Daily News Roundup, Nov. 9, 2026
Articles below are meant to inform members of significant reporting and commentary on public schools and do not necessarily reflect the views of CSBA. (Please note: Included in this post are articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)
The Daily News Roundup will be on hiatus Wednesday, Nov. 11, in honor of Veterans Day and resume Thursday, Nov. 12.
ELECTIONS
The Democratic takeover of Congress is fueling speculation about the future — or possible demise — of a federal tax credit program that could provide billions of dollars for K-12 scholarships to private and religious schools, even as California and other states weigh whether to participate. California is among the 15 states whose Democratic governors have yet to opt in to the program, and may decide to watch on the sidelines to see what happens with a school choice program many congressional Democrats didn’t want in the first place.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been one of the straddlers. He hasn’t publicly commented on the program, but on Oct. 22, he and four other Democratic governors sent U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a three-page letter seeking more details. They focused on provisions allowing scholarships to benefit public school students through tutoring, after-school programs and additional services for students with disabilities. “We seek clarity on whether and how the program can provide meaningful opportunities for public school students while avoiding unintended consequences that could divert resources from or otherwise weaken our public education systems,” they wrote. Newsom’s office reported it has not received any response yet. Thomas Toch, founding director of FutureEd, an independent education policy institute at Georgetown University, expects Democratic governors to “slow-roll signing onto the program ahead of its January 1 start.” Alternatively, Newsom could leave the decision to join the program in 2028 to Governor-elect Xavier Becerra, rather than having California participate in its inaugural year.
FEDERAL
EdSource: What comes next in proposed overhaul of Head Start
The future of Head Start could look dramatically different under a proposed federal overhaul that some experts say would eliminate many longstanding requirements for staffing, nutrition, parent involvement and classroom instruction. What that overhaul looks like will depend on a final decision expected soon from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, after reviewing over 40,000 public comments. They include submissions from Head Start administrators, parents, bipartisan coalitions of state legislators, two dozen state attorneys general, including California’s, and members of the public.
Those comments came in response to an August proposal by the Administration for Children and Families, the agency within HHS that oversees the federal Office of Head Start. The proposal would dramatically reduce longstanding regulations governing staffing, nutrition, parent involvement and other aspects of the program. It also proposes academic changes, including English-only instruction, for the federal program that provides free early education to low-income children. Here’s what experts are watching for as they await a final decision on how Head Start may change.
K-12 Dive: DOL final rule revamps antidiscrimination requirements for apprenticeships
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule to change what it calls “onerous and legally questionable affirmative action requirements” related to Registered Apprenticeship program sponsors, according to documents filed in the Federal Register on Nov. 5. The rule, published Nov. 6, comes as teacher apprenticeship programs have surged in the past four years. The goal, according to the DOL, is to simplify work for employers, noting that part 30 of the rule and its “complicated array” of nondiscrimination requirements will be replaced with “a more straightforward” alternative. The rule will go into effect on Jan. 5.
Part 30 mandated that a designated individual manage all equal employment opportunity obligations, conduct antiharassment training and post an equal opportunity pledge. Additionally, the original regulation required sponsors with five or more apprentices to analyze apprentice demographic data related to race, sex, and ethnicity. The new final rule eliminates these requirements. HR Dive reached out to DOL for comment and did not hear back by the time of publication. Education is the top occupation in the U.S. for degree-based apprenticeships, according to an August report by New America.
TECHNOLOGY
EdSource: Google’s new AI ‘ultimatum’ sparks concern over tech giant’s power in California schools
Google has long been woven into California students’ education, with Google search, Chromebooks and Gmail quietly in the background in students’ daily lives. But that decadeslong relationship between the search giant and education turned into the subject of a furor this week when Google announced that starting in January it plans to block K-12 students from using its search engine unless districts opt into the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-generated version of it. “If a school is not comfortable with that, and simply wants AI off, then they have the choice to not have Search on at all,” Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president and general manager of education, said on Nov. 2 during a virtual briefing.
Google’s announcement comes as districts across California debate restrictions on AI and technology use in the classroom. Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest district, has already placed restrictions on generative AI. Google’s decision could complicate such efforts, particularly because schools rely on the company’s digital workspace for daily lessons and its search engine for research and assignments. Lila Byock, founder of parent advocacy group Schools Beyond Screens, described Google’s decision as an act of “bullying.” She said in a statement that “educational value — not shareholder value — must determine” the technology that is used by students.
ENROLLMENT
NPR: Why public schools nationwide are facing a massive drop in student enrollment
Long before the Trump administration started deporting hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many with school-age children, public schools nationwide faced a massive and accelerating drop in student enrollment caused mostly by shrinking families. “Birth rates here in Los Angeles County have been declining for decades, which means fewer children enrolled in our schools,” said Kelly Gonez, a board member in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest in the country, which lost more than 300,000 students over the last two decades.
LA isn’t alone. The population of children under age 18 began to fall nationwide after 2010, according to U.S. Census data, dropping by roughly 2.1 million kids through 2025. With public schools in much of the country facing a demographic cliff, the Trump administration last year began detaining and expelling large numbers of foreign residents. A study by the Migration Policy Institute found as many as 1.9 million people left the U.S. during the first 18 months of Trump’s second term. As part of the crackdown effort, federal officials weakened restrictions that prevented U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from operating near public schools. “Many of our families immediately went into hiding,” Gonez said. “We were predicting a 2 percent drop in enrollment. It was double that.” Researchers who study education and population trends aren’t surprised. This is the first time in nearly a century, since the era of the Great Depression, that birth rates and immigration levels are low at the same time. Large-scale deportations mean even bigger and more rapid changes in areas with large immigrant communities.
SCHOOL CLOSURES
Associated Press: School closures are accelerating in US, but more financial pain lies ahead
Minutes before first bell, Penny Núñez-Brandão scanned the crowd outside Glen Cove Elementary School, looking for familiar faces. “I don’t see any,” the fifth grader told her mom one morning in August. “None of my friends are coming.” The start of a new school year can be nerve-wracking under any circumstances. But for Penny and thousands of students across the U.S., this academic year brought the added difficulty of adjusting to an entirely new school after their previous ones shuttered.
As U.S. birth rates continue a multidecade slide and state and federal education funding dries up, an increasing number of cash-strapped school districts around the country have resorted to closing campuses to save money. A total of 1,156 schools closed during the last academic year — the highest number since the pandemic, according to an analysis of federal data by Big Local News at Stanford University. At the same time, new research shows student enrollment has fallen much faster than schools are closing, suggesting more painful financial choices lie ahead. The Vallejo City Unified School District, a working-class district near San Francisco, serves half as many students as it did two decades earlier.
LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES
EdSource: LAUSD uses a point system to manage waitlist for coveted magnet schools. Is it equitable?
Carmel Levitan started submitting applications for her two kids to attend magnet schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) when they were in kindergarten. She deliberately picked schools where she knew her children wouldn’t get in. She hoped for rejection. That’s because each time her daughter, Lola, and son Rio didn’t make it into one of those schools, they acquired points that could eventually help them get into their top-choice magnet program at Eagle Rock Elementary.
For parents such as Levitan, getting their child into an LAUSD magnet school can require years of planning and strategy for accumulating points. Students can acquire points for various factors, including having a sibling already enrolled, attending an overcrowded school or one that predominantly serves students of color, or having been previously wait-listed at other magnet schools. The points can make the difference between getting into a coveted program or being turned away. But Levitan’s strategy — shared by many other parents — relies on accumulating waitlist points, which can increase from four to 12 over three years. Students can earn up to 23 points in all, and parents have until Nov. 6 to submit the necessary forms through an online platform called eChoices.
Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) leaders are pressing city officials to notify schools when federal immigration agents are operating nearby. SCUSD Superintendent Cancy McArn sent a letter Nov. 6 to City Manager Maraskeshia Smith requesting a meeting with Smith, Mayor Kevin McCarty, interim Police Chief Zachary Bales and several City Council members to “strengthen communication” with the district’s Safe Schools department.
“Recent ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] enforcement activity, including the well-documented activity near Ethel Phillips Elementary School, has raised significant concerns about the fear and uncertainty experienced by our families and the lack of communication with the district,” she wrote. McArn’s letter was a formal request for a meeting, but school board trustee and civil rights attorney Jasjit Singh took a firmer stance amid surging federal immigration enforcement in the capital region. “Communicate with the school district — we don’t need kids walking past masked individuals holding guns,” he said. Singh and two other trustees addressed the City Council recently after ICE agents were spotted near the south Sacramento school, causing confusion and concern among students and families during afterschool pickup. They asked city officials to notify the district when Sacramento police become aware of immigration enforcement activity near schools.
Primary and secondary school students in Sonoma and Napa counties made some gains in testing last year, mostly in science, but continue to trail behind their peers statewide across a range of academic subjects, including math and English, according to the latest data from the California Department of Education. The data, released in October and drawn from a host of standardized tests taken annually by students starting in the third grade up to grade 11, also showed that local students have yet to catch up with some pre-pandemic scores.
In science, 32.28 percent of Sonoma County students met or exceeded standards in 2025–26, reflecting an 8.39 percent increase from 2024–25 and an 11 percent increase from 2022. (The increases or decreases over time reported in this story represent percent change figures, as opposed to percentage point differences.) In English language arts (ELA), 44.63 percent of students met or exceeded standards in 2025–26, a 1.35 percent decrease from the previous year, and down 1 percent from 2021–22, the first year fully back in classrooms for many local schools. In math, 33.49 percent of students met or exceeded standards, a slight gain from the previous year and an 8 percent improvement from 2022. However, that mark is still down 12 percent from 2018–19. Napa County students saw a similar decrease in ELA scores, down 1.18 percent from the 2024–25 year, but up 1 percent from 2021–22.
Daily Bulletin: Rialto Unified school trustee accused of harassment in retaliation lawsuit
A Rialto Unified administrator has filed a lawsuit alleging he was stripped of supervisory duties after reporting racial and gender-based harassment by school board member Evelyn Dominguez, who has previously faced allegations of bullying employees and abusing her elected position. Joseph Williams, the district’s senior director of community partnerships, alleges Dominguez criticized him in February 2024 for focusing on Black students at the expense of Latino students and told him he “needed to think more like a woman” and be less direct, according to the lawsuit filed Oct. 19 in San Bernardino County Superior Court.
The lawsuit follows nearly three years of turmoil at Rialto Unified, where current and former employees and administrators have accused district leaders of misconduct, abuse of authority and retaliation against those who reported wrongdoing. The allegations have fueled broader questions about leadership accountability and the district’s handling of employee complaints.
