading session at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“She is amazing,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve seen such a difference since we started this. It has changed our campus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracy Elementary, a Spanish-English dual immersion school, is mostly low-income. More than 30% of students are English learners. The literacy plan teaches children to read in Spanish first, then English, by focusing on vocabulary and phonics in both languages. By third grade, when the state first tests students’ reading skills, students are fairly fluent readers in both languages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just two years, after hiring the literacy coach, Tracy’s reading scores jumped more than 10 percentage points. Even English learners saw their scores significantly increase. Other metrics also improved: Chronic absenteeism dropped from 44% just after the pandemic to 11% last year. Math scores are increasing, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Literacy is the key to everything. If a child can read, they can access knowledge. They start to enjoy school,” Rodriguez said. “They can get a better education.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2026/07/literacy-california/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not quite the “Mississippi Miracle,” but California’s reading scores have been inching upwards since the state poured billions into changing the way students learn to read. A shortage of literacy coaches, however, may be preventing students from improving even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2013, before California \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/The-Golden-State-Literacy-Plan.pdf\">overhauled its literacy program\u003c/a> in K-12 schools, the state ranked \u003ca href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2013/pdf/2014464CA4.pdf\">47th nationally\u003c/a> for fourth grade reading skills on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. Only 27% of students scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the reading test, given every two years to students across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The following year California released a new English language arts framework that encourages schools to focus on phonics, vocabulary and other nuts-and-bolts methods when teaching children to read. Phonics-based instruction won’t \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/10/phonics-california/\">become mandatory\u003c/a> until next year, but most schools have been gradually adopting the method.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"mceTemp\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Next came new curriculum materials, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/04/reading-california-phonics/\">a dyslexia screener\u003c/a> and updates to teacher credential programs. The state also expanded \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/08/california-tk/\">transitional kindergarten\u003c/a> and implemented new guidelines for English learners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But perhaps the biggest literacy investment came in 2023 with $500 million in grants set aside for schools to hire literacy coaches and take other steps to boost reading skills. The coaches – typically, former classroom teachers with extra training in reading – work directly with teachers to help them effectively teach children to read. Last year the state added $215 million, and the most recent budget includes an \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2026-27/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/TK-12Education.pdf\">additional $350 million\u003c/a> for literacy coaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mississippi, whose reading scores went from 49th in the country in 2013 to 9th in 2024, partially credits the turnaround to literacy coaches and other teacher training tactics. Mississippi’s reading framework is similar to California’s, but Mississippi invested heavily in training teachers to implement it, while California rolled out its training program over several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Reading scores inch up\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s reading scores have improved gradually – but significantly – since 2013. Last year, California ranked \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/states/achievement/?grade=4\">around the middle of the pack\u003c/a> nationwide, with 13 states scoring higher and the rest scoring the same or lower. This happened at the same time that national scores began falling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On statewide tests, the number of fourth graders reading at grade level jumped from \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2015&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=4&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">40%\u003c/a> in 2014 to \u003ca href=\"https://caaspp-elpac.ets.org/caaspp/DashViewReportSB?ps=true&lstTestYear=2025&lstTestType=B&lstGroup=1&lstSubGroup=1&lstGrade=4&lstSchoolType=A&lstCounty=00&lstDistrict=00000&lstSchool=0000000&lstFocus=a\">46%\u003c/a> last year. Before the pandemic, the percentage was close to 50%, dropped a few points when schools switched to remote learning, but has been inching back up since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089327\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089327\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1374\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GavinNewsomEducationGetty-1536x1055.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom walks with students from Clinton Elementary School to announce support for literacy with The Golden State Literacy Plan at Clinton Elementary School in Compton on June 5, 2025. \u003ccite>(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fourth grade is a key benchmark for literacy because by fifth grade, students need reading skills sufficient to understand other subjects such as history and science. Students who aren’t proficient readers by fourth grade are more likely to lag academically in other subjects. \u003ca href=\"https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/child-illiteracy\">Studies\u003c/a> have found that adults with low literacy skills are more likely to be unemployed, incarcerated or face other challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarah Novicoff, a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/policy-brief-lessons-from-californias-early-literacy-policies/\">conducted a study\u003c/a> that found that California’s literacy investments have paid off – with a caveat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve absolutely had a positive impact,” Novicoff said. “But we have an opportunity to do an even better job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Novicoff found that nearly 60% of school districts used their grant money to hire literacy coaches to work with teachers, reading specialists to work directly with students, or otherwise arranged for teacher training related to literacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School districts that made those investments saw significant improvements in reading scores, including among English learners, she found. Results varied by district, but in general students scored 6 points higher on state tests within two years of the investments, she found. She expects the scores to rise further over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Some districts struggle to hire literacy coaches\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But plenty of school districts hired no literacy coaches. Not because they didn’t want to, but because there were none to hire. In fact, 42% of districts said they had trouble hiring coaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d love to hire a literacy coach,” said Patricia Gunderson, superintendent of the Lassen County Office of Education. “It’s great the state is offering the money, but we just can’t do it. We don’t have the capacity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In remote and rural parts of the state, finding literacy coaches has proved to be nearly impossible – and has hindered improvement, Novicoff found. For example, Lassen County, along the northern Nevada border, can barely find enough credentialed teachers, let alone education professionals with advanced specialty degrees. And even if schools could hire literacy coaches, they couldn’t find enough substitutes to fill in for teachers undergoing training.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Lassen has been creative in finding ways to boost literacy. In 2023, for example, it held a weeklong summer training course for teachers, where teachers were paid to learn the new curriculum and the course didn’t interrupt the school year. Gunderson said it was a big success; state reading test scores jumped more than 7 percentage points, although still lag behind the state average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Siskiyou County, along the Oregon border, county superintendent Allan Carver said he welcomes the state’s investment in literacy coaches, but it’s created another problem: Teachers are opting to become literacy coaches, possibly because it’s less stressful or pays a bit more, leaving vacancies in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We work to solve one issue and further exacerbate the teacher shortage,” Carver said. “We have to develop the literacy coach pipeline before we simply allocate funds and expectations for training.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Baldwin Park, in the San Gabriel Valley, principal Laura Rodriguez said literacy coaches have been instrumental in turning around her school’s reading scores. Using state grant money, Tracy Elementary has added a literacy coach who works closely with the school’s teachers, aides and reading specialist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The literacy coach, Claudia Barba, holds workshops for teachers and parents, trains the aides, assesses the students, analyzes data, and gives feedback to teachers. She’s also devised a literacy plan that looks closely at the causes for the low scores and specifically addresses the reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086386\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086386\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-12-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rocio Guzman, a two-way immersion teacher, works with students during a reading session at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“She is amazing,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve seen such a difference since we started this. It has changed our campus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracy Elementary, a Spanish-English dual immersion school, is mostly low-income. More than 30% of students are English learners. The literacy plan teaches children to read in Spanish first, then English, by focusing on vocabulary and phonics in both languages. By third grade, when the state first tests students’ reading skills, students are fairly fluent readers in both languages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In just two years, after hiring the literacy coach, Tracy’s reading scores jumped more than 10 percentage points. Even English learners saw their scores significantly increase. Other metrics also improved: Chronic absenteeism dropped from 44% just after the pandemic to 11% last year. Math scores are increasing, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Literacy is the key to everything. If a child can read, they can access knowledge. They start to enjoy school,” Rodriguez said. “They can get a better education.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2026/07/literacy-california/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "how-two-exiled-russian-journalists-took-refuge-in-the-bay-area",
"title": "How 2 Exiled Russian Journalists Took Refuge in the Bay Area",
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"content": "\u003cp>Roman Badanin was at home in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> seven months ago when he heard a knock on his door. To the independent Russian journalist’s surprise, two FBI agents had come to see him in the middle of the day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He was not in any trouble locally, the agents said. They had come to inform him that he was likely a person of interest for a foreign intelligence service.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin could imagine what country they were talking about, the agents said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although an FBI visit was a “new experience” for Badanin, the Russian state’s intrusion into his life was not.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since 2018, he has served as editor-in-chief and founder of Proekt, an independent media outlet known for publishing bold investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian state. Those stories, he said, have often led the Kremlin and powerful elites to intimidate and weaponize the law against staff members.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia. (Courtesy of George Porteous)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2021, Russian authorities raided Badanin and his colleagues’ apartments in Moscow. Only a few weeks later, the state designated Proekt’s journalists “foreign agents” under a law that Putin has used to punish dissent. To save themselves from imprisonment or worse, many made the difficult decision to leave their country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the FBI visit came as a reminder of the Russian state’s watchful eye — even on the other side of the world — and the dangers of returning home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, Proekt’s full-time staff of 17 people is scattered across the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, 49, and Rubin, 38, described their predicament with a mix of humor and malaise, acknowledging the high price they’ve paid for their work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Whatever work used to take us one week, now takes a month,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yet producing independent journalism for Russian audiences still motivates Badanin and Rubin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I still love this job,” Badanin said. “If I can enter Russia safely and not be arrested, I would do a lot of good things as a journalist being inside.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A winding path to journalism\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But when he entered Russia’s turbulent economy during the 1990s, his only way of making a living was working at the news website Gazeta.ru.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I realized I [could] talk to real people about their real problems in real time,” he said. “I fell in love with journalism.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For his part, Rubin took an early interest in politics, despite his father’s wishes for him to become a scientist. When his father brought up physics on long walks together, Rubin remembers feeling “terribly bored.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a shift from the relative openness that followed the Soviet collapse, the early 2000s brought signs of weakening press freedom in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin lost his job at Gazeta.ru in 2011 when the Kremlin expressed disappointment in the outlet’s coverage of parliamentary elections. Putin returned to the presidency the following year, intensifying Russia’s authoritarian turn.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As domestic political freedoms steadily vanished and Russia’s foreign policy became increasingly aggressive, Badanin moved from outlet to outlet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As editor-in-chief of RBC, Russia’s largest media holding, Badanin faced the Kremlin’s wrath for covering the annexation of Crimea. He and his colleagues were fired after publishing an investigation into the massive wealth of Putin’s daughter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin’s final role before he first came to Stanford was as editor-in-chief of TV Rain, a young, independent television channel. But he sensed the outlet would soon be punished, shuttered or bought out by the Kremlin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I perfectly understood that my time in Russia, basically, is limited,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fellowship permitted Badanin to extend his stay at Stanford, given the risks he faced at home. He spent that time working remotely with colleagues in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 drew near, Russia’s crackdown on journalists and internet freedom escalated.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The decision to flee \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was shocked and furious. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then came a lucky offer: JSK invited Badanin to return to Stanford as a senior fellow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin’s path to the Bay Area was less direct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He lived with a friend in Los Angeles before moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a year, where Rubin met his wife, who was on vacation from Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Adjusting to life in the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Bay Area brought a different pace of life for Badanin and Rubin. Although raising children and the complexity of their work left little free time, both men came to enjoy California’s natural beauty and national parks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m in love with sequoias and redwoods,” Rubin said. “I love when things are big.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other emigrants were drawn by academic opportunities at Stanford and the University of California, including Kamalov himself. “That’s a brain drain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Russian-speaking community is composed of “amazing people,” Rubin said. “Language does matter.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George Porteous is editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Roman Badanin was at home in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> seven months ago when he heard a knock on his door. To the independent Russian journalist’s surprise, two FBI agents had come to see him in the middle of the day.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He was not in any trouble locally, the agents said. They had come to inform him that he was likely a person of interest for a foreign intelligence service.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin could imagine what country they were talking about, the agents said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Although an FBI visit was a “new experience” for Badanin, the Russian state’s intrusion into his life was not.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Since 2018, he has served as editor-in-chief and founder of Proekt, an independent media outlet known for publishing bold investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian state. Those stories, he said, have often led the Kremlin and powerful elites to intimidate and weaponize the law against staff members.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2021, Russian authorities raided Badanin and his colleagues’ apartments in Moscow. Only a few weeks later, the state designated Proekt’s journalists “foreign agents” under a law that Putin has used to punish dissent. To save themselves from imprisonment or worse, many made the difficult decision to leave their country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the FBI visit came as a reminder of the Russian state’s watchful eye — even on the other side of the world — and the dangers of returning home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, Proekt’s full-time staff of 17 people is scattered across the world.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin, 49, and Rubin, 38, described their predicament with a mix of humor and malaise, acknowledging the high price they’ve paid for their work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Whatever work used to take us one week, now takes a month,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yet producing independent journalism for Russian audiences still motivates Badanin and Rubin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I still love this job,” Badanin said. “If I can enter Russia safely and not be arrested, I would do a lot of good things as a journalist being inside.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"text": "A winding path to journalism",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But when he entered Russia’s turbulent economy during the 1990s, his only way of making a living was working at the news website Gazeta.ru.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I realized I [could] talk to real people about their real problems in real time,” he said. “I fell in love with journalism.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For his part, Rubin took an early interest in politics, despite his father’s wishes for him to become a scientist. When his father brought up physics on long walks together, Rubin remembers feeling “terribly bored.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a shift from the relative openness that followed the Soviet collapse, the early 2000s brought signs of weakening press freedom in Russia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin lost his job at Gazeta.ru in 2011 when the Kremlin expressed disappointment in the outlet’s coverage of parliamentary elections. Putin returned to the presidency the following year, intensifying Russia’s authoritarian turn.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As domestic political freedoms steadily vanished and Russia’s foreign policy became increasingly aggressive, Badanin moved from outlet to outlet.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As editor-in-chief of RBC, Russia’s largest media holding, Badanin faced the Kremlin’s wrath for covering the annexation of Crimea. He and his colleagues were fired after publishing an investigation into the massive wealth of Putin’s daughter.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin’s final role before he first came to Stanford was as editor-in-chief of TV Rain, a young, independent television channel. But he sensed the outlet would soon be punished, shuttered or bought out by the Kremlin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I perfectly understood that my time in Russia, basically, is limited,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The fellowship permitted Badanin to extend his stay at Stanford, given the risks he faced at home. He spent that time working remotely with colleagues in Russia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 drew near, Russia’s crackdown on journalists and internet freedom escalated.\u003c/p>\n",
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"text": "The decision to flee ",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin was shocked and furious. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Then came a lucky offer: JSK invited Badanin to return to Stanford as a senior fellow.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rubin’s path to the Bay Area was less direct.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He lived with a friend in Los Angeles before moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a year, where Rubin met his wife, who was on vacation from Russia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Bay Area brought a different pace of life for Badanin and Rubin. Although raising children and the complexity of their work left little free time, both men came to enjoy California’s natural beauty and national parks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m in love with sequoias and redwoods,” Rubin said. “I love when things are big.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other emigrants were drawn by academic opportunities at Stanford and the University of California, including Kamalov himself. “That’s a brain drain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Russian-speaking community is composed of “amazing people,” Rubin said. “Language does matter.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>George Porteous is editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A fellowship at Stanford University allowed them to continue their investigative reporting.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Roman Badanin was at home in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> seven months ago when he heard a knock on his door. To the independent Russian journalist’s surprise, two FBI agents had come to see him in the middle of the day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He was not in any trouble locally, the agents said. They had come to inform him that he was likely a person of interest for a foreign intelligence service.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin could imagine what country they were talking about, the agents said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Although an FBI visit was a “new experience” for Badanin, the Russian state’s intrusion into his life was not.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since 2018, he has served as editor-in-chief and founder of Proekt, an independent media outlet known for publishing bold investigations into Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian state. Those stories, he said, have often led the Kremlin and powerful elites to intimidate and weaponize the law against staff members.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-Russian-journalists-STANFORD-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Journalist Mikhail Rubin completed a fellowship at Stanford University after fleeing Russia. (Courtesy of George Porteous)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2021, Russian authorities raided Badanin and his colleagues’ apartments in Moscow. Only a few weeks later, the state designated Proekt’s journalists “foreign agents” under a law that Putin has used to punish dissent. To save themselves from imprisonment or worse, many made the difficult decision to leave their country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost five years later, Badanin and his deputy editor, Mikhail Rubin, were able to recount the raids from the relative safety of Northern California. The John S. Knight (JSK) journalism fellowship at Stanford University created an opportunity for them to move here with their young families and continue investigative reporting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the FBI visit came as a reminder of the Russian state’s watchful eye — even on the other side of the world — and the dangers of returning home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, Proekt’s full-time staff of 17 people is scattered across the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their situation is typical for independent journalists from Russia, which consistently \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/2026-rsf-index-press-freedom-25-year-low\">ranks\u003c/a> near the bottom of global press freedom rankings. According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 50 journalists are currently jailed inside the country, while almost 70 exiles have been \u003ca href=\"https://rsf.org/en/exiled-convicted-surveilled-how-russia-has-prosecuted-nearly-70-journalists-beyond-its-borders\">prosecuted\u003c/a> in absentia. Dozens of reporters have been \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/reports/2006/11/russia-murders/\">murdered\u003c/a> or killed in suspicious \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/04/21/604497554/why-do-russian-journalists-keep-falling\">falls\u003c/a> from windows or balconies over the past few decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, 49, and Rubin, 38, described their predicament with a mix of humor and malaise, acknowledging the high price they’ve paid for their work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Most [exiled journalists] are depressed, totally unhappy,” Rubin said. “It’s stupid to be covering your country from Europe, from the States, from wherever. It’s definitely way better than being in prison, but this is it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Kremlin blocks their website inside Russia, as well as internet platforms such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube, which Proekt has relied on to engage audiences. With little access to on-the-ground reporting, gathering information about Russia has never been more difficult.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Whatever work used to take us one week, now takes a month,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yet producing independent journalism for Russian audiences still motivates Badanin and Rubin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Alongside a daily news sub-outlet named Agentstvo or “Agency” — a play on the “foreign agent” designation — Proekt’s investigative work has continued. The team increasingly relies on leaks and data while taking precautions to protect sources.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In November 2025, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.proekt.media/guide/otsy-i-dedy/\">published\u003c/a> a sweeping investigation of nepotism and extreme wealth among Russia’s elite, tracking over 1,000 government officials.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I still love this job,” Badanin said. “If I can enter Russia safely and not be arrested, I would do a lot of good things as a journalist being inside.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But trying to raise his children there is another story. “I’m not ready to bet all I have on this trip,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A winding path to journalism\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin never expected to become a journalist as a young man. He saw it as an unserious path compared to the rigor of history, his chosen field at Moscow State University, where he studied medieval Spain.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But when he entered Russia’s turbulent economy during the 1990s, his only way of making a living was working at the news website Gazeta.ru.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I realized I [could] talk to real people about their real problems in real time,” he said. “I fell in love with journalism.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For his part, Rubin took an early interest in politics, despite his father’s wishes for him to become a scientist. When his father brought up physics on long walks together, Rubin remembers feeling “terribly bored.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m stupid in these things,” he said. “Understood nothing. But the moment he started talking to me about politics, about history — I think I was 7 or 8 — I was so interested in what he was telling me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Later, as an undergraduate at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Rubin chose to study journalism, which he jokingly calls “the worst decision in my life.” Beginning in the aughts, he reported extensively on the Kremlin for Russian outlets like Izvestia and RBC.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a shift from the relative openness that followed the Soviet collapse, the early 2000s brought signs of weakening press freedom in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin lost his job at Gazeta.ru in 2011 when the Kremlin expressed disappointment in the outlet’s coverage of parliamentary elections. Putin returned to the presidency the following year, intensifying Russia’s authoritarian turn.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As domestic political freedoms steadily vanished and Russia’s foreign policy became increasingly aggressive, Badanin moved from outlet to outlet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As editor-in-chief of RBC, Russia’s largest media holding, Badanin faced the Kremlin’s wrath for covering the annexation of Crimea. He and his colleagues were fired after publishing an investigation into the massive wealth of Putin’s daughter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin’s final role before he first came to Stanford was as editor-in-chief of TV Rain, a young, independent television channel. But he sensed the outlet would soon be punished, shuttered or bought out by the Kremlin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I perfectly understood that my time in Russia, basically, is limited,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He knew his RBC colleague Elizaveta Osetinskaya had once been a JSK Fellow at Stanford. The program seemed like an ideal opportunity to learn about tech and media, while finding a new path if his worst fears were realized.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When he arrived on campus in 2017, he remembers being struck by Silicon Valley’s diversity and dynamism. At the same time, he began to recognize the struggle for press freedom as a global one, including the decline of local journalism in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have a saying in Russian, ‘to wear pink sunglasses,’ which means to see everything better than it is,” he said. “That was my feeling when I came to the U.S. … One day, I realized that not everything is as cool as I imagined it before.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the yearlong fellowship came to an end, he learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation in Russia over alleged defamation, which carries a punishment of prison time. A man close to Putin had filed the charges in what Badanin believed was retaliation for an investigation he published.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12067139\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00183_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Memorial Court through arches at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fellowship permitted Badanin to extend his stay at Stanford, given the risks he faced at home. He spent that time working remotely with colleagues in Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, he was eager to return to Moscow. When the defamation charges expired, he did just that, founding Proekt in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The next few years were some of the most productive for Badanin and Rubin, who first met while both worked at Gazeta.ru in the early 2010s. They dedicated themselves to writing taboo stories that few other outlets would touch, covering corruption, killings and crimes by state-related actors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 drew near, Russia’s crackdown on journalists and internet freedom escalated.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The decision to flee \u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The summer of 2021 brought an end to Proekt’s work inside the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was asleep when the raid on his Moscow apartment began at 6 a.m. on June 29. About 10 men — Russian law enforcement and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents — arrived with orders.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was clear that they wanted to intimidate us, to threaten us, to give us a feeling that we need to, at best, flee Russia, or to stop doing what we were doing,” Badanin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091714\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260717-RussianJournalistsExile-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Roman Badanin at Stanford University in Stanford on July 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the men burst into the home Badanin shared with his wife, their 5-month-old daughter began to cry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not uncommon for Russian security services to conduct these kinds of searches in the early morning — the tradition had been inherited from Stalinism. Showing up early ensured that agents would find their targets asleep and likely disorient them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin was shocked and furious. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What are you doing in my house at this early time?” he said, confronting the men. Only later did he realize his luck not to be killed, poisoned or imprisoned for life. “At that exact moment, my fate was decided,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The men began to confiscate electronics and CDs from the apartment. One agent, speaking to his superior over the phone, received approval to seize an expired Bank of America credit card.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They went on to interrogate Badanin, focusing in part on his ties to the United States.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That same morning, in another part of Moscow, Rubin received a text from Maria Zholobova, another member of Proekt. Police were pounding on her door, she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He hurried in a taxi to Zholobova’s home. From messages with a lawyer and his colleagues, the orchestrated nature of the raids was becoming clear. Badanin was not responding. “I should have understood that I would be next,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A car filled with police was waiting for Rubin when he arrived at Zholobova’s building. Several burst out of the vehicle, shouting, “Stop, buster, don’t move.” None wore uniforms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They looked like criminals,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the rest of the day, Rubin \u003ca href=\"https://cpj.org/2021/06/russian-police-interrogate-3-journalists-with-investigative-outlet-proekt-raid-apartments/\">endured\u003c/a> mind-numbing interrogations, searches and bureaucratic absurdities, going hours without hearing a concrete charge against him. Authorities took his laptop.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their final move before leaving was to place Rubin’s passport down on the table in front of him. “It was a very clear signal,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ten days after the interrogations, Badanin flew with his family to Morocco for a pre-planned vacation. Rubin took charge of Proekt’s staff in Moscow. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12091716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/RussiaGetty-1536x1007.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People walk along the Floating Bridge over the Moskva River against the backdrop of the Moscow Kremlin tower and St. Basil’s Cathedral on June 29, 2026, in Moscow, Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One evening, news broke that the Russian Federation had classified Proekt as an “undesirable organization” and Badanin and Rubin as “foreign agents.” Rubin’s colleagues urged him to leave the country. One journalist associated with the Kremlin who Rubin knew personally warned him he could be arrested. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think that was a provocation, but who knows,” Rubin said. The next morning, he boarded a flight to the United States with a small bag and a ticket purchased by his brother, who lived in America.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin did not learn of the designations until he reached a small village in the Saharan desert and regained WiFi access. Returning to Russia now posed the immediate risk of imprisonment. While his wife and sons returned to Moscow to pick up his baby daughter, he flew to New York City using an American visa, bringing only a backpack. He and Rubin reunited there, making plans to continue Proekt’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then came a lucky offer: JSK invited Badanin to return to Stanford as a senior fellow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was not a difficult offer to accept. “I needed a place just to settle,” he said. Five years later, he has held several roles at Stanford and remains in Northern California with his family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin’s path to the Bay Area was less direct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He lived with a friend in Los Angeles before moving to Tbilisi, Georgia, for a year, where Rubin met his wife, who was on vacation from Russia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Rubin returned to the U.S. with her by his side, beginning a fellowship in Washington, D.C. After Rubin applied for and won the JSK fellowship in 2024, the couple made a cross-country road trip. Nine months later, their son was born at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Adjusting to life in the Bay Area\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Bay Area brought a different pace of life for Badanin and Rubin. Although raising children and the complexity of their work left little free time, both men came to enjoy California’s natural beauty and national parks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m in love with sequoias and redwoods,” Rubin said. “I love when things are big.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The state’s forgiving climate is another perk compared with frigid Moscow. “I always hated running before I came here, but with this climate, you don’t have an excuse,” Rubin said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just as Badanin discovered in 2017, a two-year JSK fellowship gave Rubin time to improve his education, a lifelong goal. His classes ranged from history to politics, theatrical improv and public speaking at the business school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Badanin and Rubin came to the Bay Area, they joined a wider community of politically like-minded Russian emigrants who have settled here in recent years. Many connect over Telegram channels to share immigration advice and organize social events.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The Bay Area is not the first destination, because it’s quite far and not easy to get access to the U.S.A.,” said Emil Kamalov, a postdoctoral fellow and political scientist at Stanford \u003ca href=\"https://outrush.io/eng\">researching\u003c/a> political emigration out of Russia. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Based on his survey data, however, around 40% of those who have left Russia since 2022 are connected to the IT sector, with the Bay Area as a “very obvious destination for this.” Tighter internet restrictions and Western sanctions following the full-scale invasion have \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/technology/russia-tech-workers.html\">driven\u003c/a> a “brain drain” of Russian tech companies and workers out of the country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other emigrants were drawn by academic opportunities at Stanford and the University of California, including Kamalov himself. “That’s a brain drain,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stanford’s Russian-speaking community is composed of “amazing people,” Rubin said. “Language does matter.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Badanin, however, draws a distinction between himself and Russians who moved to the Bay Area for high-paying jobs in tech. “It’s very difficult to find a common ground with many of them, because the vast majority of them came here voluntarily,” he said. “I came here involuntarily…I had to do that. I’m not a software engineer.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Proekt’s work to engage ordinary Russians remains their focus, despite an uncertain future. While Badanin now holds a green card, Rubin’s fellowship with JSK ended this summer. For now, he and his wife have embarked on a move to the East Coast.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In April, Russia \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2026/04/15/russia-undesirable-label/\">labeled\u003c/a> Stanford University with the same “undesirable” designation as Proekt. Perhaps Badanin and Rubin really had found a new home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "as-kids-grapple-with-a-mid-summer-heat-wave-new-state-laws-try-to-help",
"title": "As Kids Grapple With a Mid-Summer Heat Wave, New State Laws Try to Help",
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"headTitle": "As Kids Grapple With a Mid-Summer Heat Wave, New State Laws Try to Help | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As triple-digit temperatures bake some parts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>, two new laws aim to help educate students about heat illness and protect them from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that will require the state Board of Education to consider teaching students about the symptoms of heat illness in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another law, which the governor signed in 2024 with a key deadline this month, requires schools to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/extremeweather.asp\">come up with rules\u003c/a> for outdoor activities when there are extreme weather events like heat waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both are promising, low-cost measures. But neither requires the state to spend money on the things that experts say would actually make schools safer: updated HVAC, shade structures, a funded health curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office says, as of now, it has no plans to propose funding for an updated health framework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The laws “demonstrate that children in California are already being harmed by extreme heat,” said Sarah Matsumoto, director of policy and government affairs for Green Schoolyards America. “It’s not a future problem anymore. There definitely needs to be a comprehensive plan to protect children from extreme heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A student’s experience becomes law\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2022, during a \u003ca href=\"https://tenstrands.org/a-youth-advocate-for-heat-safety-in-schools-interview-with-natalie/\">record-breaking\u003c/a>, triple-digit heat wave in Sacramento, the air conditioning in Natalie Rubio’s school cafeteria gave out. She was in the fourth grade; she and her classmates had to eat lunch outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now 13, Natalie recalls some of her peers feeling sick – flushed with red cheeks and headaches, symptoms of heat illness. She brought her experience and her idea for a bill promoting heat education to the legislature: Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Palmdale Republican, wrote \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1653\">Assembly Bill 1653\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding guidance on how to teach heat illness in schools is a “simple, common-sense step,” Lackey said in a legislative hearing about the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080868\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play a game 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>“This bill creates no mandates,” Lackey said. “It simply promotes awareness and prevention. Because sometimes the most powerful way to protect our students is by giving them the knowledge to protect themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heat illness is a growing concern for students, parents and educators as heat waves become stronger and longer. In California, 618 children ages 5 to 17 \u003ca href=\"https://trackingcalifornia.org/topics/heat-related-illness#gsc.tab=0\">went to the emergency room\u003c/a> in 2024 because of heat illness, according to Tracking California, a health surveillance tool by the Public Health Institute. That’s about a 30% jump from the previous year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California students lost more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.undauntedk12.org/california-closures-25-26\">40,000 hours \u003c/a>of instructional time in the 2025-26 school year due to closures and disruptions from extreme heat, according to data collected by UndauntedK12. Extreme heat accounted for 73% of weather-related school closures in the fall semester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natalie envisions short, interactive lessons tailored to each grade level and reminders during heat waves. “I want schools to teach every student the signs and symptoms of heat illness and how to respond in a memorable way,” the middle school student said.[aside postID=news_12090872 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/CA-Trump-Teacher-Follow-PD2-1.jpg']Lackey’s law doesn’t guarantee new lessons — that depends on when the state next updates its health education framework, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/he/cf/documents/healthedframework2019.pdf\">which last happened in 2019\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board of Education could incorporate heat illness lessons into its health education framework — a voluntary guide for teaching about subjects including nutrition, physical activity, drugs and alcohol and mental health — the next time it considers updates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no further update scheduled, and doing so again “must be initiated and funded by the legislature.” Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for the governor, referred questions about whether the administration would fund a new framework to the education board. The board did not respond to CalMatters’ questions by the deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Seidmon, a project manager for UndauntedK12, said the nonprofit educational advocacy group supported the law “because this is a potentially low-cost solution in a time when our state budget is (limited).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an eventual update does include heat illness education, it could make a real difference in the number of kids that end up in the nurse’s office with serious symptoms, said Rosemarie Dowell, government relations committee chair for the California School Nurses Organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students “might not realize that this headache or this dizziness might not just be feeling tired but could be a sign of heat illness,” Dowell said. “That can empower them to react for themselves, react for somebody else, to encourage them to get water, to find that shade or to tell an adult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A push for more protections\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The state Department of Education offers no official guidance on how hot is too hot for students to be outside, or how teachers should respond to unusually high temperatures. The department refers schools to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ep/extremeheat.asp\">list of resources\u003c/a>, including the state health department’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/EPO/Pages/Extreme%20Heat%20Pages/BI_Natural-Disasters_Extreme-Heat.aspx\">guidance\u003c/a> on extreme heat, defined as longer than two days and nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/s0749-3797(12)00742-8/fulltext#:~:text=Exertional%20heat%20illness%20occurred%20at,at%20the%20time%20of%20onset.\">an estimated 9,000 high school athletes\u003c/a> suffer from and receive treatment for exertional heat illness every year, with most incidents occurring in August. The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school sports, sets and can enforce heat-related policies, including rules about practice times and hydration breaks for student athletes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044135\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044135\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play on the playground outside a Head Start in Hollister, California, on June 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1248\">Senate Bill 1248\u003c/a>, authored by Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat, requires schools to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/extremeweather.asp\">adopt protocols for outdoor activities\u003c/a>, such as sports practice and recess, during extreme weather. This includes setting criteria for when schools should cancel outdoor activities. The death of \u003ca href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lake-elsinore-boy-who-died-while-exercising-in-the-heat-at-school-had-a-heart-defect-report/\">12-year-old Yahshua Robinson\u003c/a>, who in August 2023 collapsed and died during P.E. class in Lake Elsinore, prompted that law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires schools to develop heat-safety plans that include monitoring weather forecasts, designating safe indoor alternatives to outdoor activities, and training staff to recognize heat stress, among other measures. The law required schools to have those plans ready by July 1 of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a legislative hearing in 2024, Yahshua’s mother said her son died following dangerous school rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was in the nineties outside that day, and even the best and highly trained athletes wouldn’t run in it,” she said. “Yet Yahshua’s class of middle schoolers were made to run in that heat. Physical education should happen only in environments conducive for physical activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The funding gap that laws don’t touch\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>School and environmental advocates want state leaders to go further by investing in better cooling systems and more shady areas for children to play. But limited state and school funding stands in the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of our school buildings were built before the era of extreme heat fueled by climate change,” Seidmon said. “Our kids are playing on playgrounds, in schoolyards and on fields that don’t have shade … So it’s critical that our school buildings and grounds protect our children from extreme heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988059\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988059\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young girl is seen through a circular opening in an outdoor play gym structure\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transitional kindergarten students play outside during recess at the International Community School in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Emily Penner, an associate professor of education at UC Irvine, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2025/2025-05-20-penners-heat-exposure-in-california-schools\">researching the effects of heat exposure\u003c/a> on school children and how schools are adapting to warmer days. Response, she’s learning, varies widely by region — schools that have long struggled with extreme heat are more likely to try new approaches, such as using more heat-resilient materials for playgrounds and prioritizing air conditioning in school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adaptation efforts like shading infrastructure and HVAC in most schools can make a significant difference, Penner says. At the same time, these projects require funding that many schools may not have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a case where we have some pretty concrete things we know we need to do, like put HVAC at most schools across the state, and now we have to kind of figure out how to marshal political support for something like that,” Penner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Money on the table, but not enough\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even where funding exists, schools are finding it hard to secure or insufficient to meet the need. In 2020, the legislature created a state program, known as CalShape, funded by utility ratepayers, which has helped schools pay for assessments and upgrades to their air conditioning systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the program administrator, the California Energy Commission, abruptly paused applications in 2024, citing budget constraints. The state will return the leftover $200 million to investor-owned utilities if the Legislature doesn’t act by the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2024, Californians voted to approve Proposition 2, a bond measure that earmarks $10 billion for school facilities. But school modernization projects already \u003ca href=\"https://www.lacoe.edu/content/dam/lacoeedu/documents/businessservices/bas/facilities-network/OPSC%20May%202025%20Update.pdf\">demand\u003c/a> more than \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/education/california-school-bond-funding-proposition-2-measure-us\">the funding \u003c/a>provides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988060\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"Three young students hold hands outside as they walk away from the camera towards a play gym structure during recess\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transitional kindergarten students play outside during recess at the International Community School in Oakland on May 17, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Voters also approved Proposition 4, which sends another \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/11/california-election-news-proposition-4-environment/\">$10 billion\u003c/a> to climate projects statewide. That includes $50 million for the state’s Urban Forestry Program, which funnels money to local projects that add green space, including in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Compared to the federal government and many states, California is one of the leaders in this issue,” Matsumoto said. “And we are still not collectively meeting the moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2026/07/california-school-heat-illness-laws/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As triple-digit temperatures bake some parts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>, two new laws aim to help educate students about heat illness and protect them from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that will require the state Board of Education to consider teaching students about the symptoms of heat illness in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another law, which the governor signed in 2024 with a key deadline this month, requires schools to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/extremeweather.asp\">come up with rules\u003c/a> for outdoor activities when there are extreme weather events like heat waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both are promising, low-cost measures. But neither requires the state to spend money on the things that experts say would actually make schools safer: updated HVAC, shade structures, a funded health curriculum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The governor’s office says, as of now, it has no plans to propose funding for an updated health framework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The laws “demonstrate that children in California are already being harmed by extreme heat,” said Sarah Matsumoto, director of policy and government affairs for Green Schoolyards America. “It’s not a future problem anymore. There definitely needs to be a comprehensive plan to protect children from extreme heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A student’s experience becomes law\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2022, during a \u003ca href=\"https://tenstrands.org/a-youth-advocate-for-heat-safety-in-schools-interview-with-natalie/\">record-breaking\u003c/a>, triple-digit heat wave in Sacramento, the air conditioning in Natalie Rubio’s school cafeteria gave out. She was in the fourth grade; she and her classmates had to eat lunch outside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now 13, Natalie recalls some of her peers feeling sick – flushed with red cheeks and headaches, symptoms of heat illness. She brought her experience and her idea for a bill promoting heat education to the legislature: Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Palmdale Republican, wrote \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260ab1653\">Assembly Bill 1653\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding guidance on how to teach heat illness in schools is a “simple, common-sense step,” Lackey said in a legislative hearing about the bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080868\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080868\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/027_KQED_GrassValleyElementarySchoolOakland_04282022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play a game 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>“This bill creates no mandates,” Lackey said. “It simply promotes awareness and prevention. Because sometimes the most powerful way to protect our students is by giving them the knowledge to protect themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heat illness is a growing concern for students, parents and educators as heat waves become stronger and longer. In California, 618 children ages 5 to 17 \u003ca href=\"https://trackingcalifornia.org/topics/heat-related-illness#gsc.tab=0\">went to the emergency room\u003c/a> in 2024 because of heat illness, according to Tracking California, a health surveillance tool by the Public Health Institute. That’s about a 30% jump from the previous year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California students lost more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.undauntedk12.org/california-closures-25-26\">40,000 hours \u003c/a>of instructional time in the 2025-26 school year due to closures and disruptions from extreme heat, according to data collected by UndauntedK12. Extreme heat accounted for 73% of weather-related school closures in the fall semester.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Natalie envisions short, interactive lessons tailored to each grade level and reminders during heat waves. “I want schools to teach every student the signs and symptoms of heat illness and how to respond in a memorable way,” the middle school student said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Lackey’s law doesn’t guarantee new lessons — that depends on when the state next updates its health education framework, \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/he/cf/documents/healthedframework2019.pdf\">which last happened in 2019\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Board of Education could incorporate heat illness lessons into its health education framework — a voluntary guide for teaching about subjects including nutrition, physical activity, drugs and alcohol and mental health — the next time it considers updates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s no further update scheduled, and doing so again “must be initiated and funded by the legislature.” Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for the governor, referred questions about whether the administration would fund a new framework to the education board. The board did not respond to CalMatters’ questions by the deadline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephanie Seidmon, a project manager for UndauntedK12, said the nonprofit educational advocacy group supported the law “because this is a potentially low-cost solution in a time when our state budget is (limited).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If an eventual update does include heat illness education, it could make a real difference in the number of kids that end up in the nurse’s office with serious symptoms, said Rosemarie Dowell, government relations committee chair for the California School Nurses Organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students “might not realize that this headache or this dizziness might not just be feeling tired but could be a sign of heat illness,” Dowell said. “That can empower them to react for themselves, react for somebody else, to encourage them to get water, to find that shade or to tell an adult.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A push for more protections\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The state Department of Education offers no official guidance on how hot is too hot for students to be outside, or how teachers should respond to unusually high temperatures. The department refers schools to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ep/extremeheat.asp\">list of resources\u003c/a>, including the state health department’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/EPO/Pages/Extreme%20Heat%20Pages/BI_Natural-Disasters_Extreme-Heat.aspx\">guidance\u003c/a> on extreme heat, defined as longer than two days and nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/s0749-3797(12)00742-8/fulltext#:~:text=Exertional%20heat%20illness%20occurred%20at,at%20the%20time%20of%20onset.\">an estimated 9,000 high school athletes\u003c/a> suffer from and receive treatment for exertional heat illness every year, with most incidents occurring in August. The California Interscholastic Federation, which governs high school sports, sets and can enforce heat-related policies, including rules about practice times and hydration breaks for student athletes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12044135\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12044135\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-HEADSTARTPROGRAMS-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students play on the playground outside a Head Start in Hollister, California, on June 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1248\">Senate Bill 1248\u003c/a>, authored by Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat, requires schools to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/he/hn/extremeweather.asp\">adopt protocols for outdoor activities\u003c/a>, such as sports practice and recess, during extreme weather. This includes setting criteria for when schools should cancel outdoor activities. The death of \u003ca href=\"https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lake-elsinore-boy-who-died-while-exercising-in-the-heat-at-school-had-a-heart-defect-report/\">12-year-old Yahshua Robinson\u003c/a>, who in August 2023 collapsed and died during P.E. class in Lake Elsinore, prompted that law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The law requires schools to develop heat-safety plans that include monitoring weather forecasts, designating safe indoor alternatives to outdoor activities, and training staff to recognize heat stress, among other measures. The law required schools to have those plans ready by July 1 of this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a legislative hearing in 2024, Yahshua’s mother said her son died following dangerous school rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was in the nineties outside that day, and even the best and highly trained athletes wouldn’t run in it,” she said. “Yet Yahshua’s class of middle schoolers were made to run in that heat. Physical education should happen only in environments conducive for physical activity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>The funding gap that laws don’t touch\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>School and environmental advocates want state leaders to go further by investing in better cooling systems and more shady areas for children to play. But limited state and school funding stands in the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many of our school buildings were built before the era of extreme heat fueled by climate change,” Seidmon said. “Our kids are playing on playgrounds, in schoolyards and on fields that don’t have shade … So it’s critical that our school buildings and grounds protect our children from extreme heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988059\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988059\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young girl is seen through a circular opening in an outdoor play gym structure\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-64-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transitional kindergarten students play outside during recess at the International Community School in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Emily Penner, an associate professor of education at UC Irvine, is \u003ca href=\"https://www.socsci.uci.edu/newsevents/news/2025/2025-05-20-penners-heat-exposure-in-california-schools\">researching the effects of heat exposure\u003c/a> on school children and how schools are adapting to warmer days. Response, she’s learning, varies widely by region — schools that have long struggled with extreme heat are more likely to try new approaches, such as using more heat-resilient materials for playgrounds and prioritizing air conditioning in school buses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adaptation efforts like shading infrastructure and HVAC in most schools can make a significant difference, Penner says. At the same time, these projects require funding that many schools may not have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a case where we have some pretty concrete things we know we need to do, like put HVAC at most schools across the state, and now we have to kind of figure out how to marshal political support for something like that,” Penner said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Money on the table, but not enough\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even where funding exists, schools are finding it hard to secure or insufficient to meet the need. In 2020, the legislature created a state program, known as CalShape, funded by utility ratepayers, which has helped schools pay for assessments and upgrades to their air conditioning systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the program administrator, the California Energy Commission, abruptly paused applications in 2024, citing budget constraints. The state will return the leftover $200 million to investor-owned utilities if the Legislature doesn’t act by the end of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2024, Californians voted to approve Proposition 2, a bond measure that earmarks $10 billion for school facilities. But school modernization projects already \u003ca href=\"https://www.lacoe.edu/content/dam/lacoeedu/documents/businessservices/bas/facilities-network/OPSC%20May%202025%20Update.pdf\">demand\u003c/a> more than \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/education/california-school-bond-funding-proposition-2-measure-us\">the funding \u003c/a>provides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11988060\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11988060\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut.jpg\" alt=\"Three young students hold hands outside as they walk away from the camera towards a play gym structure during recess\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/240517-TKBilingualLearners-80-BL_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Transitional kindergarten students play outside during recess at the International Community School in Oakland on May 17, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Voters also approved Proposition 4, which sends another \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/11/california-election-news-proposition-4-environment/\">$10 billion\u003c/a> to climate projects statewide. That includes $50 million for the state’s Urban Forestry Program, which funnels money to local projects that add green space, including in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Compared to the federal government and many states, California is one of the leaders in this issue,” Matsumoto said. “And we are still not collectively meeting the moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2026/07/california-school-heat-illness-laws/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "trump-administration-launches-crackdown-on-teacher-sexual-misconduct-following-kqed-propublica-investigation",
"title": "Trump Administration Launches Crackdown on Teacher Sexual Misconduct Following KQED-ProPublica Investigation",
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"headTitle": "Trump Administration Launches Crackdown on Teacher Sexual Misconduct Following KQED-ProPublica Investigation | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/\">\u003cem>KQED\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/dispatches\">\u003cem>Sign up for Dispatches\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has launched a national crackdown on how school districts handle accusations of sexual misconduct by teachers, following a \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-fired-teacher-sexual-harassment\">KQED-ProPublica investigation\u003c/a> into California’s teacher disciplinary system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-protection-of-students-sexual-misconduct-adults-positions-of-authority-july-10-2026-114298.pdf\">guidance\u003c/a> issued last week, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cited the news outlets’ reporting in May that California’s teacher licensing agency has not revoked the professional credentials of at least 67 educators who school districts determined had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct. At least 14 of those educators were rehired by other schools.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McMahon threatened to withhold federal funding from public schools that fail to protect children from teacher sexual misconduct. She called on states and school districts to scrutinize their laws and regulations to prevent educators who have engaged in sexual misconduct involving students from obtaining new positions elsewhere. Citing previous \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-11-200\">reports by the Government Accountability Office\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED483143.pdf\">other studies\u003c/a>, McMahon said the Department of Education has observed a “troubling and recurring pattern” of credible reports of sexual abuse and harassment by school employees going uninvestigated. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, many administrators and State educational regulators have apparently preferred to sweep these incidents under the rug and have ‘pass[ed] the trash’ to another school,” McMahon wrote in an open letter to state schools chiefs on Friday, referring to teachers who go on to work in different schools after findings of sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon said the Department of Education intends to increase its monitoring of school systems to ensure that they comply with federal law. The Trump administration will also examine states’ laws and regulations to determine their effectiveness in protecting students, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The department is investigating \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-launches-national-k-12-initiative-protect-students-adult-sexual-predators-schools\">20 school districts\u003c/a> over their data collection practices and handling of allegations of staff sexual harassment of students, McMahon announced. Two of the districts — Tulare City and Wilsona — are in central and Southern California, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28475359-doe-list-email/#document/p1\">list the department provided\u003c/a> to KQED and ProPublica. The Tulare City superintendent has not responded to a request for comment. Wilsona Superintendent Steve Doyle said the district will cooperate fully with the federal review and “is committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for every student.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1382\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2206133236-scaled-e1773253186922.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12048527\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump holding up a signed executive order poses with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House on March 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Trump on March 20 signed an executive order to formally begin the process of dismantling the Education Department, saying that his administration is returning education back to the states. (Chen Mengtong via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The list, which the Trump administration said was built on 2023-24 civil rights data, also includes districts in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Tony Thurmond, California state superintendent of public instruction, said he was not available to comment on the Trump administration’s letter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California law requires public school teachers who resign or are fired for misconduct to be reported to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the state’s educator licensing agency. That agency then decides whether teachers will be disciplined further, including by losing their professional credentials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Our look at California’s teacher disciplinary process revealed a pattern of delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, that has allowed educators to continue teaching after school districts reported them to the state for sexual harassment or other sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That disciplinary process, which is hidden from public view, stands out compared with how California oversees other professionals. The fact that a teacher has been disciplined is noted — along with a red flag icon next to their name — on a state website of credentialed educators, but the database does not explain why. California law prohibits the teacher licensing agency from sharing that information publicly. In contrast, the licensing bodies governing dozens of other professions in California, including doctors, nurses, police officers and lawyers, make the reasons behind disciplinary actions easily accessible on their websites. And at least 12 states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, do the same for teachers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California’s system also makes it difficult for school districts to learn the details of prospective employees’ disciplinary histories. Only after the state licensing agency recommends educators be disciplined can prospective employers request a summary of the case and the agency’s findings — if the request is made within five years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California law does require teaching candidates to provide prospective employers with their complete educational job history and mandates that school districts ask previous employers whether candidates have ever been reported to the state for egregious misconduct. But no state agency is enforcing whether teachers are sharing their full employment records, whether districts are checking for previous misconduct or whether schools are providing the records. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prospective employers have the tools at their disposal to assess whether an individual is fit to be in the classroom,” Anita Fitzhugh, a spokesperson for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, previously told KQED and ProPublica. “However, the Commission has no legal authority to compel employers to use these tools.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Fitzhugh said Monday that state law prevents the agency from formally reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct that districts report to the state unless it also receives an affidavit from alleged victims. “The Commission stands ready to implement any additional public protections that the Legislature authorizes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB848\">new California law\u003c/a> mandates the creation of a database by next summer that will allow employers to search the names of school support staff, such as bus drivers, custodians and teaching assistants, who are under investigation for or have substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct. But the law does not apply to public school teachers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some critics characterized McMahon’s latest guidance as political rhetoric and grandstanding, given the Trump administration’s gutting of the Education Department and routine \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-civil-rights-donald-trump-discrimination\">dismissal of civil rights cases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Staff-on-student predation occurs less frequently than student-on-student harassment and assault. This letter is silent on that,” said Heidi Goldstein, a personnel commissioner of the Berkeley Unified School District and advisory board member of Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, a national nonprofit. “I look at something like this as a wedge issue you’re going to take to schools to weaken union power overall.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In her letter, McMahon singled out teachers’ unions as obstructions to legislative reforms to protect children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12014399\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students run behind a wall providing shade in the schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is yet another example of the Trump administration weaponizing and distorting an issue for political purposes while also systematically dismantling the very offices of the Department of Education that were established to protect the safety and civil rights of students across the nation,” said Maggie Sisco, a spokesperson for the California Teachers Association. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McMahon also noted that the Trump administration recently opened an investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District for an agreement it made with the teachers’ union to reassign educators accused of sexual misconduct instead of removing them while district officials investigate. But Christy Hagen, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified, said: “Reassignment means an employee is assigned away from students and schools during an investigation.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The district “takes all allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment with the utmost seriousness,” Hagen said, and reported allegations are reviewed promptly through a “thorough and impartial process.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest school district, has yet to release public records requested by KQED reporter Holly McDede two years ago. The First Amendment Coalition, a California nonprofit that advocates for free speech and government transparency, filed a \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-05-19-McDede-Writ-Petition.pdf\">lawsuit\u003c/a> on \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/news/post/fac-sues-l-a-schools-for-concealing-teacher-misconduct-records/\">behalf of McDede\u003c/a> in May. Hagen said Monday that the district “has responded to requests in accordance with the California Public Records Act.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, said if elected, he would “end the loopholes that let dangerous teachers move from one school district to another.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Agencies will share information, act quickly and put student safety first, not the system,” Hilton said. “If you abuse a child, your teaching career is over.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jonathan Underland, spokesperson for Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. health and human services secretary, former California attorney general and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said Becerra “will make sure this state has a system that acts swiftly and keeps educators who harm students out of the classroom.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Protecting students from predators demands real action — but this president is demanding it from the very office he’s spent years tearing down,” Underland said. “California won’t wait on Washington.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/\">\u003cem>KQED\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/dispatches\">\u003cem>Sign up for Dispatches\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/\">\u003cem>KQED\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/dispatches\">\u003cem>Sign up for Dispatches\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has launched a national crackdown on how school districts handle accusations of sexual misconduct by teachers, following a \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-fired-teacher-sexual-harassment\">KQED-ProPublica investigation\u003c/a> into California’s teacher disciplinary system.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has launched a national crackdown on how school districts handle accusations of sexual misconduct by teachers, following a \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-fired-teacher-sexual-harassment\">KQED-ProPublica investigation\u003c/a> into California’s teacher disciplinary system.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-protection-of-students-sexual-misconduct-adults-positions-of-authority-july-10-2026-114298.pdf\">guidance\u003c/a> issued last week, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cited the news outlets’ reporting in May that California’s teacher licensing agency has not revoked the professional credentials of at least 67 educators who school districts determined had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct. At least 14 of those educators were rehired by other schools.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-protection-of-students-sexual-misconduct-adults-positions-of-authority-july-10-2026-114298.pdf\">guidance\u003c/a> issued last week, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cited the news outlets’ reporting in May that California’s teacher licensing agency has not revoked the professional credentials of at least 67 educators who school districts determined had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct. At least 14 of those educators were rehired by other schools.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McMahon threatened to withhold federal funding from public schools that fail to protect children from teacher sexual misconduct. She called on states and school districts to scrutinize their laws and regulations to prevent educators who have engaged in sexual misconduct involving students from obtaining new positions elsewhere. Citing previous \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-11-200\">reports by the Government Accountability Office\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED483143.pdf\">other studies\u003c/a>, McMahon said the Department of Education has observed a “troubling and recurring pattern” of credible reports of sexual abuse and harassment by school employees going uninvestigated. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>McMahon threatened to withhold federal funding from public schools that fail to protect children from teacher sexual misconduct. She called on states and school districts to scrutinize their laws and regulations to prevent educators who have engaged in sexual misconduct involving students from obtaining new positions elsewhere. Citing previous \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-11-200\">reports by the Government Accountability Office\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED483143.pdf\">other studies\u003c/a>, McMahon said the Department of Education has observed a “troubling and recurring pattern” of credible reports of sexual abuse and harassment by school employees going uninvestigated. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, many administrators and State educational regulators have apparently preferred to sweep these incidents under the rug and have ‘pass[ed] the trash’ to another school,” McMahon wrote in an open letter to state schools chiefs on Friday, referring to teachers who go on to work in different schools after findings of sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, many administrators and State educational regulators have apparently preferred to sweep these incidents under the rug and have ‘pass[ed] the trash’ to another school,” McMahon wrote in an open letter to state schools chiefs on Friday, referring to teachers who go on to work in different schools after findings of sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McMahon said the Department of Education intends to increase its monitoring of school systems to ensure that they comply with federal law. The Trump administration will also examine states’ laws and regulations to determine their effectiveness in protecting students, she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>McMahon said the Department of Education intends to increase its monitoring of school systems to ensure that they comply with federal law. The Trump administration will also examine states’ laws and regulations to determine their effectiveness in protecting students, she said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The department is investigating \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-launches-national-k-12-initiative-protect-students-adult-sexual-predators-schools\">20 school districts\u003c/a> over their data collection practices and handling of allegations of staff sexual harassment of students, McMahon announced. Two of the districts — Tulare City and Wilsona — are in central and Southern California, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28475359-doe-list-email/#document/p1\">list the department provided\u003c/a> to KQED and ProPublica. The Tulare City superintendent has not responded to a request for comment. Wilsona Superintendent Steve Doyle said the district will cooperate fully with the federal review and “is committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for every student.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The department is investigating \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-launches-national-k-12-initiative-protect-students-adult-sexual-predators-schools\">20 school districts\u003c/a> over their data collection practices and handling of allegations of staff sexual harassment of students, McMahon announced. Two of the districts — Tulare City and Wilsona — are in central and Southern California, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28475359-doe-list-email/#document/p1\">list the department provided\u003c/a> to KQED and ProPublica. The Tulare City superintendent has not responded to a request for comment. Wilsona Superintendent Steve Doyle said the district will cooperate fully with the federal review and “is committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for every student.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2206133236-scaled-e1773253186922.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12048527\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump holding up a signed executive order poses with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House on March 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Trump on March 20 signed an executive order to formally begin the process of dismantling the Education Department, saying that his administration is returning education back to the states. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2206133236-scaled-e1773253186922.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12048527\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump holding up a signed executive order poses with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House on March 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Trump on March 20 signed an executive order to formally begin the process of dismantling the Education Department, saying that his administration is returning education back to the states. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The list, which the Trump administration said was built on 2023-24 civil rights data, also includes districts in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The list, which the Trump administration said was built on 2023-24 civil rights data, also includes districts in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Tony Thurmond, California state superintendent of public instruction, said he was not available to comment on the Trump administration’s letter.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Tony Thurmond, California state superintendent of public instruction, said he was not available to comment on the Trump administration’s letter.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California law requires public school teachers who resign or are fired for misconduct to be reported to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the state’s educator licensing agency. That agency then decides whether teachers will be disciplined further, including by losing their professional credentials. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>California law requires public school teachers who resign or are fired for misconduct to be reported to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the state’s educator licensing agency. That agency then decides whether teachers will be disciplined further, including by losing their professional credentials. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Our look at California’s teacher disciplinary process revealed a pattern of delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, that has allowed educators to continue teaching after school districts reported them to the state for sexual harassment or other sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Our look at California’s teacher disciplinary process revealed a pattern of delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, that has allowed educators to continue teaching after school districts reported them to the state for sexual harassment or other sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That disciplinary process, which is hidden from public view, stands out compared with how California oversees other professionals. The fact that a teacher has been disciplined is noted — along with a red flag icon next to their name — on a state website of credentialed educators, but the database does not explain why. California law prohibits the teacher licensing agency from sharing that information publicly. In contrast, the licensing bodies governing dozens of other professions in California, including doctors, nurses, police officers and lawyers, make the reasons behind disciplinary actions easily accessible on their websites. And at least 12 states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, do the same for teachers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That disciplinary process, which is hidden from public view, stands out compared with how California oversees other professionals. The fact that a teacher has been disciplined is noted — along with a red flag icon next to their name — on a state website of credentialed educators, but the database does not explain why. California law prohibits the teacher licensing agency from sharing that information publicly. In contrast, the licensing bodies governing dozens of other professions in California, including doctors, nurses, police officers and lawyers, make the reasons behind disciplinary actions easily accessible on their websites. And at least 12 states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, do the same for teachers.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California’s system also makes it difficult for school districts to learn the details of prospective employees’ disciplinary histories. Only after the state licensing agency recommends educators be disciplined can prospective employers request a summary of the case and the agency’s findings — if the request is made within five years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>California’s system also makes it difficult for school districts to learn the details of prospective employees’ disciplinary histories. Only after the state licensing agency recommends educators be disciplined can prospective employers request a summary of the case and the agency’s findings — if the request is made within five years.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California law does require teaching candidates to provide prospective employers with their complete educational job history and mandates that school districts ask previous employers whether candidates have ever been reported to the state for egregious misconduct. But no state agency is enforcing whether teachers are sharing their full employment records, whether districts are checking for previous misconduct or whether schools are providing the records. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>California law does require teaching candidates to provide prospective employers with their complete educational job history and mandates that school districts ask previous employers whether candidates have ever been reported to the state for egregious misconduct. But no state agency is enforcing whether teachers are sharing their full employment records, whether districts are checking for previous misconduct or whether schools are providing the records. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Prospective employers have the tools at their disposal to assess whether an individual is fit to be in the classroom,” Anita Fitzhugh, a spokesperson for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, previously told KQED and ProPublica. “However, the Commission has no legal authority to compel employers to use these tools.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Prospective employers have the tools at their disposal to assess whether an individual is fit to be in the classroom,” Anita Fitzhugh, a spokesperson for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, previously told KQED and ProPublica. “However, the Commission has no legal authority to compel employers to use these tools.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Fitzhugh said Monday that state law prevents the agency from formally reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct that districts report to the state unless it also receives an affidavit from alleged victims. “The Commission stands ready to implement any additional public protections that the Legislature authorizes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Fitzhugh said Monday that state law prevents the agency from formally reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct that districts report to the state unless it also receives an affidavit from alleged victims. “The Commission stands ready to implement any additional public protections that the Legislature authorizes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB848\">new California law\u003c/a> mandates the creation of a database by next summer that will allow employers to search the names of school support staff, such as bus drivers, custodians and teaching assistants, who are under investigation for or have substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct. But the law does not apply to public school teachers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB848\">new California law\u003c/a> mandates the creation of a database by next summer that will allow employers to search the names of school support staff, such as bus drivers, custodians and teaching assistants, who are under investigation for or have substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct. But the law does not apply to public school teachers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some critics characterized McMahon’s latest guidance as political rhetoric and grandstanding, given the Trump administration’s gutting of the Education Department and routine \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-civil-rights-donald-trump-discrimination\">dismissal of civil rights cases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Some critics characterized McMahon’s latest guidance as political rhetoric and grandstanding, given the Trump administration’s gutting of the Education Department and routine \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-civil-rights-donald-trump-discrimination\">dismissal of civil rights cases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Staff-on-student predation occurs less frequently than student-on-student harassment and assault. This letter is silent on that,” said Heidi Goldstein, a personnel commissioner of the Berkeley Unified School District and advisory board member of Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, a national nonprofit. “I look at something like this as a wedge issue you’re going to take to schools to weaken union power overall.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Staff-on-student predation occurs less frequently than student-on-student harassment and assault. This letter is silent on that,” said Heidi Goldstein, a personnel commissioner of the Berkeley Unified School District and advisory board member of Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, a national nonprofit. “I look at something like this as a wedge issue you’re going to take to schools to weaken union power overall.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In her letter, McMahon singled out teachers’ unions as obstructions to legislative reforms to protect children.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In her letter, McMahon singled out teachers’ unions as obstructions to legislative reforms to protect children.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This is yet another example of the Trump administration weaponizing and distorting an issue for political purposes while also systematically dismantling the very offices of the Department of Education that were established to protect the safety and civil rights of students across the nation,” said Maggie Sisco, a spokesperson for the California Teachers Association. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McMahon also noted that the Trump administration recently opened an investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District for an agreement it made with the teachers’ union to reassign educators accused of sexual misconduct instead of removing them while district officials investigate. But Christy Hagen, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified, said: “Reassignment means an employee is assigned away from students and schools during an investigation.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The district “takes all allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment with the utmost seriousness,” Hagen said, and reported allegations are reviewed promptly through a “thorough and impartial process.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest school district, has yet to release public records requested by KQED reporter Holly McDede two years ago. The First Amendment Coalition, a California nonprofit that advocates for free speech and government transparency, filed a \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-05-19-McDede-Writ-Petition.pdf\">lawsuit\u003c/a> on \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/news/post/fac-sues-l-a-schools-for-concealing-teacher-misconduct-records/\">behalf of McDede\u003c/a> in May. Hagen said Monday that the district “has responded to requests in accordance with the California Public Records Act.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, said if elected, he would “end the loopholes that let dangerous teachers move from one school district to another.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Agencies will share information, act quickly and put student safety first, not the system,” Hilton said. “If you abuse a child, your teaching career is over.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jonathan Underland, spokesperson for Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. health and human services secretary, former California attorney general and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said Becerra “will make sure this state has a system that acts swiftly and keeps educators who harm students out of the classroom.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Protecting students from predators demands real action — but this president is demanding it from the very office he’s spent years tearing down,” Underland said. “California won’t wait on Washington.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The U.S. education secretary cited our finding that California has not revoked the credentials of at least 67 educators who school districts determined had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct.",
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"title": "Trump Administration Launches Crackdown on Teacher Sexual Misconduct Following KQED-ProPublica Investigation | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/\">\u003cem>KQED\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/dispatches\">\u003cem>Sign up for Dispatches\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Trump administration has launched a national crackdown on how school districts handle accusations of sexual misconduct by teachers, following a \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/california-fired-teacher-sexual-harassment\">KQED-ProPublica investigation\u003c/a> into California’s teacher disciplinary system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/media/document/dear-colleague-letter-protection-of-students-sexual-misconduct-adults-positions-of-authority-july-10-2026-114298.pdf\">guidance\u003c/a> issued last week, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon cited the news outlets’ reporting in May that California’s teacher licensing agency has not revoked the professional credentials of at least 67 educators who school districts determined had sexually harassed students or committed other types of sexual misconduct. At least 14 of those educators were rehired by other schools.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McMahon threatened to withhold federal funding from public schools that fail to protect children from teacher sexual misconduct. She called on states and school districts to scrutinize their laws and regulations to prevent educators who have engaged in sexual misconduct involving students from obtaining new positions elsewhere. Citing previous \u003ca href=\"https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-11-200\">reports by the Government Accountability Office\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED483143.pdf\">other studies\u003c/a>, McMahon said the Department of Education has observed a “troubling and recurring pattern” of credible reports of sexual abuse and harassment by school employees going uninvestigated. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Unfortunately, many administrators and State educational regulators have apparently preferred to sweep these incidents under the rug and have ‘pass[ed] the trash’ to another school,” McMahon wrote in an open letter to state schools chiefs on Friday, referring to teachers who go on to work in different schools after findings of sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McMahon said the Department of Education intends to increase its monitoring of school systems to ensure that they comply with federal law. The Trump administration will also examine states’ laws and regulations to determine their effectiveness in protecting students, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The department is investigating \u003ca href=\"https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-launches-national-k-12-initiative-protect-students-adult-sexual-predators-schools\">20 school districts\u003c/a> over their data collection practices and handling of allegations of staff sexual harassment of students, McMahon announced. Two of the districts — Tulare City and Wilsona — are in central and Southern California, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28475359-doe-list-email/#document/p1\">list the department provided\u003c/a> to KQED and ProPublica. The Tulare City superintendent has not responded to a request for comment. Wilsona Superintendent Steve Doyle said the district will cooperate fully with the federal review and “is committed to providing a safe and inclusive learning environment for every student.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1382\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2206133236-scaled-e1773253186922.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12048527\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">President Donald Trump holding up a signed executive order poses with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House on March 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Trump on March 20 signed an executive order to formally begin the process of dismantling the Education Department, saying that his administration is returning education back to the states. (Chen Mengtong via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The list, which the Trump administration said was built on 2023-24 civil rights data, also includes districts in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Tony Thurmond, California state superintendent of public instruction, said he was not available to comment on the Trump administration’s letter.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California law requires public school teachers who resign or are fired for misconduct to be reported to the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the state’s educator licensing agency. That agency then decides whether teachers will be disciplined further, including by losing their professional credentials. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Our look at California’s teacher disciplinary process revealed a pattern of delays and inaction, combined with a lack of transparency, that has allowed educators to continue teaching after school districts reported them to the state for sexual harassment or other sexual misconduct.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That disciplinary process, which is hidden from public view, stands out compared with how California oversees other professionals. The fact that a teacher has been disciplined is noted — along with a red flag icon next to their name — on a state website of credentialed educators, but the database does not explain why. California law prohibits the teacher licensing agency from sharing that information publicly. In contrast, the licensing bodies governing dozens of other professions in California, including doctors, nurses, police officers and lawyers, make the reasons behind disciplinary actions easily accessible on their websites. And at least 12 states, including Oregon, Washington and Florida, do the same for teachers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California’s system also makes it difficult for school districts to learn the details of prospective employees’ disciplinary histories. Only after the state licensing agency recommends educators be disciplined can prospective employers request a summary of the case and the agency’s findings — if the request is made within five years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California law does require teaching candidates to provide prospective employers with their complete educational job history and mandates that school districts ask previous employers whether candidates have ever been reported to the state for egregious misconduct. But no state agency is enforcing whether teachers are sharing their full employment records, whether districts are checking for previous misconduct or whether schools are providing the records. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prospective employers have the tools at their disposal to assess whether an individual is fit to be in the classroom,” Anita Fitzhugh, a spokesperson for the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, previously told KQED and ProPublica. “However, the Commission has no legal authority to compel employers to use these tools.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Fitzhugh said Monday that state law prevents the agency from formally reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct that districts report to the state unless it also receives an affidavit from alleged victims. “The Commission stands ready to implement any additional public protections that the Legislature authorizes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB848\">new California law\u003c/a> mandates the creation of a database by next summer that will allow employers to search the names of school support staff, such as bus drivers, custodians and teaching assistants, who are under investigation for or have substantiated complaints of egregious misconduct. But the law does not apply to public school teachers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some critics characterized McMahon’s latest guidance as political rhetoric and grandstanding, given the Trump administration’s gutting of the Education Department and routine \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-civil-rights-donald-trump-discrimination\">dismissal of civil rights cases\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Staff-on-student predation occurs less frequently than student-on-student harassment and assault. This letter is silent on that,” said Heidi Goldstein, a personnel commissioner of the Berkeley Unified School District and advisory board member of Stop Sexual Assault in Schools, a national nonprofit. “I look at something like this as a wedge issue you’re going to take to schools to weaken union power overall.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In her letter, McMahon singled out teachers’ unions as obstructions to legislative reforms to protect children.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12014399\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/11/028_KQEDScience_IntCommunitySchoolOakland_10202022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Students run behind a wall providing shade in the schoolyard at International Community School in Oakland on Oct. 20, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is yet another example of the Trump administration weaponizing and distorting an issue for political purposes while also systematically dismantling the very offices of the Department of Education that were established to protect the safety and civil rights of students across the nation,” said Maggie Sisco, a spokesperson for the California Teachers Association. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McMahon also noted that the Trump administration recently opened an investigation into the Los Angeles Unified School District for an agreement it made with the teachers’ union to reassign educators accused of sexual misconduct instead of removing them while district officials investigate. But Christy Hagen, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified, said: “Reassignment means an employee is assigned away from students and schools during an investigation.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The district “takes all allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment with the utmost seriousness,” Hagen said, and reported allegations are reviewed promptly through a “thorough and impartial process.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest school district, has yet to release public records requested by KQED reporter Holly McDede two years ago. The First Amendment Coalition, a California nonprofit that advocates for free speech and government transparency, filed a \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-05-19-McDede-Writ-Petition.pdf\">lawsuit\u003c/a> on \u003ca href=\"https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/news/post/fac-sues-l-a-schools-for-concealing-teacher-misconduct-records/\">behalf of McDede\u003c/a> in May. Hagen said Monday that the district “has responded to requests in accordance with the California Public Records Act.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, said if elected, he would “end the loopholes that let dangerous teachers move from one school district to another.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Agencies will share information, act quickly and put student safety first, not the system,” Hilton said. “If you abuse a child, your teaching career is over.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jonathan Underland, spokesperson for Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. health and human services secretary, former California attorney general and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said Becerra “will make sure this state has a system that acts swiftly and keeps educators who harm students out of the classroom.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Protecting students from predators demands real action — but this president is demanding it from the very office he’s spent years tearing down,” Underland said. “California won’t wait on Washington.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "newsoms-final-budget-sends-more-than-a-billion-dollars-to-university-of-california-cal-state",
"title": "Newsom’s Final Budget Sends More Than a Billion Dollars to University of California, Cal State",
"publishDate": 1783882805,
"format": "standard",
"headTitle": "Newsom’s Final Budget Sends More Than a Billion Dollars to University of California, Cal State | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California’s\u003c/a> public colleges and universities emerged as winners in the latest state budget after lawmakers sent them hundreds of millions of dollars in new public spending. However, that largesse was tempered by decisions by Democrats in Sacramento to reject bond measures that could have awarded campuses billions more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes were enshrined in the state budget for 2026-27 that the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/california-gavin-newsom-final-budget-deal/\">approved last month\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students were also major beneficiaries, as lawmakers continued to support one of the nation’s most generous state financial aid programs. The Cal Grant, which generally covers tuition at the University of California and California State University and partial tuition at private colleges, remains fully funded as part of an ongoing commitment by lawmakers and Newsom to keep student costs down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC and Cal State students receiving the Cal Grants will have their tuition charges waived, even as schools continue to raise tuition. And more affordable student housing may be built soon if voters approve a bond that lawmakers and Newsom put on the ballot for November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prioritizing higher education spending will be “a strong part of Gov. Newsom’s legacy,” said Jessica L. Thompson, a senior vice president at The Institute for College Access & Success. The organization is a think tank that advocates for increased financial aid for low-income students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12038976\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students make their way on campus at CSU East Bay on Feb. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’ve never had to work to convince the executive branch that public higher education was incredibly important and central to a lot of the ambitions for the state and for the future, and that’s not something to take for granted,” she told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the smaller Middle Class Scholarship, which last year awarded recipients an average of $3,000 in aid to cover school expenses, will decrease to an average of $2,000 this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a breakdown of higher education’s wins and losses in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More money for UC, Cal State\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The UC and Cal State systems each received more than $500 million in ongoing taxpayer support that can be used to hire faculty as they enroll more students and keep up with other expenses, such as rising energy, insurance and staff health costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That public generosity isn’t guaranteed. Public K-12 schools and community colleges are constitutionally guaranteed around 40% of the state’s general fund. But public universities have no such ironclad dibs on state money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature’s top budget and policy adviser, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5112#:~:text=Recommend%20Reducing%20or%20Eliminating%20Base%20Increases,4.2%C2%A0percent%20and%203.5%C2%A0percent%2C%20respectively.\">recommended smaller increases for the universities in February\u003c/a>. The office cited projected multibillion-dollar state deficits. And it argued that both systems can still rely on new revenue from their \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/11/uc-tuition/\">annual\u003c/a> tuition \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2023/09/cal-state-tuition-2/\">hikes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084670\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12084670 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about his state budget proposal on May 14, 2026, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s eight-year tenure coincided with dramatic spikes in state spending for each system. The year before he took office, the UC and Cal State each received \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/publication/e/2018-19/Agency/6013\">about $3.7\u003c/a> billion in state support. The latest budget act sends more than $5 billion to each system from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a growth of 50% — but less than the 80% in \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2018-19/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pdf#page=2\">overall\u003c/a> state \u003ca href=\"https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2026-06/floor-report-of-the-2026-27-budget-june-27-2026_5.pdf#page=9\">spending\u003c/a> increase Sacramento approved from the general fund during that span.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest university increases are a combination of new ongoing money for the two university systems and the restoration of more than $100 million in funding cuts that lawmakers applied to both the UC and Cal State in last year’s budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That drop in money prompted an ongoing impasse between Cal State and unionized workers. Cal State argued the funding cut prevented the system from honoring full raises for thousands of its staff; some unions disagreed by pointing to the loan the state offered Cal State to make up for last year’s cut. Cal State said that doesn’t count since it has to repay that loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087829\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087829\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the California State University Employees Union march across the San Francisco State University campus during a rally on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One large union of 36,000 administrative and groundskeeping workers, CSUEU, filed an unfair labor practice charge against Cal State \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/lace1450h-1.pdf\">last July\u003c/a>. The union contends that last year’s budget triggered a union contract clause to put workers on higher experience levels. Each “step” increase comes with a 2% raise. Cal State advanced workers one step, but the union says some were supposed to climb five or more steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CSUEU expects to come to a deal with Cal State on the grievance in the next month — before the state California Public Employment Relations Board is set to issue a decision in August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also seeks 11% raises annually for the next three years. It hasn’t sought approval from its members to strike, but the union has \u003ca href=\"https://csueu.org/news?details=staff-bargaining-recap-june-1-2026\">threatened work stoppages.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students mostly benefit\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The budget deal continues to fully fund the Cal Grant, a politically popular program that has no guaranteed stream of funding like public K-12 schools and community colleges do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2015, the number of Cal Grant recipients has grown from around 330,000 to more than 450,000. State spending also leaped from about $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A major reason for the expansion of students receiving the grant is a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2021/06/california-college-budget/#:~:text=Cal%20Grants%20coming%20to%20twice%20as%20many%20community%20college%20students\">set of relaxed rules lawmakers approved in 2021\u003c/a>. Those permitted more than 100,000 community college students older than 28 to qualify for the Cal Grant each year. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that Cal Grant’s costs grew by $167 million last year just from those rule changes alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk on campus at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Sept. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The annual tuition hikes at UC, starting in 2022, and Cal State, beginning in 2024, have also pushed the price tag on the Cal Grant higher. About a quarter of the increased costs of Cal Grants for UC and CSU in the last decade is due to tuition increases, the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5127#:~:text=We%20estimate%20that%20larger%20Cal%20Grant%20awards%20from%20UC%20and%20CSU%20tuition%20increases%20account%20for%20roughly%20one%E2%80%91quarter%20of%20the%20growth%20in%20Cal%20Grant%20costs%20between%202015%E2%80%9116%20and%202024%E2%80%9125.\">analyst’s office wrote in February\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A smaller financial aid program is dropping in value, however. The Middle Class Scholarship will receive $680 million, enough for an average of about $2,000 for its roughly 350,000 UC and Cal State student recipients. Last year Sacramento funded the program at nearly $1 billion, and the average award was $3,000. The drop in spending was a way to balance the state budget, which cannot run deficits.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>The decrease may mean students work more hours or take out loans, though most \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/new-data-shows-uc-degrees-deliver-strong-earnings-and-economic-mobility#:~:text=AT%20A%20GLANCE%3A-,Affordability,-%3A%20Over%2060\">UC\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/government/Advocacy-and-State-Relations/legislativereports1/Institutional-Financial-Aid-Report-signed-2026.pdf#page=2\">Cal State\u003c/a> undergraduates complete their degrees with no debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bond money is a mixed record\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Still, higher education fell short in legislator-backed bonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One measure that appears to be dead for now is a $12 billion bond that would award science grants to universities and other research organizations. The UC and the union of graduate student workers, whose wages often rely on grant research money, advocated fiercely for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposed by Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/scott-wiener-100936\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a>, a Democrat from San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb895\">the measure\u003c/a> was viewed as a backstop against the Trump administration’s aggressive attempts to terminate existing and new research funding for the University of California and other campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085953\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085953\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during an election night event at his campaign headquarters in San Francisco on June 2, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trump alleged the affected grants violated his prohibitions on research into diversity issues and climate change; many of the grants sought to better understand diseases, new pharmaceuticals, cancer and dementia. The UC system alone collected $3 billion in federal research grant money in 2024-25 — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/rbudget/2026-27-budget-detail.pdf#page=21\">nearly half\u003c/a> of its research funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point last year the Trump administration froze or terminated more than 1,000 California science grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. Public tracking site \u003ca href=\"https://grant-witness.us/nih-data.html\">Grant Witness indicates\u003c/a> that most of those have been \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/09/ucla-research-grants/\">restored\u003c/a> through various court orders \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/11/uc/\">after professors\u003c/a> sued last year. But tens of millions of dollars in grants remain on pause in California from those research agencies, while nearly $900 million is\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb895#:~:text=U.S.%20Environmental%20Protection%20Agency\"> frozen\u003c/a> from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a legislative analysis for Wiener’s measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/altadena-small-business-recovery/#:~:text=Wiener%2C%20to%20CalMatters%20during%20a%20press%20call%20Friday%3A%20%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s%20important%20for%20California%20just%20to%20be%20like%20a%20rock%20in%20the%20storm%2C%20so%20that%20we%E2%80%99re%20just%20doing%20science%20here%20and%20investing%20in%20science%20%E2%80%A6%20regardless%20of%20what%E2%80%99s%20happening%20with%20the%20federal%20government%20at%20that%20moment%20in%20time.%E2%80%9D\">told CalMatters in January\u003c/a> that the bond funding would protect California from an unpredictable Washington, D.C. While Trump sought major cuts to science research agencies in his proposed budget, Congress rebuffed him. Still, experts believe fewer grants \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-likely-award-fewer-grants-it-races-spend-2026-budget\">will be awarded to researchers\u003c/a> under new Trump administration funding rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s bond measure sailed through the Senate but stalled in the Assembly, never getting out of a key committee in time to beat the deadline to appear on the November ballot.[aside postID=news_12086267 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/YosemiteGetty.jpg']Nick Miller, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Salinas, said in an email that “Trump’s full-scale assault on California touches nearly every public service and program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Legislators face real, painful choices,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several legislative and political insiders told CalMatters that another reason the science research bond didn’t advance was because some lawmakers worried it would lower the chances that voters in November approve an $11 billion affordable housing bond. That housing measure was a priority for the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another proposed bond would have allowed the UC and Cal State to reduce their backlog of aging structures and build new ones. An effort by Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/david-alvarez-112993\">David Alvarez\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Chula Vista, to put a measure on the November ballot fizzled by late June. It had no price tag. His office said that Newsom’s Department of Finance determined that the state lacked the money in future budgets to repay the debt owed on such a bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal State reports that more than half of its academic buildings \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/Investing-in-the-CSUs-Facilities-Needs-is-Investing-in-Californias-Future.aspx#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20the%20CSU%E2%80%99s%20academic%20buildings%20are%20more%20than%2050%20years%20old\">are at least 50 years old\u003c/a>. The system’s five-year construction plan includes $24 billion in projects. UC’s campuses and hospitals say they’re short $46 billion in funding for infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students and faculty \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/04/deferred-maintenance-cal-state-uc/\">in recent years\u003c/a> complained of broken air conditioners during heat waves and downed heaters when the mercury drops. The temperature swings affect expensive laboratory equipment and campuses have also \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4657#:~:text=as%20well%20as%20frequent%20flooding\">endured floods\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last time voters approved a facilities bond for the public universities was 2006. Both systems can issue bonds for construction, but their borrowing ability is limited because those debt payments come out of their annual budgets. Voters rejected a $15 billion facilities bond for schools in 2020 that would have provided the two systems $2 billion each. A subsequent bond that voters approved excluded UC and Cal State entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12063635\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12063635\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California, on Oct. 9, 2018. \u003ccite>(Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s too soon to plan for 2028 ballot measures but a facilities bond will remain within Alvarez’s priorities for sure,” spokesperson Chris Jonsmyr wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A silver construction lining is student dormitory money included in the $11 billion affordable housing bond measure on the ballot this November. If voters approve, Cal State and UC would each get $175 million to continue a state program to build housing that campuses would rent to low-income students at below market rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For UC, $175 million may be enough to construct around 1,700 beds for low-income students. Housing plans approved by the UC Board of Regents in the past four years that CalMatters reviewed range from $200,000 to $300,000 per bed — high costs fueled by ever-rising construction expenses and stratospheric land prices where the mostly coastal campuses are located.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall 9,900 UC students were on waitlists for campus housing, according to data CalMatters requested from the UC Office of the President. The potential addition of affordable beds would complement UC’s ongoing housing construction blitz. It intends to add some 15,000 additional student housing slots by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system needs it: The average occupancy rate is 104% across the system’s student housing network, UC data show. That means rooms designed as doubles become triples to absorb the inflow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/07/newsom-uc-cal-state-billion-dollars-more/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Since Gavin Newsom became governor, state support for California’s public universities has grown by 50%.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California’s\u003c/a> public colleges and universities emerged as winners in the latest state budget after lawmakers sent them hundreds of millions of dollars in new public spending. However, that largesse was tempered by decisions by Democrats in Sacramento to reject bond measures that could have awarded campuses billions more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The changes were enshrined in the state budget for 2026-27 that the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/06/california-gavin-newsom-final-budget-deal/\">approved last month\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students were also major beneficiaries, as lawmakers continued to support one of the nation’s most generous state financial aid programs. The Cal Grant, which generally covers tuition at the University of California and California State University and partial tuition at private colleges, remains fully funded as part of an ongoing commitment by lawmakers and Newsom to keep student costs down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC and Cal State students receiving the Cal Grants will have their tuition charges waived, even as schools continue to raise tuition. And more affordable student housing may be built soon if voters approve a bond that lawmakers and Newsom put on the ballot for November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prioritizing higher education spending will be “a strong part of Gov. Newsom’s legacy,” said Jessica L. Thompson, a senior vice president at The Institute for College Access & Success. The organization is a think tank that advocates for increased financial aid for low-income students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038976\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12038976\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/250219-CSU-East-Bay-File-MD-12_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students make their way on campus at CSU East Bay on Feb. 19, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’ve never had to work to convince the executive branch that public higher education was incredibly important and central to a lot of the ambitions for the state and for the future, and that’s not something to take for granted,” she told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the smaller Middle Class Scholarship, which last year awarded recipients an average of $3,000 in aid to cover school expenses, will decrease to an average of $2,000 this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a breakdown of higher education’s wins and losses in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More money for UC, Cal State\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The UC and Cal State systems each received more than $500 million in ongoing taxpayer support that can be used to hire faculty as they enroll more students and keep up with other expenses, such as rising energy, insurance and staff health costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That public generosity isn’t guaranteed. Public K-12 schools and community colleges are constitutionally guaranteed around 40% of the state’s general fund. But public universities have no such ironclad dibs on state money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature’s top budget and policy adviser, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5112#:~:text=Recommend%20Reducing%20or%20Eliminating%20Base%20Increases,4.2%C2%A0percent%20and%203.5%C2%A0percent%2C%20respectively.\">recommended smaller increases for the universities in February\u003c/a>. The office cited projected multibillion-dollar state deficits. And it argued that both systems can still rely on new revenue from their \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/11/uc-tuition/\">annual\u003c/a> tuition \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2023/09/cal-state-tuition-2/\">hikes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084670\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12084670 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/GavinNewsomAP-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks about his state budget proposal on May 14, 2026, in Sacramento, California. \u003ccite>(Jeff Chiu/AP )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s eight-year tenure coincided with dramatic spikes in state spending for each system. The year before he took office, the UC and Cal State each received \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/publication/e/2018-19/Agency/6013\">about $3.7\u003c/a> billion in state support. The latest budget act sends more than $5 billion to each system from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a growth of 50% — but less than the 80% in \u003ca href=\"https://ebudget.ca.gov/2018-19/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pdf#page=2\">overall\u003c/a> state \u003ca href=\"https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2026-06/floor-report-of-the-2026-27-budget-june-27-2026_5.pdf#page=9\">spending\u003c/a> increase Sacramento approved from the general fund during that span.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest university increases are a combination of new ongoing money for the two university systems and the restoration of more than $100 million in funding cuts that lawmakers applied to both the UC and Cal State in last year’s budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That drop in money prompted an ongoing impasse between Cal State and unionized workers. Cal State argued the funding cut prevented the system from honoring full raises for thousands of its staff; some unions disagreed by pointing to the loan the state offered Cal State to make up for last year’s cut. Cal State said that doesn’t count since it has to repay that loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12087829\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12087829\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/061626CSU-Labor_GH_003-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the California State University Employees Union march across the San Francisco State University campus during a rally on June 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One large union of 36,000 administrative and groundskeeping workers, CSUEU, filed an unfair labor practice charge against Cal State \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/lace1450h-1.pdf\">last July\u003c/a>. The union contends that last year’s budget triggered a union contract clause to put workers on higher experience levels. Each “step” increase comes with a 2% raise. Cal State advanced workers one step, but the union says some were supposed to climb five or more steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CSUEU expects to come to a deal with Cal State on the grievance in the next month — before the state California Public Employment Relations Board is set to issue a decision in August.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union also seeks 11% raises annually for the next three years. It hasn’t sought approval from its members to strike, but the union has \u003ca href=\"https://csueu.org/news?details=staff-bargaining-recap-june-1-2026\">threatened work stoppages.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students mostly benefit\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The budget deal continues to fully fund the Cal Grant, a politically popular program that has no guaranteed stream of funding like public K-12 schools and community colleges do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2015, the number of Cal Grant recipients has grown from around 330,000 to more than 450,000. State spending also leaped from about $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A major reason for the expansion of students receiving the grant is a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2021/06/california-college-budget/#:~:text=Cal%20Grants%20coming%20to%20twice%20as%20many%20community%20college%20students\">set of relaxed rules lawmakers approved in 2021\u003c/a>. Those permitted more than 100,000 community college students older than 28 to qualify for the Cal Grant each year. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates that Cal Grant’s costs grew by $167 million last year just from those rule changes alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12058099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12058099\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/20250929_UCBERKELEY_GC-1-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk on campus at UC Berkeley in Berkeley on Sept. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The annual tuition hikes at UC, starting in 2022, and Cal State, beginning in 2024, have also pushed the price tag on the Cal Grant higher. About a quarter of the increased costs of Cal Grants for UC and CSU in the last decade is due to tuition increases, the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5127#:~:text=We%20estimate%20that%20larger%20Cal%20Grant%20awards%20from%20UC%20and%20CSU%20tuition%20increases%20account%20for%20roughly%20one%E2%80%91quarter%20of%20the%20growth%20in%20Cal%20Grant%20costs%20between%202015%E2%80%9116%20and%202024%E2%80%9125.\">analyst’s office wrote in February\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A smaller financial aid program is dropping in value, however. The Middle Class Scholarship will receive $680 million, enough for an average of about $2,000 for its roughly 350,000 UC and Cal State student recipients. Last year Sacramento funded the program at nearly $1 billion, and the average award was $3,000. The drop in spending was a way to balance the state budget, which cannot run deficits.\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>The decrease may mean students work more hours or take out loans, though most \u003ca href=\"https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/new-data-shows-uc-degrees-deliver-strong-earnings-and-economic-mobility#:~:text=AT%20A%20GLANCE%3A-,Affordability,-%3A%20Over%2060\">UC\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/government/Advocacy-and-State-Relations/legislativereports1/Institutional-Financial-Aid-Report-signed-2026.pdf#page=2\">Cal State\u003c/a> undergraduates complete their degrees with no debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bond money is a mixed record\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Still, higher education fell short in legislator-backed bonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One measure that appears to be dead for now is a $12 billion bond that would award science grants to universities and other research organizations. The UC and the union of graduate student workers, whose wages often rely on grant research money, advocated fiercely for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposed by Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/scott-wiener-100936\">Scott Wiener\u003c/a>, a Democrat from San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb895\">the measure\u003c/a> was viewed as a backstop against the Trump administration’s aggressive attempts to terminate existing and new research funding for the University of California and other campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085953\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085953\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260602-DISTRICT11SCOTTWIENER-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during an election night event at his campaign headquarters in San Francisco on June 2, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Trump alleged the affected grants violated his prohibitions on research into diversity issues and climate change; many of the grants sought to better understand diseases, new pharmaceuticals, cancer and dementia. The UC system alone collected $3 billion in federal research grant money in 2024-25 — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/rbudget/2026-27-budget-detail.pdf#page=21\">nearly half\u003c/a> of its research funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point last year the Trump administration froze or terminated more than 1,000 California science grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. Public tracking site \u003ca href=\"https://grant-witness.us/nih-data.html\">Grant Witness indicates\u003c/a> that most of those have been \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/09/ucla-research-grants/\">restored\u003c/a> through various court orders \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2025/11/uc/\">after professors\u003c/a> sued last year. But tens of millions of dollars in grants remain on pause in California from those research agencies, while nearly $900 million is\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb895#:~:text=U.S.%20Environmental%20Protection%20Agency\"> frozen\u003c/a> from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a legislative analysis for Wiener’s measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletter/altadena-small-business-recovery/#:~:text=Wiener%2C%20to%20CalMatters%20during%20a%20press%20call%20Friday%3A%20%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s%20important%20for%20California%20just%20to%20be%20like%20a%20rock%20in%20the%20storm%2C%20so%20that%20we%E2%80%99re%20just%20doing%20science%20here%20and%20investing%20in%20science%20%E2%80%A6%20regardless%20of%20what%E2%80%99s%20happening%20with%20the%20federal%20government%20at%20that%20moment%20in%20time.%E2%80%9D\">told CalMatters in January\u003c/a> that the bond funding would protect California from an unpredictable Washington, D.C. While Trump sought major cuts to science research agencies in his proposed budget, Congress rebuffed him. Still, experts believe fewer grants \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-likely-award-fewer-grants-it-races-spend-2026-budget\">will be awarded to researchers\u003c/a> under new Trump administration funding rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener’s bond measure sailed through the Senate but stalled in the Assembly, never getting out of a key committee in time to beat the deadline to appear on the November ballot.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nick Miller, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Salinas, said in an email that “Trump’s full-scale assault on California touches nearly every public service and program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Legislators face real, painful choices,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several legislative and political insiders told CalMatters that another reason the science research bond didn’t advance was because some lawmakers worried it would lower the chances that voters in November approve an $11 billion affordable housing bond. That housing measure was a priority for the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another proposed bond would have allowed the UC and Cal State to reduce their backlog of aging structures and build new ones. An effort by Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/david-alvarez-112993\">David Alvarez\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Chula Vista, to put a measure on the November ballot fizzled by late June. It had no price tag. His office said that Newsom’s Department of Finance determined that the state lacked the money in future budgets to repay the debt owed on such a bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal State reports that more than half of its academic buildings \u003ca href=\"https://www.calstate.edu/csu-system/news/Pages/Investing-in-the-CSUs-Facilities-Needs-is-Investing-in-Californias-Future.aspx#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20the%20CSU%E2%80%99s%20academic%20buildings%20are%20more%20than%2050%20years%20old\">are at least 50 years old\u003c/a>. The system’s five-year construction plan includes $24 billion in projects. UC’s campuses and hospitals say they’re short $46 billion in funding for infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students and faculty \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2025/04/deferred-maintenance-cal-state-uc/\">in recent years\u003c/a> complained of broken air conditioners during heat waves and downed heaters when the mercury drops. The temperature swings affect expensive laboratory equipment and campuses have also \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4657#:~:text=as%20well%20as%20frequent%20flooding\">endured floods\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last time voters approved a facilities bond for the public universities was 2006. Both systems can issue bonds for construction, but their borrowing ability is limited because those debt payments come out of their annual budgets. Voters rejected a $15 billion facilities bond for schools in 2020 that would have provided the two systems $2 billion each. A subsequent bond that voters approved excluded UC and Cal State entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12063635\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12063635\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/UCBerkeleyZellerbachHallGetty1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in Berkeley, California, on Oct. 9, 2018. \u003ccite>(Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s too soon to plan for 2028 ballot measures but a facilities bond will remain within Alvarez’s priorities for sure,” spokesperson Chris Jonsmyr wrote in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A silver construction lining is student dormitory money included in the $11 billion affordable housing bond measure on the ballot this November. If voters approve, Cal State and UC would each get $175 million to continue a state program to build housing that campuses would rent to low-income students at below market rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For UC, $175 million may be enough to construct around 1,700 beds for low-income students. Housing plans approved by the UC Board of Regents in the past four years that CalMatters reviewed range from $200,000 to $300,000 per bed — high costs fueled by ever-rising construction expenses and stratospheric land prices where the mostly coastal campuses are located.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last fall 9,900 UC students were on waitlists for campus housing, according to data CalMatters requested from the UC Office of the President. The potential addition of affordable beds would complement UC’s ongoing housing construction blitz. It intends to add some 15,000 additional student housing slots by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system needs it: The average occupancy rate is 104% across the system’s student housing network, UC data show. That means rooms designed as doubles become triples to absorb the inflow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2026/07/newsom-uc-cal-state-billion-dollars-more/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How a College of Marin Professor’s Influence Reshaped Students’ Academic Paths",
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"headTitle": "How a College of Marin Professor’s Influence Reshaped Students’ Academic Paths | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Babette Papineau enrolled at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">College of Marin\u003c/a> in the spring of 2023, she hoped to become a naturalist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 34-year-old mother of two took an environmental science class with professor Joe Mueller and quickly came to see him as an environmental hero and an expert in the field she hoped to enter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I put him on a pedestal,” Papineau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2024, Papineau said she reached out to Mueller for guidance after deciding to pursue the college’s natural history certificate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau and Mueller formed a professional and later, romantic relationship. They dated on and off until last summer, when Papineau filed a Title IX complaint against Mueller, alleging that he coerced her into a relationship and engaged in unwanted and inappropriate sexual conduct with her while she was his student and relied on him for mentorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau’s complaint is one of several accounts that reveal a broader pattern in the college’s natural history program. Interviews with multiple current and former College of Marin students, along with Title IX investigative records reviewed by KQED, describe what former students said was a decadeslong pattern in which Mueller blurred professional boundaries with students, played favorites in class and intimidated students he disliked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students said Mueller used mentorship, favoritism and control over required coursework in ways that altered their education, shaped their career decisions and created fear inside the department.[aside postID=news_12086091 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CA-Teacher-Discipline-Holly.jpg']College of Marin commissioned workplace investigation law firm Van Dermyden Makus to conduct a third-party evidentiary review of Papineau’s complaint. After a closed-door hearing in May, a third-party consultant found sufficient evidence to support multiple violations of the school’s sexual harassment policy and one violation of its sexual assault policy, according to documents reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller was placed on immediate leave on Thursday, according to a summary of remedies from the district. It said it planned to “initiate” his termination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the findings report, which was delivered to the school’s Title IX coordinator June 29, Mueller was previously found in violation of college harassment policies on two prior occasions since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one case, the school found that Mueller “exercised extremely poor judgement and unprofessional conduct and placed the District at risk of serious liability by engaging in sexual relationships with students … and taking students to a store with sexually-based items” during an overnight field trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the findings report, which was delivered to the school’s Title IX coordinator on June 29 and reviewed by KQED, investigators found that the college had previously found Mueller to have violated its harassment policies on two prior occasions since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller initially declined to comment on the details of the investigation but later provided a written statement disputing many of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following multiple requests to Mueller for comment, several current and former students contacted KQED to express support for the professor and describe positive experiences with him as an instructor and mentor.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mentorship and power\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mueller told investigators that he noticed Papineau’s talent as a writer in his spring 2023 course and later invited her and several classmates to give a presentation on the environmental impact of grass lawns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two remained in touch through email, discussing environmental issues and Papineau’s move to Fairfax, the small North Bay town where Mueller lived. Mueller later told investigators their friendship developed in summer 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she initially viewed Mueller as a mentor. She began working on a website for the natural history program at his request and later spoke on his behalf at a local Board of Supervisors meeting. The two also began hiking together and communicating more frequently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">College of Marin in Kentfield on May 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was very excited thinking, ‘Wow, this professor who was such an inspiration to me seems to be offering me mentorship, which was like a dream come true,’” Papineau told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said the relationship became romantic during a hike in summer 2024 when Mueller kissed her. She said the relationship was consensual at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was a little conflicted about it because I was like, ‘He is my hero, and so if he wants something more, I have to at least give that a try,’” Papineau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relationship changed after class resumed in fall 2024, Papineau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She enrolled in Mueller’s ecology class, the first of several classes she would take from him while they were romantically involved. At the time, College of Marin discouraged, but did not prohibit, relationships between instructors and students.[aside postID=news_12087201 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/CollegeGraduationGetty.jpg']In November 2025, the Marin Community College District \u003ca href=\"https://policies.marin.edu/sites/default/files/AP3430-ProhibitionofHarassment.pdf\">revised its harassment policy\u003c/a> to prohibit most relationships between students and employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Such relationships present an inherent imbalance of power and carry a significant risk of exploitation, compromising the integrity of the educational environment,” the policy states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The college did not respond to questions about what prompted the change. Spokesperson Nicole Cruz said it was campus policy not to comment on specific student or employment matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“College of Marin is committed to providing an academic and work environment free of unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual harassment under Title IX,” she said via email. “College of Marin has a robust and thorough process for investigating complaints of unlawful discrimination … Further, College of Marin strictly prohibits retaliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller told investigators that Papineau initiated most of their contact and frequently shared details about her personal life. At one point, he said she told him she’d broken up with her boyfriend and moved out of his residence, according to the investigators’ report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Mueller said: “In my 35 years of teaching, I have never, not once, asked a woman out on a date or accepted an invitation to go out on a date that was currently enrolled in one of my classes.” He said in two instances, in 2024 and 1998, women that he “was in well-established relationships with” wanted to take his classes and he could not prohibit them from enrolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau was first Mueller’s student in the spring of 2023 and told Mueller in May 2024, before they began dating, that she planned to take his course that fall, according to emails viewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A pattern of favoritism\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Before Papineau filed her complaint, other students said they had already come to view Mueller as a professor who rewarded favored students and marginalized others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lily Wales enrolled in Mueller’s environmental science course in fall 2024 during their first semester at College of Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller was “sort of legendary” on campus, according to Wales. But he was also known for being harsh with students, while singling out some — including Wales — as favorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He would pull me aside after class and tell me how good I was doing and say that he had a lot of connections in the biology world,” Wales said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088073\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088073\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JoeMueller.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JoeMueller.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JoeMueller-160x92.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">College of Marin biology professor Joe Mueller on a ridge overlooking Home Bay, part of Drake’s Estero on Jan. 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Cy Musiker/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wales, who was 17 at the time, said Mueller complimented them, offered networking opportunities and invited them on hikes, which they declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Wales said the attention was validating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was pretty young, and so I was really naive,” Wales said. “I was like, ‘It’s so great that so early on there’s somebody in the field that really wants to help me.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around midterms, however, they became uncomfortable with the attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When students were working on group projects, Wales said Mueller critiqued other groups while praising theirs without closely examining the work. Wales said they didn’t study well for the midterm exam and answered multiple questions incorrectly, but were awarded a perfect score.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was a moment where I was like, ‘I feel like there’s something going on and I don’t want it to get to a point of there being a relationship that’s being formed,’” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after, Wales said they stopped attending Mueller’s class and had avoided taking any of his others throughout their time at College of Marin. Mueller reached out to Wales to express his concern after they had missed a few weeks of class, according to an email viewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The cost of staying in good standing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Walker Newell took about five classes with Mueller during his first few years at College of Marin. He alleges that the professor gave preferential treatment to young, pretty women, while treating others harshly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s definitely people who get weeded out of the classroom that essentially [are] people that Joe doesn’t want in the classroom,” Newell told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell recalled that Mueller would often pause mid-lecture to make comments about a student who had an accommodation allowing them to take notes on a laptop. According to Newell, Mueller suggested that the student’s typing distracted classmates and slowed the class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">College of Marin in Kentfield on May 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another former student and college employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, similarly said Mueller was often uncooperative with accommodations and singled students out in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller said that he tries to discourage students from typing notes and asks those who do to speak with him about the benefits of handwriting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t disparage them; somebody might take it that way,” Mueller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller described himself as a dedicated teacher and said he would never intentionally treat students unfairly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell said Mueller liked to be seen as “all-knowing” and “grand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initially, Newell said, he benefited from Mueller’s favor, and it felt good to be praised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re on his side, it’s great. You get questions wrong on a test, and they get marked right,” Newell said. “But then, after a while, you just can’t see that happen to other people and just feel OK.”[aside postID=news_12084071 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260518-SCU_Sutter-med-school-02-KQED.jpg']That dynamic, Newell said, created an environment in which students understood there were advantages to remaining in Mueller’s good graces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell also described an incident during a two-week field course along the West Coast in 2022. According to Newell, Mueller offered to waive the cost of the trip if he helped transport equipment and assist with camp setup and breakdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they returned, though, Newell alleges that Mueller charged him hundreds of dollars, saying that he owed him for the cost of the trip, minus a small hourly wage for his work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller said in an email that Newell had been unable to complete the work he promised to do, that the two reached a compromise and that Mueller paid half of the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He got a damn good deal because I cared,” Mueller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell said Mueller repeatedly singled out a middle-aged female student during the trip. After several students stopped at a coffee shop without permission, Newell said Mueller focused his criticism on the woman and berated her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was bawling, and she was like, ‘I’m leaving,’” Newell said. “It was just hard to see a grown woman just full on crying and sobbing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Someone later reported Mueller’s conduct on the trip, and Newell said he was interviewed as part of an investigation. It remains unclear what conclusions the college reached or whether Mueller faced disciplinary action. College of Marin did not respond to questions about the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When the relationship changed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Between spring of 2024 and summer 2025, Papineau and Mueller exchanged dozens of emails reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau wrote about kissing and being with Mueller, and said she had dreams of them marrying and living together with her daughters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau also expressed concerns about Mueller’s reactions to her interactions with male classmates and said she felt pressured to manage his emotions. She said that during his fall ecology class, she sat near the edge of the room and focused her attention almost exclusively on him because she worried about upsetting him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088108 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Babette Papineau stands for a portrait in her home in Fairfax, California, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Papineau is a student at the College of Marin and filed a Title IX complaint against her professor, Joe Mueller, after she said he coerced her into a relationship. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After she said she had learned that Mueller previously dated former students, Papineau wrote to him in an email that she “felt almost like I was an insect caught in [his] web.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another email, Mueller acknowledged previous relationships with former students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[W]hen I was first teaching, I didn’t realize how dating former students could lead to problems,” he wrote. “It was certainly not of a predatory nature, as back then I was very shy and only dated women that pursued me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she threatened to end their relationship in fall 2024. She alleges that Mueller warned that doing so would jeopardize her future in the natural history program. Mueller teaches several courses required for the natural history certificate, including some that other instructors do not offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The story became: ‘Think about your future, think about your career. If we are not together, you cannot carry on in this department,’” Papineau said.[aside postID=news_12084624 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-21-at-10.21.25%E2%80%AFAM.jpeg']“Education, for me, it’s given me purpose. So the threat of that being taken away was absolutely not something I was OK with. And so I stayed in that with Joe [Mueller],” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In emails, Mueller expressed frustration about the couple’s lack of physical intimacy and questioned whether Papineau’s feelings for him were fading. Papineau said that after she told Mueller she didn’t want to be intimate because of past trauma, he paid for therapy and expected updates about her sessions and whether she felt closer to being comfortable having sex with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also sent what he called “everlasting love assignments” — quiz-style questionnaires about their relationship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you could travel anywhere in the world with me, where would you go? What would we do? … Remember, due to the nature of the exercise, you must include love in at least one answer,” one of the quizzes stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we were together in physical presence, you could tell that I wasn’t comfortable,” Papineau said. “So part of my job was to make up for that in writing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she became increasingly dependent on Mueller. He paid her for work on the book project and contributed more than $11,000 toward her rent, according to copies of checks reviewed by KQED. He also paid more than $2,000 toward therapy expenses, according to images of transaction records reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two continued dating until spring 2025. Even after they broke up, they remained in contact and continued collaborating on a book project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she ultimately filed her Title IX complaint after learning that other students had similar experiences. What she initially viewed as mentorship had become the foundation of a complaint that raised broader questions about power, favoritism and influence within the college’s natural history program.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students who walked away\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In March 2025, Papineau confided in another professor in the geology department, who later confirmed the conversation to Title IX investigators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the investigative report, the professor, who co-taught multiple classes with Mueller, said other students had raised concerns about Mueller’s fairness. The professor also recalled a female student asking in 2017 whether anyone else taught one of Mueller’s classes because she wanted to avoid taking a course with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some students, avoiding Mueller was difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12085020 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A directional sign at College of Marin in Kentfield on May 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The difficult thing for a lot of students is that [Mueller] is the only teacher that teaches [environmental science] and, I think, three of his other classes,” Wales said. “If you need any of the classes that he teaches, there’s no other option.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Wales stopped attending Mueller’s class in fall 2024, they allege that they received an F that temporarily placed them on academic probation. They later petitioned to have the grade removed from their record. Wales said the four-year university they hope to transfer to does not require Mueller’s course — a factor in their decision to apply there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell also altered his plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of pursuing College of Marin’s natural history certificate, which required additional classes taught only by Mueller, he switched to biology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau changed her major to philosophy and said she no longer believed a future in natural history was feasible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taken together, the students described a program in which one professor’s influence extended beyond the classroom and shaped decisions about majors, certificates, careers and whether students remained in the field at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did meet people frequently who were like, ‘Be careful around Joe,’” Papineau said. “But I didn’t believe that for a long time until I saw it for myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Babette Papineau enrolled at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/marin-county\">College of Marin\u003c/a> in the spring of 2023, she hoped to become a naturalist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 34-year-old mother of two took an environmental science class with professor Joe Mueller and quickly came to see him as an environmental hero and an expert in the field she hoped to enter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I put him on a pedestal,” Papineau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the summer of 2024, Papineau said she reached out to Mueller for guidance after deciding to pursue the college’s natural history certificate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau and Mueller formed a professional and later, romantic relationship. They dated on and off until last summer, when Papineau filed a Title IX complaint against Mueller, alleging that he coerced her into a relationship and engaged in unwanted and inappropriate sexual conduct with her while she was his student and relied on him for mentorship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau’s complaint is one of several accounts that reveal a broader pattern in the college’s natural history program. Interviews with multiple current and former College of Marin students, along with Title IX investigative records reviewed by KQED, describe what former students said was a decadeslong pattern in which Mueller blurred professional boundaries with students, played favorites in class and intimidated students he disliked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Students said Mueller used mentorship, favoritism and control over required coursework in ways that altered their education, shaped their career decisions and created fear inside the department.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>College of Marin commissioned workplace investigation law firm Van Dermyden Makus to conduct a third-party evidentiary review of Papineau’s complaint. After a closed-door hearing in May, a third-party consultant found sufficient evidence to support multiple violations of the school’s sexual harassment policy and one violation of its sexual assault policy, according to documents reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller was placed on immediate leave on Thursday, according to a summary of remedies from the district. It said it planned to “initiate” his termination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the findings report, which was delivered to the school’s Title IX coordinator June 29, Mueller was previously found in violation of college harassment policies on two prior occasions since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one case, the school found that Mueller “exercised extremely poor judgement and unprofessional conduct and placed the District at risk of serious liability by engaging in sexual relationships with students … and taking students to a store with sexually-based items” during an overnight field trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the findings report, which was delivered to the school’s Title IX coordinator on June 29 and reviewed by KQED, investigators found that the college had previously found Mueller to have violated its harassment policies on two prior occasions since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller initially declined to comment on the details of the investigation but later provided a written statement disputing many of the allegations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following multiple requests to Mueller for comment, several current and former students contacted KQED to express support for the professor and describe positive experiences with him as an instructor and mentor.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mentorship and power\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mueller told investigators that he noticed Papineau’s talent as a writer in his spring 2023 course and later invited her and several classmates to give a presentation on the environmental impact of grass lawns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two remained in touch through email, discussing environmental issues and Papineau’s move to Fairfax, the small North Bay town where Mueller lived. Mueller later told investigators their friendship developed in summer 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she initially viewed Mueller as a mentor. She began working on a website for the natural history program at his request and later spoke on his behalf at a local Board of Supervisors meeting. The two also began hiking together and communicating more frequently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085022\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085022\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00111_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">College of Marin in Kentfield on May 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was very excited thinking, ‘Wow, this professor who was such an inspiration to me seems to be offering me mentorship, which was like a dream come true,’” Papineau told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said the relationship became romantic during a hike in summer 2024 when Mueller kissed her. She said the relationship was consensual at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was a little conflicted about it because I was like, ‘He is my hero, and so if he wants something more, I have to at least give that a try,’” Papineau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relationship changed after class resumed in fall 2024, Papineau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She enrolled in Mueller’s ecology class, the first of several classes she would take from him while they were romantically involved. At the time, College of Marin discouraged, but did not prohibit, relationships between instructors and students.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In November 2025, the Marin Community College District \u003ca href=\"https://policies.marin.edu/sites/default/files/AP3430-ProhibitionofHarassment.pdf\">revised its harassment policy\u003c/a> to prohibit most relationships between students and employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Such relationships present an inherent imbalance of power and carry a significant risk of exploitation, compromising the integrity of the educational environment,” the policy states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The college did not respond to questions about what prompted the change. Spokesperson Nicole Cruz said it was campus policy not to comment on specific student or employment matters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“College of Marin is committed to providing an academic and work environment free of unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual harassment under Title IX,” she said via email. “College of Marin has a robust and thorough process for investigating complaints of unlawful discrimination … Further, College of Marin strictly prohibits retaliation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller told investigators that Papineau initiated most of their contact and frequently shared details about her personal life. At one point, he said she told him she’d broken up with her boyfriend and moved out of his residence, according to the investigators’ report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Mueller said: “In my 35 years of teaching, I have never, not once, asked a woman out on a date or accepted an invitation to go out on a date that was currently enrolled in one of my classes.” He said in two instances, in 2024 and 1998, women that he “was in well-established relationships with” wanted to take his classes and he could not prohibit them from enrolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau was first Mueller’s student in the spring of 2023 and told Mueller in May 2024, before they began dating, that she planned to take his course that fall, according to emails viewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A pattern of favoritism\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Before Papineau filed her complaint, other students said they had already come to view Mueller as a professor who rewarded favored students and marginalized others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lily Wales enrolled in Mueller’s environmental science course in fall 2024 during their first semester at College of Marin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller was “sort of legendary” on campus, according to Wales. But he was also known for being harsh with students, while singling out some — including Wales — as favorites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He would pull me aside after class and tell me how good I was doing and say that he had a lot of connections in the biology world,” Wales said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088073\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088073\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JoeMueller.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JoeMueller.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JoeMueller-160x92.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">College of Marin biology professor Joe Mueller on a ridge overlooking Home Bay, part of Drake’s Estero on Jan. 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Cy Musiker/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wales, who was 17 at the time, said Mueller complimented them, offered networking opportunities and invited them on hikes, which they declined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, Wales said the attention was validating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was pretty young, and so I was really naive,” Wales said. “I was like, ‘It’s so great that so early on there’s somebody in the field that really wants to help me.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around midterms, however, they became uncomfortable with the attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When students were working on group projects, Wales said Mueller critiqued other groups while praising theirs without closely examining the work. Wales said they didn’t study well for the midterm exam and answered multiple questions incorrectly, but were awarded a perfect score.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was a moment where I was like, ‘I feel like there’s something going on and I don’t want it to get to a point of there being a relationship that’s being formed,’” they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after, Wales said they stopped attending Mueller’s class and had avoided taking any of his others throughout their time at College of Marin. Mueller reached out to Wales to express his concern after they had missed a few weeks of class, according to an email viewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The cost of staying in good standing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Walker Newell took about five classes with Mueller during his first few years at College of Marin. He alleges that the professor gave preferential treatment to young, pretty women, while treating others harshly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s definitely people who get weeded out of the classroom that essentially [are] people that Joe doesn’t want in the classroom,” Newell told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell recalled that Mueller would often pause mid-lecture to make comments about a student who had an accommodation allowing them to take notes on a laptop. According to Newell, Mueller suggested that the student’s typing distracted classmates and slowed the class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085021\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12085021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00067_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">College of Marin in Kentfield on May 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another former student and college employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, similarly said Mueller was often uncooperative with accommodations and singled students out in class.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller said that he tries to discourage students from typing notes and asks those who do to speak with him about the benefits of handwriting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t disparage them; somebody might take it that way,” Mueller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller described himself as a dedicated teacher and said he would never intentionally treat students unfairly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell said Mueller liked to be seen as “all-knowing” and “grand.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initially, Newell said, he benefited from Mueller’s favor, and it felt good to be praised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re on his side, it’s great. You get questions wrong on a test, and they get marked right,” Newell said. “But then, after a while, you just can’t see that happen to other people and just feel OK.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That dynamic, Newell said, created an environment in which students understood there were advantages to remaining in Mueller’s good graces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell also described an incident during a two-week field course along the West Coast in 2022. According to Newell, Mueller offered to waive the cost of the trip if he helped transport equipment and assist with camp setup and breakdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they returned, though, Newell alleges that Mueller charged him hundreds of dollars, saying that he owed him for the cost of the trip, minus a small hourly wage for his work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mueller said in an email that Newell had been unable to complete the work he promised to do, that the two reached a compromise and that Mueller paid half of the cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He got a damn good deal because I cared,” Mueller said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell said Mueller repeatedly singled out a middle-aged female student during the trip. After several students stopped at a coffee shop without permission, Newell said Mueller focused his criticism on the woman and berated her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was bawling, and she was like, ‘I’m leaving,’” Newell said. “It was just hard to see a grown woman just full on crying and sobbing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Someone later reported Mueller’s conduct on the trip, and Newell said he was interviewed as part of an investigation. It remains unclear what conclusions the college reached or whether Mueller faced disciplinary action. College of Marin did not respond to questions about the investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When the relationship changed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Between spring of 2024 and summer 2025, Papineau and Mueller exchanged dozens of emails reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau wrote about kissing and being with Mueller, and said she had dreams of them marrying and living together with her daughters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau also expressed concerns about Mueller’s reactions to her interactions with male classmates and said she felt pressured to manage his emotions. She said that during his fall ecology class, she sat near the edge of the room and focused her attention almost exclusively on him because she worried about upsetting him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088108\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088108 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/20260527-MarinCollegeProfessor-JY-05_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Babette Papineau stands for a portrait in her home in Fairfax, California, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. Papineau is a student at the College of Marin and filed a Title IX complaint against her professor, Joe Mueller, after she said he coerced her into a relationship. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After she said she had learned that Mueller previously dated former students, Papineau wrote to him in an email that she “felt almost like I was an insect caught in [his] web.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In another email, Mueller acknowledged previous relationships with former students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[W]hen I was first teaching, I didn’t realize how dating former students could lead to problems,” he wrote. “It was certainly not of a predatory nature, as back then I was very shy and only dated women that pursued me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she threatened to end their relationship in fall 2024. She alleges that Mueller warned that doing so would jeopardize her future in the natural history program. Mueller teaches several courses required for the natural history certificate, including some that other instructors do not offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The story became: ‘Think about your future, think about your career. If we are not together, you cannot carry on in this department,’” Papineau said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Education, for me, it’s given me purpose. So the threat of that being taken away was absolutely not something I was OK with. And so I stayed in that with Joe [Mueller],” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In emails, Mueller expressed frustration about the couple’s lack of physical intimacy and questioned whether Papineau’s feelings for him were fading. Papineau said that after she told Mueller she didn’t want to be intimate because of past trauma, he paid for therapy and expected updates about her sessions and whether she felt closer to being comfortable having sex with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also sent what he called “everlasting love assignments” — quiz-style questionnaires about their relationship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you could travel anywhere in the world with me, where would you go? What would we do? … Remember, due to the nature of the exercise, you must include love in at least one answer,” one of the quizzes stated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we were together in physical presence, you could tell that I wasn’t comfortable,” Papineau said. “So part of my job was to make up for that in writing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she became increasingly dependent on Mueller. He paid her for work on the book project and contributed more than $11,000 toward her rent, according to copies of checks reviewed by KQED. He also paid more than $2,000 toward therapy expenses, according to images of transaction records reviewed by KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two continued dating until spring 2025. Even after they broke up, they remained in contact and continued collaborating on a book project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau said she ultimately filed her Title IX complaint after learning that other students had similar experiences. What she initially viewed as mentorship had become the foundation of a complaint that raised broader questions about power, favoritism and influence within the college’s natural history program.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Students who walked away\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In March 2025, Papineau confided in another professor in the geology department, who later confirmed the conversation to Title IX investigators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the investigative report, the professor, who co-taught multiple classes with Mueller, said other students had raised concerns about Mueller’s fairness. The professor also recalled a female student asking in 2017 whether anyone else taught one of Mueller’s classes because she wanted to avoid taking a course with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some students, avoiding Mueller was difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12085020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12085020 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260522-MARINPROFESSOR00007_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A directional sign at College of Marin in Kentfield on May 22, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The difficult thing for a lot of students is that [Mueller] is the only teacher that teaches [environmental science] and, I think, three of his other classes,” Wales said. “If you need any of the classes that he teaches, there’s no other option.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Wales stopped attending Mueller’s class in fall 2024, they allege that they received an F that temporarily placed them on academic probation. They later petitioned to have the grade removed from their record. Wales said the four-year university they hope to transfer to does not require Mueller’s course — a factor in their decision to apply there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newell also altered his plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of pursuing College of Marin’s natural history certificate, which required additional classes taught only by Mueller, he switched to biology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Papineau changed her major to philosophy and said she no longer believed a future in natural history was feasible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taken together, the students described a program in which one professor’s influence extended beyond the classroom and shaped decisions about majors, certificates, careers and whether students remained in the field at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I did meet people frequently who were like, ‘Be careful around Joe,’” Papineau said. “But I didn’t believe that for a long time until I saw it for myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "these-advocates-say-black-english-belongs-in-preschool-classrooms",
"title": "These Advocates Say Black English Belongs in Preschool Classrooms",
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"content": "\u003cp>Whether at home or at work as a policy strategist and university lecturer, Ashley Williams said she feels relaxed sliding between Black English and standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She didn’t feel comfortable communicating this way growing up in South Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said that when she was 3 or 4 years old, her grandmother would correct the way she pronounced words like “napkin” whenever she dropped the “p” sound. Her older sister and cousin also told her the way she spoke: “amongst our community wasn’t OK at the schoolhouse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generations of Black children grew up learning that their home language wasn’t acceptable in school or the workplace. Many internalized the belief that Black English — sometimes referred to as African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, African American language or Ebonics — is bad English, loaded with slang and grammatical errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with that comes a lot of shame and embarrassment because you’re being constantly corrected when you’re still in a moment when you’re just learning language,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams wants to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care & Education, she’s part of a movement to get preschool teachers and caregivers to \u003ca href=\"https://blackece.org/blackenglish/\">legitimize Black English\u003c/a> as a way to build children’s early literacy skills and honor their cultural identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work is personal for Williams because she doesn’t want her 2-year-old son to experience what she went through as a child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088575\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams, center, her wife Lauren Ford, right, and their son sit together during a portrait session at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. Williams, an educator and a co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE), works to create equity-minded policies in early childhood care for Black children like her own son. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last year and a half, the advocacy group, also known as BlackECE, has offered professional development training to spread the word about the importance of supporting Black English speakers the same way they support dual language learners, children who are learning two or more languages simultaneously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, most children under age 5 are dual language learners and the state’s Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, which was released by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recognizes \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforallkids.chhs.ca.gov/assets/pdfs/CA%20For%20All%20Kids%20-%20Master%20Plan%20Knowledge%20Brief%20-%20DLL.pdf\">the opportunity to develop bilingualism during the early years\u003c/a>, when children’s brains are developing rapidly. It calls on educators to affirm children’s home language even as they’re learning standard English in the classroom. The 10-year road map lays out specific recommendations, such as training the workforce to support dual language learners to foster bilingualism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BlackECE, along with \u003ca href=\"https://earlyedgecalifornia.org/early-edge-policy-corner-advancing-language-justice-the-black-english-language-workgroup/\">other early childhood advocacy groups\u003c/a> and education experts, said those recommendations should also apply to children who speak Black English.[aside postID=news_12087644 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619_Juneteenth_GC-13.jpg']“We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,” said Xigrid Soto-Boykin, an early childhood language expert at Arizona State University. “We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Training educators to recognize the legitimacy of Black English is important, she said, because although elements of the language have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0ifECyfPI\">embraced by young people\u003c/a> and popularized around the world, misperceptions persist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200623000856\">Soto-Boykin co-authored a 2023 study\u003c/a> that found that white early childhood educators who were familiar with Black English or received training to support children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds were more likely to have positive views about the language. Those with less knowledge or training were more likely to believe that it hinders students’ achievement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said these beliefs can dramatically affect the lives of Black children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see it in terms of referrals to special education; we see it in how sometimes teachers correct children and say, ‘We don’t speak like this here in the classroom,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A national study found that Black children are \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30973798/#affiliation-1\">disproportionately diagnosed with speech and language impairments\u003c/a> in 14% of states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin’s study noted that veteran educators were more likely to have negative beliefs about Black English, possibly because they began their careers in the 1990s, around when the Oakland Unified School District’s Board of Education proposed using Ebonics to help Black students learn standard English. The idea sparked nationwide controversy, with critics disparaging the board for trying to dumb down education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088576\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088576 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams and her son raise their hands up in the air after saying a prayer over food alongside his Williams’ grandmother, Sonja Pollard, and her aunt Sharron Allen, during a family Juneteenth celebration in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By contrast, early-career educators were more likely to have positive beliefs about Black English because they may have started their careers during the Black Lives Matter movement and have a greater awareness of the broader racial reckoning that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the perception of how children speak sits at the intersection of Blackness, that perception is nine times out of 10 negative,” Williams said. “Like, you’re from the hood, you’re not speaking correctly, you’re uneducated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An awareness of Black English as a language is key, Williams said, “because then it allows that educator on the webinar to show up to work the next day and say, ‘There’s something here. … There’s a system behind the way that you speak as a Black child, and I want to learn more about how to support that and help you understand more standard English.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In webinars led by BlackECE, training begins with an explanation that Black English grew out of the English adopted by millions of people captured in Africa and forced into slavery in British colonial America, starting in 1619. Some linguists theorize that because enslaved people had to pick up the language of their captors quickly, they developed a more streamlined version of English. Over centuries of segregation, that speech evolved into a distinct language with its own rules of grammar, usage and pronunciation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some characteristics of Black English include double negation of verbs and the “habitual be,” to describe a repeated or ongoing action, as in “We be playin’ with Legos all the time.” Linguists say this use of “be” is systematic and more nuanced than standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088577\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088577 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams holds her 2-year-old son as she and her family members fill their plates with food during a Juneteenth celebration at her home in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When children learn that their language is valid and beautiful and follows rules, I can’t even describe the pride they feel with that identity,” said \u003ca href=\"https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/education/faculty-staff/boutte_gloria.php\">Gloria Swindler Boutte\u003c/a>, an early childhood education professor at the University of South Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It keeps children from thinking, ‘I have to speak this way at school and this way at home, so maybe there’s something wrong with the people at home and how they speak,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators don’t have to try to speak Black English to affirm the language, she said. They could provide books that feature Black English or identify Black English when they hear children speak it and “expand their repertoire” with alternative words or expressions in standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin suggests creating a vocabulary wall that includes words in Black English and standard English, so that children can make meaning with all the languages they know. For example, educators could help children understand that other words to describe something good could be “awesome, great, dope or fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators could also invite community members who speak Black English to visit the classroom and tell stories, she said.[aside postID=news_12070361 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/CaliforniaReparationsGetty.jpg']Aisha White, founder of a program at the University of Pittsburgh focused on \u003ca href=\"https://www.racepride.pitt.edu/about-pride/\">helping young Black children develop a positive racial identity\u003c/a>, said Black parents could also benefit from some training around Black English. She said that when she showed segments of a documentary called \u003ca href=\"https://www.talkingblackinamerica.org/\">\u003cem>Talking Black in America\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and held discussions with Black parents, many told her they would stop correcting the way their children speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the most impactful projects because there were parents who came into the sessions with negative attitudes toward AAVE, and then decided they will not correct their children’s language anymore,” she said. “That is remarkable that parents would be willing to change their parenting behaviors based on what they learned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said this kind of support doesn’t cost anything, but can strengthen educators’ relationships with Black children and their families. On the other hand, the tendency to correct the way they speak comes at a personal cost to the kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was in third grade, Williams won a scholarship to attend summer camp, where for the first time she was surrounded by mostly white kids. She remembers picking up on some of the ways her campmates talked and listening to Ace of Bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came home, she remembers her sister and cousin teasing her for “talking white.” In fourth grade, a teacher who was “adamant about proper English” punished the Black students in her class by making them repeatedly enunciate words like “what” and “why.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me feel so insecure, but at the same time that was the language that I needed to be considered in the gifted program in elementary school and be considered the student who always got to lead the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning to code-switch and “talk white” in school helped her excel academically. Williams went on to study child development at San Francisco State University and earn a doctorate in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088579\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088579 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams records her wife Lauren Ford as they dance together during a family Juneteenth celebration at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But having to code-switch to fit in could be tiresome and felt inauthentic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I’m in spaces where I feel the need to code-switch, my imposter syndrome is through the roof. I’m already feeling like, ‘I don’t belong here, I shouldn’t belong here,’” she said. “It’s like my throat closes because I am overthinking so much about what I’m saying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she learned more about Black English, Williams began to feel freer to speak a mix of Black English and standard English wherever she goes. The blending of two languages is called \u003ca href=\"https://wida.wisc.edu/news/guide-translanguaging-classroom\">translanguaging\u003c/a>, a concept increasingly recognized in education as a valuable teaching tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really at the heart of this, it’s about affirming our identity and our culture and our humanity and not having to perform as something you’re not just to be accepted in a room,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond raising awareness, BlackECE wants to include Black English speakers in California policies mandating state-funded preschools and child care programs to identify dual language learners to better understand their needs and design curriculum to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that with being deemed multilingual learners, there’s resources, there’s supports, there’s teacher training,” Williams said. “And we’re saying, ‘Yes, and we belong in that conversation too.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Xigrid Soto-Boykin as the director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. She is a researcher and the director of language justice and learning equity at the Children’s Equity Project.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Does Repair Look Like? Start Here\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What does reparations actually mean? Who is pursuing it? What policies are moving forward, and which remain symbolic? As conversations about repair grow across the country, understanding the facts has never been more important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subscribe to \u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">A Declaration of Repair\u003c/a>, a weekly newsletter from KQED that follows the people, policies and ideas shaping the reparations movement. Through reporting, accountability tracking and analysis, we help readers understand how past harms continue to shape the present — and explore what efforts to repair them look like today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">SUBSCRIBE HERE\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Generations of Black children grew up learning that their home language isn’t acceptable in school or the workplace. A movement is underway in California to change that.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Whether at home or at work as a policy strategist and university lecturer, Ashley Williams said she feels relaxed sliding between Black English and standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She didn’t feel comfortable communicating this way growing up in South Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said that when she was 3 or 4 years old, her grandmother would correct the way she pronounced words like “napkin” whenever she dropped the “p” sound. Her older sister and cousin also told her the way she spoke: “amongst our community wasn’t OK at the schoolhouse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generations of Black children grew up learning that their home language wasn’t acceptable in school or the workplace. Many internalized the belief that Black English — sometimes referred to as African American Vernacular English, or AAVE, African American language or Ebonics — is bad English, loaded with slang and grammatical errors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But with that comes a lot of shame and embarrassment because you’re being constantly corrected when you’re still in a moment when you’re just learning language,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams wants to change that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care & Education, she’s part of a movement to get preschool teachers and caregivers to \u003ca href=\"https://blackece.org/blackenglish/\">legitimize Black English\u003c/a> as a way to build children’s early literacy skills and honor their cultural identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work is personal for Williams because she doesn’t want her 2-year-old son to experience what she went through as a child.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12088575\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams, center, her wife Lauren Ford, right, and their son sit together during a portrait session at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. Williams, an educator and a co-founder of Black Californians United for Early Care and Education (BlackECE), works to create equity-minded policies in early childhood care for Black children like her own son. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want my son to walk into any room and feel like his voice is not valued or his perspective can’t be heard because he’s not saying it in one way or the other,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last year and a half, the advocacy group, also known as BlackECE, has offered professional development training to spread the word about the importance of supporting Black English speakers the same way they support dual language learners, children who are learning two or more languages simultaneously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, most children under age 5 are dual language learners and the state’s Master Plan for Early Learning and Care, which was released by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020, recognizes \u003ca href=\"https://californiaforallkids.chhs.ca.gov/assets/pdfs/CA%20For%20All%20Kids%20-%20Master%20Plan%20Knowledge%20Brief%20-%20DLL.pdf\">the opportunity to develop bilingualism during the early years\u003c/a>, when children’s brains are developing rapidly. It calls on educators to affirm children’s home language even as they’re learning standard English in the classroom. The 10-year road map lays out specific recommendations, such as training the workforce to support dual language learners to foster bilingualism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BlackECE, along with \u003ca href=\"https://earlyedgecalifornia.org/early-edge-policy-corner-advancing-language-justice-the-black-english-language-workgroup/\">other early childhood advocacy groups\u003c/a> and education experts, said those recommendations should also apply to children who speak Black English.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We talk about multilinguals, but we don’t include Black children who may be African-American English speakers,” said Xigrid Soto-Boykin, an early childhood language expert at Arizona State University. “We completely miss this subgroup of children that could also benefit from their language backgrounds to be sustained, but also to be leveraged for their own learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Training educators to recognize the legitimacy of Black English is important, she said, because although elements of the language have been \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0ifECyfPI\">embraced by young people\u003c/a> and popularized around the world, misperceptions persist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200623000856\">Soto-Boykin co-authored a 2023 study\u003c/a> that found that white early childhood educators who were familiar with Black English or received training to support children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds were more likely to have positive views about the language. Those with less knowledge or training were more likely to believe that it hinders students’ achievement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said these beliefs can dramatically affect the lives of Black children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see it in terms of referrals to special education; we see it in how sometimes teachers correct children and say, ‘We don’t speak like this here in the classroom,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A national study found that Black children are \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30973798/#affiliation-1\">disproportionately diagnosed with speech and language impairments\u003c/a> in 14% of states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin’s study noted that veteran educators were more likely to have negative beliefs about Black English, possibly because they began their careers in the 1990s, around when the Oakland Unified School District’s Board of Education proposed using Ebonics to help Black students learn standard English. The idea sparked nationwide controversy, with critics disparaging the board for trying to dumb down education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088576\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088576 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams and her son raise their hands up in the air after saying a prayer over food alongside his Williams’ grandmother, Sonja Pollard, and her aunt Sharron Allen, during a family Juneteenth celebration in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By contrast, early-career educators were more likely to have positive beliefs about Black English because they may have started their careers during the Black Lives Matter movement and have a greater awareness of the broader racial reckoning that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the perception of how children speak sits at the intersection of Blackness, that perception is nine times out of 10 negative,” Williams said. “Like, you’re from the hood, you’re not speaking correctly, you’re uneducated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An awareness of Black English as a language is key, Williams said, “because then it allows that educator on the webinar to show up to work the next day and say, ‘There’s something here. … There’s a system behind the way that you speak as a Black child, and I want to learn more about how to support that and help you understand more standard English.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In webinars led by BlackECE, training begins with an explanation that Black English grew out of the English adopted by millions of people captured in Africa and forced into slavery in British colonial America, starting in 1619. Some linguists theorize that because enslaved people had to pick up the language of their captors quickly, they developed a more streamlined version of English. Over centuries of segregation, that speech evolved into a distinct language with its own rules of grammar, usage and pronunciation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some characteristics of Black English include double negation of verbs and the “habitual be,” to describe a repeated or ongoing action, as in “We be playin’ with Legos all the time.” Linguists say this use of “be” is systematic and more nuanced than standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088577\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088577 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-06-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams holds her 2-year-old son as she and her family members fill their plates with food during a Juneteenth celebration at her home in Contra Costa County, California, on June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“When children learn that their language is valid and beautiful and follows rules, I can’t even describe the pride they feel with that identity,” said \u003ca href=\"https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/education/faculty-staff/boutte_gloria.php\">Gloria Swindler Boutte\u003c/a>, an early childhood education professor at the University of South Carolina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It keeps children from thinking, ‘I have to speak this way at school and this way at home, so maybe there’s something wrong with the people at home and how they speak,’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators don’t have to try to speak Black English to affirm the language, she said. They could provide books that feature Black English or identify Black English when they hear children speak it and “expand their repertoire” with alternative words or expressions in standard English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soto-Boykin suggests creating a vocabulary wall that includes words in Black English and standard English, so that children can make meaning with all the languages they know. For example, educators could help children understand that other words to describe something good could be “awesome, great, dope or fire.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Educators could also invite community members who speak Black English to visit the classroom and tell stories, she said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Aisha White, founder of a program at the University of Pittsburgh focused on \u003ca href=\"https://www.racepride.pitt.edu/about-pride/\">helping young Black children develop a positive racial identity\u003c/a>, said Black parents could also benefit from some training around Black English. She said that when she showed segments of a documentary called \u003ca href=\"https://www.talkingblackinamerica.org/\">\u003cem>Talking Black in America\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and held discussions with Black parents, many told her they would stop correcting the way their children speak.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was one of the most impactful projects because there were parents who came into the sessions with negative attitudes toward AAVE, and then decided they will not correct their children’s language anymore,” she said. “That is remarkable that parents would be willing to change their parenting behaviors based on what they learned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said this kind of support doesn’t cost anything, but can strengthen educators’ relationships with Black children and their families. On the other hand, the tendency to correct the way they speak comes at a personal cost to the kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she was in third grade, Williams won a scholarship to attend summer camp, where for the first time she was surrounded by mostly white kids. She remembers picking up on some of the ways her campmates talked and listening to Ace of Bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she came home, she remembers her sister and cousin teasing her for “talking white.” In fourth grade, a teacher who was “adamant about proper English” punished the Black students in her class by making them repeatedly enunciate words like “what” and “why.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It made me feel so insecure, but at the same time that was the language that I needed to be considered in the gifted program in elementary school and be considered the student who always got to lead the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Learning to code-switch and “talk white” in school helped her excel academically. Williams went on to study child development at San Francisco State University and earn a doctorate in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12088579\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12088579 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/20260619-BlackEnglish-JY-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashley Williams records her wife Lauren Ford as they dance together during a family Juneteenth celebration at their home in Contra Costa County, California, on Friday, June 19, 2026. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But having to code-switch to fit in could be tiresome and felt inauthentic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I’m in spaces where I feel the need to code-switch, my imposter syndrome is through the roof. I’m already feeling like, ‘I don’t belong here, I shouldn’t belong here,’” she said. “It’s like my throat closes because I am overthinking so much about what I’m saying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As she learned more about Black English, Williams began to feel freer to speak a mix of Black English and standard English wherever she goes. The blending of two languages is called \u003ca href=\"https://wida.wisc.edu/news/guide-translanguaging-classroom\">translanguaging\u003c/a>, a concept increasingly recognized in education as a valuable teaching tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Really at the heart of this, it’s about affirming our identity and our culture and our humanity and not having to perform as something you’re not just to be accepted in a room,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond raising awareness, BlackECE wants to include Black English speakers in California policies mandating state-funded preschools and child care programs to identify dual language learners to better understand their needs and design curriculum to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know that with being deemed multilingual learners, there’s resources, there’s supports, there’s teacher training,” Williams said. “And we’re saying, ‘Yes, and we belong in that conversation too.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Xigrid Soto-Boykin as the director of the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University. She is a researcher and the director of language justice and learning equity at the Children’s Equity Project.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>***\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What Does Repair Look Like? Start Here\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>What does reparations actually mean? Who is pursuing it? What policies are moving forward, and which remain symbolic? As conversations about repair grow across the country, understanding the facts has never been more important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subscribe to \u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">A Declaration of Repair\u003c/a>, a weekly newsletter from KQED that follows the people, policies and ideas shaping the reparations movement. Through reporting, accountability tracking and analysis, we help readers understand how past harms continue to shape the present — and explore what efforts to repair them look like today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://airtable.com/appYRab8nOv1F5DoN/pag8qdExQMOokhv5S/form\">SUBSCRIBE HERE\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> will continue expanding subsidized childcare and make public school employees automatically eligible for state-funded preschools under a $352-billion budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins Wednesday, includes nearly $1.9 billion in funding to relieve the high cost of childcare for low-income families. Most of that funding will be allocated for childcare vouchers, and the state determined there’s enough existing funds to offer school employees access to the California State Preschool Program, which provides free early education in a variety of settings for families who earn \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/mb2603.asp\">up to the state median income\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Providers were disappointed by some elements of the budget that they said don’t reflect the actual cost of providing care, but parents who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086244/california-parents-on-waitlist-for-subsidized-childcare-anxious-over-proposed-budget-cuts\">have been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare\u003c/a> were encouraged by the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can see a light in the tunnel,” said Carmen Perez, a Novato mom who has been waiting more than 18 months for an open slot for her toddler son. “I hope we can get off the waiting list. That would be awesome.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget marks a recent reversal for Newsom, who had vowed in 2021 to dramatically increase access to childcare and fund more than 200,000 slots. But after an early push of adding almost 130,000 placements, the state paused the expansion for three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state was supposed to resume the rollout this fiscal year, but in May, Newsom instead proposed cutting 6,800 slots as part of his push to eliminate the state deficit. The Democratic-led legislature countered with a proposal to add 44,000 more before settling on the nearly 23,000 spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089607\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089607\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danielle Jorgenson, known to students as Teacher Dani, cheers for students as they jump during a preschool class at Los Medanos College Child Study Center in Pittsburg on Feb. 15, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of that funding will be allocated for vouchers, which families typically use to pay for home-based childcare, with a smaller portion for spaces at childcare centers for children under the age of 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers reminded the governor of his commitment to young children and families, and the governor somewhat reluctantly did agree to continue his own momentum to lift young kids,” said Bruce Fuller, an education policy professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller and his colleagues at the university’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood alliance found that during the period California expanded access to transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-old children, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082904/as-transitional-kindergarten-grows-hundreds-of-child-care-centers-close\">nearly 10% of community-based childcare programs and preschools shut their doors\u003c/a>. These private nonprofits struggled to maintain enrollment as 4-year-olds left for TK at public and charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the shuttered programs relied on state funding to provide the California State Preschool Program. Money for their programs came from the general fund, which can fluctuate depending on the state’s fiscal outlook.[aside postID=news_12086244 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260531-CALIFORNIABUDGETCHILDCARE00510_TV-KQED.jpg']To help stabilize these programs, this year’s budget shifts all funding for the state’s preschool program into Proposition 98, a 1988 ballot measure that guarantees minimum spending on education from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California School Board Association and the California Teachers Association opposed the move, saying it would weaken funding for TK-12 graders. Requests for comment from both groups about the final budget have not been returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller called the compromise to make all public school employees, including those who work for county offices of education and community colleges, eligible for the California State Preschool Program “a pretty good deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single parent earning $100,000 per year or a family of four earning $136,000 per year qualifies for the program. It prioritizes the lowest-income families, as well as children in child protective services or who have exceptional needs. The new rule means that school districts and community college employees could benefit from free early care and education. The budget also extends paid pregnancy leave for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers were able to put in place a sound policy to protect Pre-K dollars from downstream economic troubles,” Fuller said, adding that the compromise with the teachers’ union benefited both their own children and children around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and lawmakers also agreed to simplify a couple of eligibility rules: Families who live within a high-poverty school district are eligible for the state-funded programs and children can stay enrolled even if their parents earn more money after meeting income requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089615\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1777px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089615\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1777\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg 1777w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1777px) 100vw, 1777px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The majority of students enrolled in the transitional kindergarten program at Kingsley Elementary School come from Spanish-speaking families. Teacher Ana Quintanilla helps them learn basic letters and words. \u003ccite>(Ana Tintocalis/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Childcare providers applauded additional funding for the slots but were frustrated that Newsom and lawmakers only offered a 2% cost-of-living adjustment for state-subsidized childcare and preschool workers — less than half of what TK-12th grader teachers will get in the new budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are disappointed that the increase in rates doesn’t match the documented need for providers or the cost-of-living increase offered to our peer educators,” said Max Arias, chief negotiator for Child Care Providers United, a union representing home-based childcare providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also criticized the state for imposing more mandates for his members — to undergo emergency and disaster preparedness and response training — without accounting for their cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Adding slots alone doesn’t stabilize the childcare system,” said Heather Cleary, CEO of Peninsula Family Service, which runs subsidized childcare programs in San Mateo County. “The bigger challenge is that providers are being asked to do more with funding that doesn’t match the cost of operating high-quality programs, and the budget doesn’t necessarily address this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a> will continue expanding subsidized childcare and make public school employees automatically eligible for state-funded preschools under a $352-billion budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins Wednesday, includes nearly $1.9 billion in funding to relieve the high cost of childcare for low-income families. Most of that funding will be allocated for childcare vouchers, and the state determined there’s enough existing funds to offer school employees access to the California State Preschool Program, which provides free early education in a variety of settings for families who earn \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/ci/mb2603.asp\">up to the state median income\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Providers were disappointed by some elements of the budget that they said don’t reflect the actual cost of providing care, but parents who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086244/california-parents-on-waitlist-for-subsidized-childcare-anxious-over-proposed-budget-cuts\">have been waiting for a subsidy to help with childcare\u003c/a> were encouraged by the news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can see a light in the tunnel,” said Carmen Perez, a Novato mom who has been waiting more than 18 months for an open slot for her toddler son. “I hope we can get off the waiting list. That would be awesome.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget marks a recent reversal for Newsom, who had vowed in 2021 to dramatically increase access to childcare and fund more than 200,000 slots. But after an early push of adding almost 130,000 placements, the state paused the expansion for three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state was supposed to resume the rollout this fiscal year, but in May, Newsom instead proposed cutting 6,800 slots as part of his push to eliminate the state deficit. The Democratic-led legislature countered with a proposal to add 44,000 more before settling on the nearly 23,000 spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089607\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089607\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/240215-PreschoolSuspension-37-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Danielle Jorgenson, known to students as Teacher Dani, cheers for students as they jump during a preschool class at Los Medanos College Child Study Center in Pittsburg on Feb. 15, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of that funding will be allocated for vouchers, which families typically use to pay for home-based childcare, with a smaller portion for spaces at childcare centers for children under the age of 3.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers reminded the governor of his commitment to young children and families, and the governor somewhat reluctantly did agree to continue his own momentum to lift young kids,” said Bruce Fuller, an education policy professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller and his colleagues at the university’s Equity and Excellence in Early Childhood alliance found that during the period California expanded access to transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-old children, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12082904/as-transitional-kindergarten-grows-hundreds-of-child-care-centers-close\">nearly 10% of community-based childcare programs and preschools shut their doors\u003c/a>. These private nonprofits struggled to maintain enrollment as 4-year-olds left for TK at public and charter schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the shuttered programs relied on state funding to provide the California State Preschool Program. Money for their programs came from the general fund, which can fluctuate depending on the state’s fiscal outlook.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>To help stabilize these programs, this year’s budget shifts all funding for the state’s preschool program into Proposition 98, a 1988 ballot measure that guarantees minimum spending on education from the state’s general fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California School Board Association and the California Teachers Association opposed the move, saying it would weaken funding for TK-12 graders. Requests for comment from both groups about the final budget have not been returned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fuller called the compromise to make all public school employees, including those who work for county offices of education and community colleges, eligible for the California State Preschool Program “a pretty good deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A single parent earning $100,000 per year or a family of four earning $136,000 per year qualifies for the program. It prioritizes the lowest-income families, as well as children in child protective services or who have exceptional needs. The new rule means that school districts and community college employees could benefit from free early care and education. The budget also extends paid pregnancy leave for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Democratic lawmakers were able to put in place a sound policy to protect Pre-K dollars from downstream economic troubles,” Fuller said, adding that the compromise with the teachers’ union benefited both their own children and children around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom and lawmakers also agreed to simplify a couple of eligibility rules: Families who live within a high-poverty school district are eligible for the state-funded programs and children can stay enrolled even if their parents earn more money after meeting income requirements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089615\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1777px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089615\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1777\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed.jpg 1777w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/IMG_6623_qed-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1777px) 100vw, 1777px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The majority of students enrolled in the transitional kindergarten program at Kingsley Elementary School come from Spanish-speaking families. Teacher Ana Quintanilla helps them learn basic letters and words. \u003ccite>(Ana Tintocalis/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Childcare providers applauded additional funding for the slots but were frustrated that Newsom and lawmakers only offered a 2% cost-of-living adjustment for state-subsidized childcare and preschool workers — less than half of what TK-12th grader teachers will get in the new budget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are disappointed that the increase in rates doesn’t match the documented need for providers or the cost-of-living increase offered to our peer educators,” said Max Arias, chief negotiator for Child Care Providers United, a union representing home-based childcare providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also criticized the state for imposing more mandates for his members — to undergo emergency and disaster preparedness and response training — without accounting for their cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Adding slots alone doesn’t stabilize the childcare system,” said Heather Cleary, CEO of Peninsula Family Service, which runs subsidized childcare programs in San Mateo County. “The bigger challenge is that providers are being asked to do more with funding that doesn’t match the cost of operating high-quality programs, and the budget doesn’t necessarily address this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California’s Department of Education will soon be under the control of the governor’s office, drastically changing the role of the next state superintendent, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086044/conservative-activist-sonja-shaw-advances-in-state-superintendent-race\">will be elected in November\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change, pushed through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069239/newsom-proposal-to-restructure-california-education-department-catches-state-superintendent-off-guard\">by Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> as part of negotiations over the state budget signed this week, makes major revisions to the state’s education governance system, stripping day-to-day management from the elected superintendent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the governor’s office, via an appointed commissioner, will assume more power over the state’s public school system, which serves more than 6 million students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the change will increase efficiency and accountability throughout the state’s school system, but opponents — including both candidates running for state superintendent of public instruction — argue that the governor bypassed voters to pass an unpopular reform that strips them of a voice in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people that have to deal with the Department of Education every day, that seek their guidance, that need their support — all of those groups strongly support this change,” said Ted Lempert, who heads the research and policy organization Children Now, which backed the proposal. “They’re the ones that are relying on the Department of Education on a daily basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said the overhaul eliminates a “‘double-headed’ system” in which the Board of Education sets policy, but the superintendent is in charge of implementing it. Lempert agreed that setup “can be really problematic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12083052\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of a classroom at Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are going to modernize the governance system by unifying the policy-making State Board with the Department of Education that implements those policies,” Newsom said in a statement about his proposal in February. “These critical reforms will bring greater accountability, clarity, and coherence to how we serve our students and schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Teachers Association, which has a long record of launching its preferred candidates to the state superintendent’s office, criticized the change as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/WeAreCTA/posts/four-times-california-voters-have-rejected-attempts-to-strip-them-of-an-elected-/1481282244040424/\">undemocratic\u003c/a>.” President David Goldberg said removing the superintendent from a managerial role puts “one more roadblock to making the system more accountable to educators and students and families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barrett Snider, an education lobbyist with Capitol Advisors, said California’s existing system gives the superintendent more power when they disagree with the governor’s office on legislative priorities.[aside postID=news_12088215 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/GettyImages-2255523853.jpg']Though the superintendent doesn’t set policy, they have decided where to direct the department’s dollars, and how rules and programs are enforced in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That dynamic is now going to be completely upended, so the administration is going to have control over all aspects of running the state school system,” Snider told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the new structure, the state superintendent will act primarily as an independent advocate for public schools. Executive and administrative functions of the Department of Education will be transferred to the new education commissioner, replacing the state superintendent as the ex officio director of education beginning Jan. 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The superintendent will gain a vote on the state Board of Education, which will be expanded from 11 to 13 members, including two appointed by the Senate president pro tempore and the speaker of the Assembly. At the collegiate level, the superintendent will join California’s community college board and continue to act in existing roles as a California State University trustee and University of California regent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly appointed education commissioner will be required to submit a report recommending further governance streamlining to the governor and Legislature by October 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students read during class at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California is one of only a dozen states with a fractured education governance system, and state policy analysts have long argued that the leadership structure should be overhauled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, a report by \u003ca href=\"https://edpolicyinca.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/r_myung-dec2025.pdf\">Policy Analysis of California Education\u003c/a> (PACE) found the state’s system “fragmented,” with unclear roles and division of authority. The governor’s new structure incorporates its proposals for redefining the superintendent’s responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question ‘Who is responsible to whom, and for what?’ remains unresolved in California’s education governance system, resulting in blurred lines of responsibility and difficulty making systemic improvement,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrator organizations, including the Association of California School Administrators and California County Superintendents, also support the change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both candidates running for the elected superintendent’s seat have come out against the new governance structure. Republican Sonja Shaw, who serves as Chino Valley’s school board president, said the change is an “unprecedented, unconstitutional power grab” by Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Voters elect their State Superintendent to serve as an independent voice for California education, not as a figurehead,” she said in a statement. “This bill strips that office of its core duties and hands them to a political appointee. It removes critical checks and balances, and tells parents their votes no longer matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086196\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086196\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1372\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1-1536x1054.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sonja Shaw, Chino Valley Unified School District Board President, speaks at the California Policy Center and PERK (Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids) event, “A Line in the Sand A Rally for Parental Rights,” at Rancho Madera Community Park in Simi Valley, California, on Sept. 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democratic candidate and San Diego school board president Richard Barrera said that changing the role of state superintendent has been proposed to voters and rejected multiple times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This end-around attempt to take away responsibility from the person that the voters are electing to improve our public schools is a bad idea,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snider said he doesn’t think the changes will have a significant effect on the outcome of November’s election, but the winner will be forced to step into a role far different from the one they set out to run for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is going to be an interesting new dynamic — both how does the next administration implement this change, and then how does the next state superintendent exercise what is now more limited authority … through a bully pulpit, if nothing else,” he said. “We’re in totally new territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s Department of Education will soon be under the control of the governor’s office, drastically changing the role of the next state superintendent, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12086044/conservative-activist-sonja-shaw-advances-in-state-superintendent-race\">will be elected in November\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The change, pushed through \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069239/newsom-proposal-to-restructure-california-education-department-catches-state-superintendent-off-guard\">by Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> as part of negotiations over the state budget signed this week, makes major revisions to the state’s education governance system, stripping day-to-day management from the elected superintendent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, the governor’s office, via an appointed commissioner, will assume more power over the state’s public school system, which serves more than 6 million students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say the change will increase efficiency and accountability throughout the state’s school system, but opponents — including both candidates running for state superintendent of public instruction — argue that the governor bypassed voters to pass an unpopular reform that strips them of a voice in education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people that have to deal with the Department of Education every day, that seek their guidance, that need their support — all of those groups strongly support this change,” said Ted Lempert, who heads the research and policy organization Children Now, which backed the proposal. “They’re the ones that are relying on the Department of Education on a daily basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom said the overhaul eliminates a “‘double-headed’ system” in which the Board of Education sets policy, but the superintendent is in charge of implementing it. Lempert agreed that setup “can be really problematic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12083052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12083052\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260508-EXPANSIONCONSEQUENCE-TV-05235-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of a classroom at Carquinez Garden School in Crockett on May 8, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We are going to modernize the governance system by unifying the policy-making State Board with the Department of Education that implements those policies,” Newsom said in a statement about his proposal in February. “These critical reforms will bring greater accountability, clarity, and coherence to how we serve our students and schools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Teachers Association, which has a long record of launching its preferred candidates to the state superintendent’s office, criticized the change as “\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/WeAreCTA/posts/four-times-california-voters-have-rejected-attempts-to-strip-them-of-an-elected-/1481282244040424/\">undemocratic\u003c/a>.” President David Goldberg said removing the superintendent from a managerial role puts “one more roadblock to making the system more accountable to educators and students and families.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barrett Snider, an education lobbyist with Capitol Advisors, said California’s existing system gives the superintendent more power when they disagree with the governor’s office on legislative priorities.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Though the superintendent doesn’t set policy, they have decided where to direct the department’s dollars, and how rules and programs are enforced in schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That dynamic is now going to be completely upended, so the administration is going to have control over all aspects of running the state school system,” Snider told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the new structure, the state superintendent will act primarily as an independent advocate for public schools. Executive and administrative functions of the Department of Education will be transferred to the new education commissioner, replacing the state superintendent as the ex officio director of education beginning Jan. 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The superintendent will gain a vote on the state Board of Education, which will be expanded from 11 to 13 members, including two appointed by the Senate president pro tempore and the speaker of the Assembly. At the collegiate level, the superintendent will join California’s community college board and continue to act in existing roles as a California State University trustee and University of California regent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The newly appointed education commissioner will be required to submit a report recommending further governance streamlining to the governor and Legislature by October 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086385\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260603-BerkeleySchoolsLiteracy-11-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students read during class at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California is one of only a dozen states with a fractured education governance system, and state policy analysts have long argued that the leadership structure should be overhauled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, a report by \u003ca href=\"https://edpolicyinca.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/r_myung-dec2025.pdf\">Policy Analysis of California Education\u003c/a> (PACE) found the state’s system “fragmented,” with unclear roles and division of authority. The governor’s new structure incorporates its proposals for redefining the superintendent’s responsibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The question ‘Who is responsible to whom, and for what?’ remains unresolved in California’s education governance system, resulting in blurred lines of responsibility and difficulty making systemic improvement,” the report reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Administrator organizations, including the Association of California School Administrators and California County Superintendents, also support the change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both candidates running for the elected superintendent’s seat have come out against the new governance structure. Republican Sonja Shaw, who serves as Chino Valley’s school board president, said the change is an “unprecedented, unconstitutional power grab” by Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Voters elect their State Superintendent to serve as an independent voice for California education, not as a figurehead,” she said in a statement. “This bill strips that office of its core duties and hands them to a political appointee. It removes critical checks and balances, and tells parents their votes no longer matter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12086196\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12086196\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1372\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1-160x110.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Sonja-Shaw-Getty-1-1536x1054.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sonja Shaw, Chino Valley Unified School District Board President, speaks at the California Policy Center and PERK (Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids) event, “A Line in the Sand A Rally for Parental Rights,” at Rancho Madera Community Park in Simi Valley, California, on Sept. 26, 2023. \u003ccite>(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Democratic candidate and San Diego school board president Richard Barrera said that changing the role of state superintendent has been proposed to voters and rejected multiple times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This end-around attempt to take away responsibility from the person that the voters are electing to improve our public schools is a bad idea,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snider said he doesn’t think the changes will have a significant effect on the outcome of November’s election, but the winner will be forced to step into a role far different from the one they set out to run for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is going to be an interesting new dynamic — both how does the next administration implement this change, and then how does the next state superintendent exercise what is now more limited authority … through a bully pulpit, if nothing else,” he said. “We’re in totally new territory.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"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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"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. ",
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"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.",
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"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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"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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"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.",
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"possible": {
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"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.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"radiolab": {
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"reveal": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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},
"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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