Catrin Thorman is a California Policy Center fall Journalism Fellow. She is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University, and a former Teach for America corps member in Phoenix, Arizona.
Officials in Huntington Beach’s Ocean View School District weren’t the only ones hoping for the passage of Measure R on Tuesday. In August, Ledesma & Meyer Construction Company, Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga donated $25,000 to the district’s $319 million tax increase campaign. “Many contractors will contribute to campaigns in an effort to show that they...
Janitor Liang Zhao Zhang cleans transit stations in downtown San Francisco, but he really cleans up with his six-figure salary. Last year, the Bay Area Rapid Transit employee earned just over $271,000. Zhang’s high earnings come to light this week, just days before BART will ask voters to approve Measure RR, a $3.5 billion bond aimed at “relieving...
Just months before they told the public they need billions of dollars in new tax revenue for school repairs, school district officials across California were telling the state Department of Education a very different story: their facilities are in “good” condition — even “exemplary.” The glowing self-assessments are contained in School Accountability Report Cards reviewed...
Just months before they told the public they need billions of dollars in new tax revenue for school repairs, school district officials across California were telling the state Department of Education a very different story: their facilities are in “good” condition — even “exemplary.” The glowing self-assessments are contained in School Accountability Report Cards reviewed...
Flyers distributed in Capistrano Unified School District schools and the main office promote the district’s upcoming $889 million property tax increase as a benefit to homeowners. That claim would appear to be a political response to criticism of Measure M, the controversial bond on the South Orange County district’s November 8 ballot. Critics have said...
National Public Radio’s Sunday morning story last month was a failure of basic journalism. “In Silicon Valley, Where a Teacher Works for Uber to Stay Middle-Class” features Matthew Barry, a high school economics teacher in California’s Morgan Hill Unified School District (MHUSD). He says his $69,000 annual salary is so insufficient to his surroundings in the...
Capistrano Unified HQ: More like a Four Seasons resort. Anyone looking down the barrel of an $889 million school bond should consider what the Capistrano Unified School District did with its last bond, in 2002. After issuing the bond – called a certificate of participation (COP) – the district began constructing a $35 million administration building...