The Brief

For over a year, the California Community College and the California State University systems have clashed over their respective roles.

The focus of the dispute: Who should be granting bachelor’s degrees?

The Cal State Chancellor’s Office says many community colleges are stepping outside their bounds by proposing bachelor’s programs that duplicate what Cal State campuses already offer. Community colleges disagree.

The issue goes to the core missions of these higher education systems and the boundaries that the state set for them back in 1960.

That’s when California’s Master Plan for Higher Education laid out the roles for each system. For the state’s community colleges, the plan says they were designed to award two-year associate degrees and provide career training, while the Cal State system would offer four-year bachelor’s and master’s degrees and the University of California system would prioritize research and doctoral programs.

Now a new law allows the community college system to approve up to 30 new bachelor’s degree programs each year at any one of the state’s 116 community colleges.

The law, which went into effect last year, has a caveat: Community colleges can only offer bachelor’s degrees in unique fields that no other public four-year campus currently offers. It’s this caveat that is at the root of recent conflicts.

“I understand that CSUs (Cal State University campuses) and UCs may be feeling like community colleges are getting a larger allocation or are stepping into their lane,” said Laura Cantú, vice president of academic affairs for Los Angeles Mission College. “But there’s a reason why California decided that we should allow community colleges to offer some of the baccalaureates (bachelor’s degrees). It’s a way for us to really provide an onramp, a mechanism, for social mobility.”

The Cal State Academic Senate has said it’s worried about losing money in the event that community colleges offer more bachelor’s degrees.

In an email to CalMatters, Cal State spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said there are opportunities for partnership when duplication concerns arise. Some strategies are already in place, like guaranteed admission to Cal State campuses for community college students and joint degree programs where students attend a community college and a Cal State at the same time, often virtually.

Meanwhile, the Cal State University Chancellor’s Office has thrown its support behind a proposed law authored by Sacramento Democrat Kevin McCarty. While the Cal State system offers a few Ph.D. programs, the bill would grant it the right to approve many more, as long as the programs “do not duplicate University of California doctoral degrees.”

As the bill winds through the statehouse, the UC system has asked for amendments to prevent Cal State campuses from duplicating what it already offers.

Thousands of dollars saved

In a state with over 2.5 million students across the public college and university systems, only a few thousand community college students a year, at most, could benefit from the new bachelor’s degree program.

Still, the few community college students who have enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program on campus say that they are cheaper and more convenient than the nearest Cal State or UC option. A recent report from UCLA shows that’s especially the case for low-income students and students of color.

The Cal State system uses similar arguments to say that it should be allowed to award more doctorate degrees.

Jessa Garcia received a bachelor’s degree in art and multimedia design in 2011, but after getting furloughed during the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she wanted a more “stable” career and started looking into biology programs near her home in Oceanside, in north San Diego County.

She said she spoke to an admissions representative at Cal State San Marcos, the nearest public four-year university, who told her she was not eligible because she already had a degree. A spokesperson for Cal State San Marcos said the system will begin accepting students like Garcia in fall 2024 when regulations change.

MiraCosta College’s biomanufacturing program was the perfect solution, she said. “MiraCosta is close to me, like less than 10 minutes away,” she said. ”It’s a science-related degree, and it was accessible to someone who already holds a degree.”

By the time she graduates in May, the bachelor’s degree will cost her a total of around $4,000 in tuition, in part because she was able to carry over credits from her earlier degree. Garcia said she already has her eyes set on a few internships where the starting wage is around $25 an hour.

The average bachelor’s degree at a community college costs $10,560, which is “less than half the tuition at even the most affordable public universities,” the Community College Chancellor’s Office states on its site. Community college leaders across the state say these local, low-cost bachelor’s degree programs are the only option for some students and that students who live near a Cal State campus may not get accepted there.

Last year, the Cal State system rejected between 3,000 and 3,500 eligible community college applicants, Bentley-Smith said.

“We’re an institution that has a high rate of students on federal financial aid,” said Don Miller, vice president of academic affairs at Rio Hondo College, which is located in southeastern Los Angeles County. “They live in the area. They tend to be more focused on the region.”

LA Mission, Rio Hondo stall

This year, Rio Hondo College submitted an application to develop a bachelor’s degree program in popular electronic music, but it is fighting objections about duplication from San Francisco State, San Jose State, San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach and Cal State San Bernardino.

“The majority of our students are not the kind of students who are going to go to SF to get a degree,” he said.

At the same time, Los Angeles Mission College submitted an application to offer a bachelor’s degree in biomanufacturing. Part of the logic for the application, said Cantú, was that MiraCosta College, Solano Community College and Moorpark College already had approval from the Cal State system to offer bachelor’s degrees in biomanufacturing as part of earlier application processes.

Further, Nathan Evans, a deputy vice chancellor for the Cal State system, had told one of Cantú’s colleagues in an email that there would be a “minimal amount of additional information” required when “similar proposals” had already been approved.

She submitted the application — more than 100 pages in total — in January. On May 31, she got an email notifying her that the Cal State Chancellor’s Office had flagged the application because some campuses said it duplicated their programs.

While she’s excited about the potential, she said the experience has left her feeling “anxious” and “just a little disappointed,” especially for the potential students. “We talk about wanting to get our community members ready for these high-wage positions. We cannot train the pipeline fast enough.”

Bentley-Smith said it would be “premature” to comment on Cantú’s proposal.

Tensions flare

There must be two rounds of applications every year, according to the law, but last year, the Community College Chancellor’s Office only ran one round of applications, which took more than 15 months.

One of last year’s proposals, a bachelor’s degree in applied fire management from rural Feather River College, remains a sore point for Cal State. The Community College Chancellor’s Office approved the program and is moving ahead, even though Cal State leaders remain opposed.

Senate Education Committee Chairperson Josh Newman, a Brea Democrat, and Assembly Higher Education Chairperson Mike Fong, a Monterey Park Democrat, were concerned that this year’s applications would face the same obstacles as last year. In March, they issued a strongly worded letter to the Community College Chancellor’s Office, asking it to “pause” new bachelor’s degree applications until the two higher education systems could come to an agreement over duplication concerns.

The Community College Chancellor’s Office never took the recommended “pause” and continued to accept applications from its campuses, only to hit the same challenges as before. Half of this year’s 14 applications have been approved, but the remaining seven are delayed over disagreements about duplication.

The state law requires that the Cal State system provide “supporting evidence” to explain any objection to a community college’s application and gives the two systems 30 days to come to a resolution over any duplication concerns.

But months have passed since the Cal State Chancellor’s Office expressed concern over Cantú’s application and she still doesn’t have any evidence to explain why. In June, the Community College Chancellor’s Office sent Cantú a note, saying that the Cal State system had failed to provide supporting evidence after “repeated requests.”

Still, both sides say that they are handling the application process correctly.

The Cal State Chancellor’s Office says it is abiding by the spirit of the pause that state legislators asked for this spring. The Community College Chancellor’s Office says it is following the state law, which sets the strict timeline of two rounds of applications each year.

While there was no pause in applications, the two systems did agree to form a committee that would create new policies in the event of future disagreements. The committee has met three times but has yet to issue any new policy that would resolve future clashes around duplication. In a statement to CalMatters, Bentley-Smith said the committee would meet again in the fall.

“There is no dispute between the systems,” she said, pointing to the ongoing work of the committee.

On July 17, the Community College Chancellor’s Office hired the Research and Planning Group for the California Community Colleges, an independent consulting firm, to evaluate the duplication concerns. Paul Feist, vice chancellor of communications, said the contract was “internal” to the Community College Chancellor’s Office.

For the record: This story was updated to correct Jessa Garcia’s job status and the scope of the work done by the Research and Planning Group for the California Community Colleges. It was also updated to correct the number of community college students the Cal State system rejected for transfer.

Los Angeles Unified School District’s cell phone ban turns 1 year old today.

The state’s largest district announced a “bell to bell” cellphone and social media ban in June 2024, which expanded the district’s existing phone ban to include lunch and passing periods. The policy took effect Feb. 18, 2025. District officials cited rising concerns about the effects of phones and social media on youth mental health, bullying and distraction from classroom instruction.

How well did the ban go at the beginning?

Over the first semester, we heard from educators and students who had mixed opinions. Some teachers reported positive results, while others said that passing periods remained a challenge. Some students found the ban stifled their ability to get important things done, and some also said their screentime stayed the same or increased while at home. We made a whole episode of our Imperfect Paradise podcast about it:

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On February 18th, 2025, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. We headed to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went.

Did the cellphone ban in high schools work?

On February 18th, 2025, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest public school district in the country, implemented an all-day cell phone ban for its students. We headed to Venice High School to see how the ban actually went.

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What don't we know?

Since LAUSD’s proposal went into effect, other districts have also rolled out changes to cellphone policies in advance of a July 2026 state deadline. The long-term effects are unclear, although more researchers are investigating.

How’s it going?

You tell us! Has it improved your educational experience? (Whether you’re a teacher, student, parent or caregiver.) Here’s a quick survey you can use to share your thoughts.

Los Angeles remains on shaky financial ground with increased liability costs, overspending by city departments and revenue shortfalls forcing it to dip into its reserves, according to a financial report released Wednesday.

The annual report for the fiscal year that ended in June, from Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia, said the culmination of decades of “unstable budgeting” is seen and felt by Angelenos across the city “in crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating services.”

Additionally, short-term budget balancing over the past two years resulted in unpaid furlough days for city employees and the elimination of thousands of unfilled positions.

“The service impacts of those cuts are still hitting departments as they struggle to address growing needs with severely diminished capacities,” the report read.

Key takeaways

Here are some of the major points made in the report:

• The top area of overspending continued to be liability payments. Liability claims exceeded the budget by $199 million or 228%, totaling a record of $287 million for the year. The top three areas include police at $152 million, street services at $44 million and transportation at $20 million. 

• The top area of underspending was capital improvement projects. The city only spent $25 million (19%) of the $131 million budget.

• Salaries and employee benefits increased by $162.6 million (4.7%) compared to previous  years, primarily because of cost-of-living adjustments associated with labor agreements with civilian and sworn employee unions, sworn employee hiring, increased overtime usage and higher benefit and insurance premium costs. Property taxes, which represent 40.6% of general fund revenues, increased by 4.3%. Business tax revenue increased by 8.6%, while sales tax revenues declined by 2.2%

• The city had to make up $160 million in revenue shortfall by tapping the reserve fund, which dropped from $648 million two fiscal years ago to $402 million for fiscal year 2024-25. The reserve fund currently sits at 5.06% of the total general fund budget, according to a December financial status report from the city administrative officer — barely above the 5% minimum set by the City Council.

• Four ratings agencies, including S&P, Fitch, Moody’s and Kroll, have given the city a “negative outlook” over a variety of concerns including liability payments and damages from the Palisades Fire. A negative outlook indicates a heightened risk that a city’s credit rating may be downgraded within the next 12 to 18 months. L.A. still holds an Aa2 rating from Moody’s, which is considered a high grade.

The controller issued a series of recommendations, including shifting to a two-year instead of one-year budgeting process, more realistic revenue projections, and more revenue generation by growing the tax base (for example: implementing a vacancy tax or taxing rideshare/autonomous vehicles, not just raising the sales tax).

General fund challenges

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, a member of the city’s Budget and Finance Committee, said in the report that the city can’t keep relying on short-term fixes, while “structural deficits,” like ongoing budget shortfalls, grow.

She added that “years of draining reserves, soaring liability payouts, and underinvestment in infrastructure have left us in a perilous financial position that our communities are now forced to absorb.”

“We need transparent, multi-year budgeting rooted in long-term planning and fiscal responsibility,” Hernandez said.

Mejia said that although the city is halfway through its fiscal year, it continues to have general fund budget challenges.

“The current fiscal year’s budget assumes moderate revenue growth, however, the long-term impact of current economic activities on revenue growth remains unknown and revenue has been stable during the first half of the year.”

LA’s demographics

In addition to providing a financial picture, the report provided a demographic look at the city. L.A.’s population is 3.84 million, the average age is 37.5, the total school enrollment is 409,108 and the unemployment rate is 6%.

The city employs more than 50,000 workers, the metro L.A.’s GDP is $1.3 trillion (among the top 20 economies in the world), and LAX has 75 million passengers a year.

Erroneous and politically charged statements by Trump administration officials, as well as the district attorney for San Bernardino County, have complicated the prosecution of a truck driver charged with vehicular manslaughter in a crash on the 10 Freeway last year.

The statements highlighted the national origin of the driver, 21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh, who was born in India, contained false information on his immigration status and made unfounded allegations that he was driving under the influence.

It’s the latest in a series of instances where federal officials have injected politics into developing events. In some cases, statements by federal officials later turn out to be false and detrimental to prosecutions, as the New York Times recently found in at least four instances. Here in Southern California, statements by federal officials have ended up in court documents where Singh’s defense argues his prosecution has been tainted by anti-immigrant bias.

Statements by the Department of Homeland Security labeled Singh a “criminal illegal alien” who was driving under the influence. Singh was seeking asylum and authorized to work in the U.S. by the federal government. Toxicology tests taken after the crash came back negative for all substances.

“It is a terrible tragedy three innocent people lost their lives due to the reckless open border policies that allowed an illegal alien to be released into the U.S. and drive an 18-wheeler on America’s highways,” Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an Oct. 23 statement.

Arjun Sethi, a racial justice advocate, civil rights lawyer and adjunct professor at Georgetown University said these statements have compromised Singh’s ability to receive a fair trial.

“When you think of the variety of federal statements in this case, you see blatant racial and xenophobic rhetoric that is highly prejudicial,” Sethi said. “How can any juror set aside that rhetoric … and be able to ascertain the truth?”

Public defenders representing Singh argue similar statements by San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson, a deputy in Anderson’s office and the California Highway Patrol violate California's Racial Justice Act, a 2020 law prohibiting prosecutions influenced by racial bias.

Hearings on the Racial Justice Act claims will continue March 10. Singh's trial will commence after a judge rules on those claims. Singh has pleaded not guilty to the felony charges against him.

“I think authorities made statements infused by racial bias in this case,” Sethi, who has served as an expert in Racial Justice Act litigation, told LAist. “Bottom line, California authorities in this case mirror the racist political rhetoric we are hearing from the federal government.”

How we got here 

Six months before the crash that led to the charges against Singh, President Donald Trump took steps to restrict states from issuing commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued new emergency regulations in September that CalMatters reported could revoke the licenses of up to 61,000 immigrant truck drivers, amounting to 8% of the total commercial licenses in the state.

The department gave California 30 days to come into compliance with these new rules or risk losing millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office disputed the Trump administration's claims, arguing that California’s licensed truck drivers had a lower fatal crash rate than the national average.

Then, in the early afternoon of Oct. 21, Singh’s semi-truck crashed on a crowded interstate.

Dashboard camera footage shows his truck colliding with passenger vehicles and another truck as one car went up in flames.

Singh was arrested and held without bail. Prosecutors charged him with vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving.

He was initially charged with driving under the influence, but the district attorney dropped those charges after toxicology reports came back negative for all substances.

As a deputy district attorney said in a filing, the crash immediately “generated high media interest and touched off a federal and state official-driven debate surrounding immigration policy and the state's issuance of commercial driver's licenses.”

Two days after the crash, the Department of Homeland Security published a news release arguing Singh, an asylum seeker, entered the country illegally in 2022 “and was RELEASED into the country under the Biden administration.”

DHS officials have not responded to LAist’s requests for comment. McLaughlin will reportedly leave the agency soon.

The U.S. Department of Transportation also issued a news release on Singh’s crash and California’s compliance with the new licensing rules. The release stated that Singh was operating his truck under the influence of drugs, despite a lack of evidence to support that claim.

In an email to LAist, a Department of Transportation spokesperson said California issued Singh’s Commercial Drivers License without properly vetting his qualifications.

Newsom’s press office directed LAist to the California Transportation Agency, which has yet to respond to emailed questions.

But in an earlier statement on social media, Newsom’s office stated that the federal government approved and renewed Singh’s federal employment authorization multiple times, and it was that approval that allowed him to obtain a commercial driver’s license in California.

Racial Justice Act claims

Public defender Jason Tucker argued in an Oct. 31 filing that Singh, his client, has faced multiple violations of the California Racial Justice Act, a law passed in 2020 that prohibits state authorities from seeking convictions or imposing sentences based on race, ethnicity or national origin.

Tucker has not responded to an emailed request for comment.

The filing highlights a motion to increase bail written by a California Highway Patrol officer shortly after the crash that claimed Singh was subject to deportation, despite being an asylum seeker who was authorized to work in the U.S. by the federal government, and a comment by a deputy district attorney about Singh’s use of an interpreter in court.

The primary violation, according to Tucker’s filing, occurred Oct. 23, when Anderson, the district attorney, issued a news release that tied the crash to state and federal policy.

“Had the rule of law been followed by state and federal officials the defendant should have never been in California at all,” Anderson’s statement said, before adding that Anderson’s office would “aggressively prosecute” the case.

According to the defense, this statement “injected Mr. Singh’s national origin, by way of his immigration status, into the criminal justice proceedings, despite evidence to the contrary.”

The DA’s reply

Deputy District Attorney Phillip Stemler, argued in a Nov. 10 court filing that the statements made by the office focus on policy without referencing or disparaging Singh’s identity, do not contain discriminatory language and do not meet the standards of a Racial Justice Act violation. Further, the district attorney is protected by the First Amendment, giving him latitude to speak on policy matters, according to the filing.

Stemler’s response stated that the Oct. 21 crash that killed three people and injured several others in Ontario “touched off a debate” about immigration and truck driving but that it was not Anderson’s office who politicized the case.

“It was federal officials who injected defendant’s immigration status into the media narrative on the defendant’s case,” reads the filing by Stemler, the Racial Justice Act coordinator for the office.

First, the filing references an Oct. 22 social media post by Duffy stating that his department was withholding $40 million from California because the state did not comply with the new federal rules.

“The following day, federal officials ramped up further,” the filing reads, pointing to the Oct. 23 DHS press release on the crash that referred to Singh as a “criminal illegal alien from India.”

Stemler’s filing says that the California Racial Justice Act does not apply to federal officials.

Sethi, the civil rights lawyer, said the statements by federal officials nevertheless compromise Singh’s ability to receive a fair trial.

“Long before Mr. Singh ever sets foot in a courtroom, there is a long shadow of political theater and xenophobic rhetoric that will be cast over him,” Sethi said, “and his case that is the fault of state and federal officials.”

Mara Harris loads a box of produce into her car, along with canned food and boxed goods. It marks the second week in a row she will drive the groceries to families across Los Angeles who say immigration raids are keeping them inside their homes.

“I got involved because I live in Highland Park, which is a primarily Latinx neighborhood, and I was feeling really frustrated and angry about our neighbors being unfairly treated,” Harris said.

Harris is a member of Nefesh, a Jewish outreach community that has partnered with local faith leaders to deliver goods. Her role is straightforward: pick up the groceries, drive them to families who have requested help, and drop them off.

“My husband is an immigrant,” she said. “I just think about the anxiety that we have going through the process, even with the resources we have access to, and I think about how impossible it is for other people to navigate that.”

She added, “It’s just chance that some people were born in countries that are safe and that provide them with opportunities, and other people are not. And I think the U.S. has an obligation to extend that opportunity to those people.”

The grocery deliveries are being organized by a Koreatown church that has seen a decline in attendance at its regular food distribution program in recent months. At the request of church leadership, The LA Local is not naming the church or its congregants out of privacy concerns and to avoid drawing attention to their immigrant community. It’s just one of a network of faith-based organizations responding to the need, and as raids show no signs of slowing down anytime soon, the group is seeking to expand its delivery hubs to more church sites.

Before the recent enforcement activity, the Koreatown church’s regular food distribution served between 500 and 600 people, according to one church organizer. In early February, they saw around 350.

“People are afraid, and unfortunately don’t know about services like this,” she said.

Multiple families have said they’re just too afraid to go out into the neighborhood, according to church leadership.

Since last summer, federal agents have carried out workplace raids, targeted day labor sites and arrested people in public spaces across the region. The Department of Homeland Security reported in December that more than 10,000 people had been detained in the LA area since June.

“There are members of our congregation that have immigration concerns that have told me they’re afraid to go out,” the pastor of the Koreatown church said. “I’ve spoken to at least four different families that are just afraid to go get groceries, are afraid to take their kids or their grandkids to school, and are worried about ICE activity in the neighborhood that’s been happening over the past seven months or so.”

In response, the church began coordinating home grocery deliveries in partnership with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, or CLUE. The partnership started last summer after church staff noticed a drop in attendance at their weekly food distributions.

“A lot of people were afraid to go to the food bank at (the church), so they saw a big decline and understood that it was because people were afraid to come out, so CLUE partnered with them to do this delivery service,” said Liz Bar-El, a community liaison for CLUE.

Another staff member who has worked at the Koreatown church for six years said operations have been directly affected by enforcement activity in the area.

“I’ve been doing this for about six years. Last week, we had to stop at 11 a.m., and we used to close at 12, 12:30 because the ICE agents were around here,” he said. “And the number of people is decreasing because of ICE raids.”

The church pastor said families do not simply call and request food; there is a screening system to ensure that the program reaches those who are most concerned about leaving their homes.

CLUE has “folks that help call through the list of people that requested it to confirm for the day of their deliveries. They also have somebody that does a screening process to make sure that the people that are getting the deliveries qualify for the parameters of the program so that they’re not just getting people who are like ‘Yeah, you can deliver food to me’ but rather are really concerned about their status,” he said.

But Bar-El, the organizer with CLUE, said identifying families can be difficult.

“It’s likely due to fear of trusting somebody, they are hiding in their homes,” she said. “One way to reach them is through their pastors and the rapid response network that CLUE is a part of.”

Many of the requests stem from sudden changes in a family’s circumstances.

“This current situation with grocery delivery is mostly people who need help getting food because somebody got detained, deported and or the main breadwinner lost their job,” Bar-El said. “In one case, the husband was recently bonded out, and the wife was left home with three very small children.”

For Harris, the volunteer delivering food across multiple neighborhoods, the work is personal. She often thinks about her own family’s immigration status.

“My husband is British and he’s been working here off work visas for six years. He just applied for a non-conditional green card last year. So I take our anxiety and worries and extrapolate it,” she said.

Organizers don’t expect the need for this service to ease anytime soon. Bar-El said they plan to expand the effort to another church in Hollywood and are seeking more volunteers.

“I believe it’s my responsibility as someone who is one of the lucky ones and who does have resources and privilege to do what I can for my neighbors and for my city that I love that is so diverse and wonderful,” Harris said.