The Brief

As another Los Angeles Unified school year starts Wednesday, district leaders say they hope to maintain recent academic progress while they also contend with a series of budget cuts needed to make ends meet.

"The decisions will be hard, but we cannot lose sight of what defines us," said Andrés Chait, the district’s new superintendent, in a July speech kicking off the start of the new academic year. "We are the system that lifts students to opportunity, turns potential into achievement, creates spaces of belonging, healing [and] growth."

The country’s second-largest school district resumes classes as federal immigration raids continue along with the detention of area parents and children.

What we are hearing

For the most part, LAUSD students told LAist they’re experiencing the usual mix of nerves and excitement associated with the first day of school.

They’re also aware that local and national politics are reshaping their education, including who is in the classroom.

Andrea, a sophomore at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School in Lincoln Heights, said there were days last year when so many students were absent that teachers would pause their lessons.

“What's the point of teaching it if half the class is gone?” Andrea said. “That really makes everybody behind.”

Educators have patrolled the neighborhood near Andrea’s school to notify families of any ICE activity nearby.

“That definitely made us feel more safe and more respected in the school,” she said. Throughout the year, she noticed more of her peers return to class.

A looming shortfall

LAUSD’s spending is budgeted to exceed revenue by $2 billion this school year. For the third consecutive year, the district plans to pay the difference with reserves that were largely built up by one-time federal pandemic relief dollars.

The district’s financial projections show LAUSD will be short $231 million by November 2027.

The L.A. County Office of Education, which oversees the finances of local districts, intervened in July after the board approved new labor contracts for LAUSD’s largest unions.

“The financial reality before the District raises serious concerns regarding its ability to meet its financial obligations,” wrote Debra Duardo, L.A. County Superintendent of Schools, in a July 2 letter.

If district officials decide to request an emergency loan from the state, it would trigger a rare takeover that would strip LAUSD’s board of decision-making power and likely take years to undo.

The county appointed a fiscal advisor to the district, but did not grant that person the authority to override the board or superintendent’s decisions.

The county directed LAUSD to provide more details about the district’s plan to stabilize the budget through $3.6 billion in cuts spread out over three years. District officials said their plan envisions furloughs for all employees in the 2027-28 school year — a move that requires negotiating with the unions that represent those employees.

“I think what they expect to see from us… is frankly a prove-up around the fiscal stabilization plan,” Chait said. “They want to see that we can actually implement what we put into that plan.”

District staff have previously said that plans to stabilize the budget could lead to more than 6,000 layoffs, amounting to more than 10% of LAUSD’s current workforce.

One unknown is how future state funding will change the district’s budget projections. While California education funding has risen in recent years, the state plans to hold back $3.9 billion for schools and community colleges in the most recent budget.

“No one is asking the state for anything more or less than what we are due,” Chait said. “We are not asking for a handout.”

New, but familiar leadership

Though Chait is new to the district’s top job, he is familiar to many from his nearly three-decade tenure as a district educator and administrator.

District principals greeted Chait with a standing ovation at his first opening-of-schools address in July.

“As I was preparing for this talk, I was thinking about how to introduce myself,” Chait told a crowd of several hundred administrators at James A. Garfield High School. “But then I realized you don't introduce yourself to family.”

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Andrés Chait speaks with educators and support staff at Pacoima Middle School on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026.

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Allen J. Schaben

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Chait highlighted preliminary results from the state’s standardized reading and math tests that show a third consecutive year of improvements.

However, even with that progress, the majority of students do not meet the benchmark for either subject. It’s unclear how LAUSD’s performance compares to the state because those results have yet to be released.

Chait is the first LAUSD insider to serve as superintendent in a decade. His hire came after two high-profile external hires — Alberto Carvalho, a former Miami schools leader, and Austin Beutner, an investment banker and former publisher of the L.A. Times.

LAUSD’s elected seven-member board, which has the final say on the district’s financial decisions, is unchanged. Voters re-elected incumbents to this year’s three board races from a sparse field of candidates in June’s primary contest.

Ongoing enrollment challenges

LAUSD is projected to enroll 378,000 students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade this school year.

As birth rates decline, fewer students are enrolling at schools throughout the state. The drop in enrollment is steeper in areas with high costs of living, such as L.A.

California funds schools based on an average of how many students show up to class each day, with additional money for every student in the district who is low-income, an English-language learner, unhoused or a foster youth. Over time, fewer students could lead to less funding.

District leaders attributed last school year’s larger-than-expected drop in students to the “fear and instability” associated with federal immigration raids.

Even students who continued to attend school reported changing their behavior in response to the raids.

Alvira, a junior at Lake Balboa College Preparatory Magnet K-12, is an immigrant from Bangladesh. She started carrying a photocopy of her passport until she could get a REAL ID.

“Just in case anything happens, I can prove that I'm a citizen,” Alvira said.

Gather the Rebel Alliance — the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is officially open to the public in Exposition Park.

The 300,000-square-foot building, sitting on a 13-acre campus in the South L.A. neighborhood, is an ode to the universal tradition of visual storytelling, according to museum officials.

Co-founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the exhibitions highlight centuries of human culture — ancient sculptures, Renaissance paintings, myths of the American West, photography, fantasy and everyday life, to name a few. There are also plenty of cinema moments for Star Wars fans, of course.

Visitors burst through the doors Tuesday, spilling into the more than 30 galleries, pair of theatres, public park, library and the museum’s full-service restaurant, the Skywalker Grill.

Keenan Wayne Jones Jr., a director in career services at Otis College of Art and Design, was among the earliest guests in the galleries Tuesday. He told LAist that “emotionally invoking” was the first thought that came to mind in the museum, and that he’s already planning the next trip back.

“ There are students all around right now, and they are enthralled. Just seeing their faces light up and seeing that artistic expression being evoked to them is a really cool part of my job,” he said. “Words can't even encompass what it looks like; you have to see it in person.”

Inside the grand opening

At a packed press event ahead of the opening, Hobson said the museum is our building — all the staff who work there, all the construction workers who built it and the entire community across the city.

“It is our gift to you because it belongs to all of us,” she said. “And so we say welcome home.”

Founders Mellody Hobson and George Lucas greet guests on opening day. Hobson was wearing a jacket with "Lucas 26" on the back.

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Presley Ann

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Getty Images for Lucas Museum

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George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, co-founders of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, speaking to a packed press event on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

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Presley Ann

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Getty Images for Lucas Museum

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Founders Mellody Hobson and George Lucas speak onstage during the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art's opening day Tuesday.

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Stefanie Keenan

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Getty Images for Lucas Museum

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In the Norman "Rockwell" exhibition, named for the famous artist whose work the museum includes, L.A. artist Shiloh Williams said he was “incredibly impressed” by the breadth of the collection.

“There's also other artists' work who were inspired by Norman Rockwell in here too, which I thought was really nice,” Williams said. “They have them right next to his stuff, so it's kinda like you can see the inspiration through each generation and subsequent generation which … I would love to have in my own work.”

Keenan Wayne Jones Jr. and Shiloh Williams in the "rockwell" exhibition.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The Lucas Museum features more than 30 exhibitions across several floors.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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Film students from Lucas' alma mater, USC, were also filtering the space, including Kc Donaldson-Werblin and Nathan Phillips. Donaldson-Werblin said it was cool to see the evolution of the concept art in the cinema exhibition, which includes Star Wars.

“ There's stories in all this art, but there's also a story in the process from concept to finalized thing,” Donaldson-Werblin said. “We're starting where [George Lucas] started from, basically. And it's just very cool to see we have so much time.”

Phillips said they were the first people out of the elevator, but the exhibitions still felt full.

“There's so much art here and so much to appreciate,” Phillips said. “I already know I'm gonna be back here a couple more times 'cause, like, there's no way to intake all of this at one time.”

USC film students were among the first guests filtering through the museum Tuesday, including Nathan Phillips and Kc Donaldson-Werblin.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The "murals" exhibition on the fifth floor features large-scale public works of art.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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Ryan Linkof,  senior curator and head of film programs, told LAist museums only make sense when people are in them. He described the opening as an exhilarating moment that’s been years in the making.

“ I think as an Angeleno … to see something of this scale and to see the amount of investment that was made in this city is just really, really special,” he said. “I feel like it's deserved as well because Los Angeles is, in so many ways, a cultural capital, and this is the spiritual home for narrative art.”

How we got here

It’s a big year for Exposition Park with the Lucas Museum’s grand opening and the California Science Center’s major expansion not far behind this fall.

But why South L.A.?

The museum offers several places to sit and take in the surroundings.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The curved building, designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec, offers views of the downtown Los Angeles skyline and neighboring Exposition Park museums.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The site was selected in 2017 because of its location — there are hundreds of schools in the area and more than half a million people living within a three-mile radius of the park, according to museum officials. They said Exposition Park is also among the top tourist destinations in Southern California between its museums, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, BMO Stadium and EXPO Center.

“ It really is an asset for this community, but also for Los Angeles, and then really for the world,” Linkof said. “ So to bring all these eyes on Expo Park in South L.A. is really part of the mission of the project in many ways.”

But the Lucas Museum wasn’t originally destined for California — it was supposed to be built in Chicago.

That was scrapped in 2015 due to a “disagreement” over the site, according to museum officials. A parks preservation group filed a lawsuit, which effectively pushed the project out of the Windy City, as reported by WTTW.

However, Hobson said at a media preview earlier this month that they believe Exposition Park is where “we were always meant to be.”

Guests were greeted by a familiar character Tuesday: R2-D2 of Star Wars with a Lucas Museum staff lanyard.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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How to see it for yourself

• Where: One Lucas Plaza, Exposition Park, Los Angeles
• When: 
  
  • 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays
  • 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. on Fridays
  • 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. on Saturdays
  • 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Sundays
  • Closed Tuesdays
• Tickets: All tickets are timed entry. Tickets are $25 for adults and $21 for those 65 and older. Children 17 and under, members and active-duty military have free entry. Museum neighbors in the LM37 program also have free entry.
• Park and Gardens: Free and open to the public
• Skywalker Grill: You can make a reservation here (no museum ticket required)

California Attorney General Rob Bonta defended his settlement of an antitrust challenge to Paramount's $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, denying that pressure to keep the company in Hollywood drove the timing of the agreement.

Paramount had reportedly considered moving operations out of California as the legal battle continued. Asked on Morning Edition how much that possibility factored into the timing, Bonta said, "Not at all. We focused on our antitrust concerns in this case."

Bonta had sounded more ambivalent a day earlier, stressing that the settlement was "not a vote of support for this merger" even as he called it the "best course of action." On Tuesday, he was less equivocal: "We were making demands, and we were requiring that there be certain conditions and commitments," he said.

The settlement, which still needs a judge's approval, would resolve a lawsuit filed by 12 states to block the merger, a major legal obstacle to the deal. It also creates an editorial board intended to protect the independence of CNN and CBS News. It's one of the more closely watched provisions in the agreement.

"The state of California will have no input in it. No government entity will have any input into it," Bonta said. "It will consist of seasoned, experienced, hopefully trusted journalists who know the craft and know the need for independence and objectivity and fairness."

Bonta said the standards that would determine whether the people selected to the board meet the settlement requirements were negotiated as part of the settlement and were designed to keep the board independent. He also said an auditor would monitor compliance and that the states could return to court if Paramount failed to follow the consent decree.

The agreement has not quieted its critics. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said his state had pushed for the full divestiture of CNN and CBS News and was "deeply disappointed" the settlement did not go further. Others say it does too little to address media consolidation, potential job losses and whether the new editorial safeguards will hold.

Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue button above.

The digital story was edited by Suzanne Nuyen, with contributions from David Folkenflik.
Copyright 2026 NPR

As a potentially historic El Niño continues to build, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency on Monday ahead of winter storms and high tides that could wreak havoc on the state.

Forecasters predict that much of California could have above-average precipitation and temperatures this winter. The potential storms could pile on top of El Niño-induced higher sea levels and record-high king tides.

As a result, Newsom is directing state agencies to begin preparing vulnerable communities and roads, stage emergency supplies and work in at-risk areas to reduce flooding potential. He has also directed state agencies to fast-track permitting and cut red tape to ready the state for El Niño effects.

Cars drive on Highway 101 flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California.

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Ethan Swope

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“We are preparing for this El Niño early because every Californian deserves to be safe in their home, connected to their community, and protected when severe weather comes,” Newsom said in a statement.

El Niño forms when tropical trade winds weaken or reverse, allowing warm ocean water near Asia to slosh toward the Pacific Coast. That warming can reshape the jet stream and bring stormier weather across California while disrupting the ocean’s nutrient-rich upwelling, heating coastal waters, raising sea levels and stressing marine life.

National forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that the natural climate phenomenon is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event and a 75% chance of a historic event this fall and winter.

Exactly what the weather will look like this fall and winter is — quite literally — still up in the air. But similar events in past El Niño years have brought torrential downpours, coastal flooding, mudslides, power outages and giant waves.

“Climate-driven El Niño conditions could mean months of dangerous weather, heavy rain, strong winds, deep mountain snow, flooding, and Californians should understand this clearly,” said Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the California Office of Emergency Services. “Storms are among the deadliest disasters we face here in California, and one of the greatest dangers is still people underestimating the power of water.”

To prepare for what might happen, the emergency proclamation mobilizes resources in support of the state’s flood-risk-reduction efforts. The California Department of Water Resources has staged 4.4 million sandbags, 400,000 tons of rock, 68 stockpile locations, eight warehouses and 211 flood material containers across the state. State leaders have not yet put a price tag on the flood work.

Laura Hollender, deputy director of the Department of Water Resources, stressed that Bay Area counties, like Marin, that deal with flooding issues should alert the public as soon as possible about the risk because “even without storms” coastal areas may see flooding this winter.

“I think early messaging and early preparation for those communities is going to be really important this year,” Hollender said.

Caltrans will also place traffic-control, road-closure and snow-removal equipment along the highways most at risk. The California National Guard will also be ready for things like flood response and search-and-rescue operations.

Plastic sheeting and sandbags are placed outside a home along Golden Hind Passage, as residents prepare for potential king tide flooding, in Corte Madera, on June 15, 2026.

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State agencies are also preparing for the adverse effects of too much precipitation, flooding, landslides and debris flows by fast-tracking permitting and identifying other ways to cut red tape.

“The emergency order is very clear that we are to exercise whatever emergency authorities we have and our entities within our agencies have to enable this work to happen quickly and efficiently to be in place for when this fall weather could come this winter,” said Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources.

Newsom’s order also directs the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to expand multilingual messaging about preparedness, power outages, extreme weather, evacuation and alerts.

State leaders are also prepared to ask the federal government for assistance if needed.

“We remain hopeful that they will be responsive when we do have the need, if we were to get an incident that rose to the level of needing a federal declaration,” Thomas Jacobs said.