Daily News Roundup, Nov. 13, 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.)
STATE
As California’s next governor, Xavier Becerra will inherit a childcare system that remains unaffordable for many families and financially unstable for many providers. Advocates hope he will use his experience as U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary to create universal access, raise wages for providers and prioritize sustainable funding for early childhood education. Childcare “can’t just be one amongst a hundred priorities — it needs to be one of the top three,” said Stacy Lee, chief learning officer and senior managing director of early childhood at nonprofit Children Now.
Becerra has experience with early education. As HHS secretary, he administered billions in childcare relief funds during the pandemic, and supported nationwide efforts to expand subsidized care. Becerra also oversaw the Office of Head Start and the Office of Child Care during the Biden administration. Becerra’s team did not respond to a request for comment. But during the campaign, he spoke about the need to expand access to early learning while improving pay for the people who provide it.
ELECTIONS
CalMatters: Bad news for California school repairs: nearly half of bond measures on track to fail
Last week’s election was full of surprises, especially for California school districts seeking to fix leaking roofs and broken air conditioners. Although election officials are still counting votes in many parts of the state, the preliminary results show that nearly half the school bonds on California ballots are failing. “It’s a shocking outcome,” said Sara Hinkley, director of policy and research at UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities and Schools. “This leaves some school districts with very few options. I’m sure they’re sweating.”
Eighty-six school districts put bonds seeking to do school repairs and modernization on last week’s ballot, totaling $12.4 billion, a relatively low amount of money compared to other big election years. Two years ago, school bonds totaled almost four times that and most of them passed. As of Nov. 10, 50 bonds had either passed or were leading, with the rest failing. Bonds need 55 percent to pass. School district officials blamed the shaky economy.
TECHNOLOGY
The Sacramento Bee: California teachers urge 3-year pause on AI use in K-8 schools
The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) on Nov. 11 urged Gov. Gavin Newsom to order a three-year pause on artificial intelligence (AI) in K-8 public school classrooms, citing concerns that schools are adopting AI tools without adequate protections for students and educators. The call followed Newsom’s September executive order directing state agencies to develop AI safety regulations, including a potential “kill switch” for certain AI programs during emergencies.
In a news release, the union representing 120,000 educators and faculty urged Newsom to issue an executive order pausing AI use in classrooms before his term ends in January. “Students’ brain development shouldn’t be monetized for billionaire profit,” CFT President Jeff Freitas said in a statement. “This is a public health and safety emergency, and we need our leaders to treat it as one and act now.”
RESEARCH
The 74: English learner programs: Too easy to enter, too hard to exit, educators say
The roughly 5.3 million children enrolled in English language learner programs across the country are supposed to exit when they’ve mastered enough of the language to succeed in school without as much additional support. But the exact requirements for their release vary tremendously from one state to the next, according to a recent study by New America and reporting by The 74: A student deemed qualified to leave in one location might be held in place in another for years, educators say.
The results are profound for kids and schools alike: Children stuck in such programs are often deprived of access to more rigorous coursework, including college-level classes. And their participation triggers a torrent of financial assistance. The federal government spent $890 million in Title III money on these K-12 students alone in 2025. Additional state aid that year ranged from $366 per English language learner in Arkansas to $8,642 in Maryland in the 11 states that had comparable data, according to the Learning Policy Institute. But for child advocates, the real travesty is lost opportunity for already-vulnerable kids.
K-12 Dive: COVID learning recovery falls on states’ shoulders, CRPE report says
Pandemic-related learning recovery has “failed” for most students, and now states need to take the lead in accelerating academic achievement and driving improved student outcomes, according to a new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). Only 10.5 percent of students are in districts that have returned to pre-pandemic achievement levels in both math and literacy. No states have returned to pre-pandemic attendance levels, according to the report.
And with a downsized U.S. Department of Education shifting more responsibilities to the states, “all eyes [are] on states at a very pivotal moment,” said Robin Lake, director of CRPE and co-author of the report. Lake was speaking at a Nov. 9 webinar on the report’s findings, along with co-author Chelsea Waite, a research principal at CRPE. To improve student outcomes, state leaders should investigate gaps between their policies and how they are implemented — including systems for measuring their progress and accountability performance. Then, they could prioritize plugging those gaps by paying special attention to the students furthest behind, including those with disabilities and multilingual learners, the report said.
The 74: AI needn’t be trustworthy, teens say. It just has to be less risky than people
Imagine you’re 14 and have just worked up the nerve to ask that pretty girl out, only to find out that she actually likes someone else. As a heartbroken eighth-grader, a generation ago you had few options: tell a friend or parent, or simply sit with the pain. Today, you can open an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot any time of day or night and engage with an endlessly patient companion programmed, no matter what, to make you feel better.
To Alison Lee, chief research and development officer at The Rithm Project, a nonprofit focused on human connection in the age of AI, that conversation might actually help. It could even serve to help build that heartbroken teen into “a more resilient, kind, thoughtful human moving forward,” she said in an interview. But these kinds of interactions might do as much harm as good, keeping young people from having to face “hard moments,” she said. Lee wonders whether chatbots are hurting our capacity “to sit in ambiguity and resilience.” A new report from Lee and her colleagues offers a glimpse into this world, offering a detailed look at how young people are now sliding into emotional relationships with AI.
LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES
Los Angeles Times: Black teachers say students call them the N-word. LAUSD vows to teach them not to
One teacher reported that the N-word was written on the classroom wall for the fifth consecutive year. Another teacher’s inbox contained the message: “I really hate you, [N-word]. Black is ugly, and so are you.” A student addressed a teacher by shouting “stupid [N-word] four times,” but when the teacher issued a two-day suspension, the principal returned the student to the classroom with no consequences, according to an account shared at an online forum over the summer.
After complaints such as these from Black teachers about students routinely hurling racist insults, especially the N-word, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will strengthen measures to track such incidents and respond to them. Too often, say teachers and advocates, nothing happens. Or worse, teachers are reprimanded or face retaliation for being complainers, such as being written up or getting worse class assignments. Students, too, are targeted with racist language.
East Bay Times: Oakland students demand district return $3.5 million in school tax funds
Oakland students and educators gathered Nov. 11 to demand the district return $3.5 million in voter-approved college and career readiness funds, accusing officials of redirecting the money to cover budget gaps without approval from an oversight commission. “Our education should not be treated as an opportunity to cover budget gaps,” said Inara Shafiq, a 12th-grade student and Associated Student Body president at Skyline High School. “We deserve the resources that were promised to us.”
The district maintains the move was legal and part of budget-balancing plans made in 2024. An independent review commissioned by the Alameda County Office of Education found no indicators of fraud or illegal fiscal practices. The review did not conclude whether the transfers were proper. But members of the oversight commission say they declined to pass a motion authorizing the use of the funds in June and they should have had an opportunity to formally vote on the allocations. The district said in a statement Nov. 10 it takes “seriously the commission’s view that it should have had a formal vote” on the allocations. “We look forward to working with the commission and the board on a clearer approval process going forward, so that questions like this don’t arise again,” the district said.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty pledged to alert school districts when the city learns of nearby federal immigration enforcement activity, reversing his earlier position after mounting pressure from school officials. He called it a “top priority” amid a recent increase in immigration enforcement in the capital region. McCarty said the city would convene a meeting with six capital superintendents to develop a more formal communication process — but Sacramento City Unified leaders said they wanted more immediate action.
McCarty told Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Cancy McArn in an email Nov. 10 that city officials would arrange a meeting with her and five other superintendents whose districts include schools within city limits to discuss “enhanced communication” about nearby U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. But leaders of Sacramento City Unified, which serves most of the city’s students, want additional commitments from the mayor and City Manager Maraskeshia Smith.
The Silicon Valley Voice: SCUSD makes final offer in union contract negotiations
Amid its yearlong contract negotiations with labor unions, the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) issued final contract offers to its employees. In an Oct. 29 YouTube video detailing the status of the negotiations, Superintendent Damon Wright said SCUSD matched its offer to the California School Employees Association (CSEA) — the union representing workers such as bus drivers and custodians — with its offer to United Teachers of Santa Clara (UTSC). Employees will receive 1.5 percent salary increases and nearly $21,000 in district medical benefit contributions, if the unions agree.
The proposed salary increases are retroactive to July 1, 2025, which is when SCUSD’s contracts with the unions expired. Wright said in the YouTube video UTSC already agreed to the district’s offer on medical premiums, and CSEA is reviewing the district’s newest proposal. These negotiations happen behind closed doors — board policy prohibits trustees from leaking information. “Every additional, ongoing, financial commitment must be carefully considered,” Wright said. “Not just for today, but for the years ahead.”