Weekly Update 2/21/23

California

State Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) on Wednesday, 2/14, unveiled SB 50, legislation that would prohibit officers from making traffic stops solely because of low-level violations, like an expired license plate…

With their new roles in California's education committees, State Sen. Josh Newman and Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi are expected to be less hostile to charter schools than their predecessors, Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino) and Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell (D-Long Beach)…

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), charter schools that received Charter Schools Program (CSP) grants generally had higher enrollment growth compared to similar charter schools that did not receive grants…

In the span of two years, California's population has dropped by more than half a million people…

Tesla has agreed to open some of its fast superchargers to other models of electric cars by the end of 2024, freeing up a reliable and highly coveted network of plugs along American roads…

According to a report by the state’s Interagency Council on Homelessness, California has spent nearly $10 billion and provided services to more than 571,000 homeless people, each year helping more people than the last…

California’s in-home caregivers, a historically underpaid workforce that serves a rapidly aging population, could receive a significant boost in bargaining power under a new bill introduced Friday…

President and Administration

According to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, nearly one in five teen girls experienced sexual violence in 2021…

The federal government will officially run out of cash between July and September of this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted Wednesday, 2/15…

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recipients of the bivalent (two-strain) COVID-19 vaccine booster were 14 times less likely to die of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 infections than their unvaccinated peers and five times less likely to die than recipients of the monovalent (single-strain) booster, particularly among older people…

According to provisional data released on Wednesday, 2/15, by the CDC, the number of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. has been steadily declining since the middle of last year…

 On Wednesday, 2/15, Moderna announced that it will keep its COVID vaccine on the market at no cost to consumers, even after the federal government stops paying for it…

According to a new analysis by Politico Pro, student borrowers in blue states were more likely to apply for President Biden’s student loan relief program compared with Republican states, but not by much…

On Friday, 2/17, the Department of Education (ED) unveiled new Title IX resources on equal opportunity in athletic programs…

Congress

Sens. Tina Smith (D-MN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced the Strengthening the Public Health Workforce Service Act to expand an existing program that forgives student loans for those working to treat substance abuse disorder…

Education

According to the American Association of University Women, women make up less than 30 percent of the nation’s workforce in science, technology, engineering and math, which rank among the fastest-growing and highest-paying career fields in today’s economy…

A new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report notes some improvement in minority representation in higher education related to science, technology, engineering, math and medicine (STEMM), but not enough to match those groups’ share in the overall population…

To meet the growing demand of mental-health care on campus, Hamilton College in Clinton, New York has begun training about a dozen undergraduates a year to serve as peer counselors, a role that entails being a good listener to other students…

According to a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente, individuals who attend school in states with poor quality education might be more likely to develop dementia later in life…

According to an analysis by the Associated Press, Stanford University’s Big Local News project and Stanford education professor Thomas Dee, there are an estimated 230,000 students in 21 states whose absences could not be accounted for…

On Thursday, 2/9, the National Center for Education Statistic (NCES) released a survey that revealed public school leaders estimated that about half - 49 percent - of their students began the 2022-23 year behind grade level in at least one academic subject…

Campus and faculty leaders in the California Community College system are eagerly anticipating the selection of a new chancellor this week…

According to the Department of Education, nearly 47,000 people have been in student loan repayment for at least 40 years…