Weekly Update 4/8/24

2024 Election Watch

On Tuesday, 3/26, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Oakland to name tech attorney Nicole Shanahan his pick for vice president…

California

On Wednesday, 3/27, California lawmakers urged the state’s public universities to further delay college decision day as federal aid glitches continue to loom over the college admissions cycle…

On Thursday, 4/4, Governor Newsom and state legislative leaders said they have agreed to a $17 billion package of spending cuts…

California’s water supplies are in good shape heading into spring and summer, Governor Newsom said on Tuesday, 4/2, with statewide snowpack levels at 105 percent of average…

Across California and the nation, developers moved to start fewer homes in 2023, a decline some experts say could eventually send home prices and rents even higher as supply shortages worsen…

A push for reparations in Palm Springs could set the tone for California’s reckoning with its racist past….

President and Administration

The Biden administration is making a second attempt at a large-scale student loan forgiveness proposal…

Dr. Nora Volkow, who has led the National Institute on Drug Abuse for more than two decades, said she is convinced America will overcome the ongoing drug overdose…

On Thursday, 3/28, the U.S. Department of Education, in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)…

This year the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) launched a new, free tool called Direct File…

About one-third of 12th graders across the country reported using marijuana over the past year, according to a study released March 12…

Congress

In January 2024, the House passed a $78 billion bipartisan tax package that would temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore a number of business tax benefits…

House Republicans will send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Wednesday (4/10)…

Education

In the four years since the pandemic closed schools, U.S. education has struggled to recover on a number of fronts, from learning loss, to enrollment, to student behavior…

Research shows that exposing students to STEM between grades one and three provides them with a foundation to enter many STEM-related careers…

Beth Kelly was reading a classroom aide’s notes to prepare for a meeting about her 8-year-old autistic son’s special education plan in early November 2022 when…

 On Tuesday, 4/2, the Oklahoma Supreme Court weighed a potentially groundbreaking case as it took up the state attorney general’s request that it undo a contract…

On Wednesday, 3/20, Gov. Greg Abbott urged school voucher supporters to make the final push in the May primary runoff elections…

A Los Angeles school district policy limiting charter schools’ ability to share school buildings violates state law…

Lack of math help often starts with the states…