The Brief

California’s public employee unions often put up the big money — and the only money — in elections for seats on the board that oversees the state’s largest pension fund.

This summer, they pulled together $660,000 through an independent expenditure committee to support their favored candidates at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System by sending mailers on their behalf.

But a different vein of money is pouring into the races, and it’s likely to make this the most-expensive CalPERS election ever.

The money is coming from a mix of mostly private sector construction and trade unions that have been urging the $584 billion pension fund to favor union shops in its real estate and construction investments.

They’re backing incumbent Jose Luis Pacheco, who indicated during board meetings that he’s open to more restrictive labor agreements. Pacheco raised more money in direct contributions than any other CalPERS candidate in history, pulling in $184,000 with more than $54,000 of that coming from construction trade unions.

His is one of two seats up for grabs, with voting scheduled to end Sept. 29. Pacheco is defending his seat against Troy Johnson, a challenger with backing from the major public sector unions; and Sam Hassan Akkad, a retired Caltrans engineer.

In the other race, incumbent David Miller, a longtime state government labor leader, is facing Santa Monica firefighter Dominick Bei and retired Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermell.

“It’s amazing to see this kind of race drawing this kind of money from folks who aren’t part of the system,” said Miller, a two-term incumbent on the CalPERS board who previously was a union leader in the California Association of Professional Scientists and who has benefited from labor spending in his past campaigns.

About 1.7 million civil servants and retirees are eligible to vote in the election. CalPERS is overseen by a 13-member board. Six are elected by members and seven are either elected officials or are appointed by the governor or Legislature.

Average taxpayers can’t vote, but what happens at CalPERS affects how much money schools, local government agencies and the state can spend on public services. CalPERS is considered underfunded because its assets are worth about 80% of what the system owes over time to its members. It beat its earnings target last year, but when it misses, it charges government agencies more money to make up the difference.

Overly rosy projections in the early 2000s led California to sweeten pensions for its government workers, but then the Great Recession hobbled the fund. It hasn’t clawed out from that one-two punch.

“CalPERS hasn't been managed well,” said Mermell, the former city manager. “California is the fourth-largest economy in the world, so wouldn't you think its public pension would be the envy of all the other states? But it’s not. It’s sort of in the middle of the pack.”

'Money talks' in pension board election

The dynamics of the race are more complicated than incumbents versus outsiders.

Incumbent Miller and challenger Johnson are running as a slate. They’re getting a lift from the unions that sent out mailers stressing their bona fides as public sector labor leaders. Their independent expenditure committee was funded primarily by locals from Service Employees International Union and the California School Employees Association.

Incumbent Pacheco and challenger Bei are running on a competing slate, although Bei does not have the kind of direct contributions from trades unions that Pacheco received. They have support from public safety unions, as well as watchdog retiree organizations that have been critical of CalPERS’ investment strategies.

Both coalitions — the SEIU-led alliance supporting Miller and Johnson as well as the police and firefighter partnership behind Pacheco and Bei — have produced winning campaigns in the past.

“It all comes down to who’s voting,” said Johnson, who has worked in California schools for 33 years and participated in his union for more than 20 years.

Mermell and Akkad have less resources but could find themselves in a runoff.

“Money talks, I thought that was only in politics, not in something like this,” said Akkad, who has been receiving political text messages from competing CalPERS campaigns. “It’s a mess. And I’m glad I’m different from them.”

Pacheco refused an interview request for this story. Bei said he was unavailable because of work commitments.

Why the trades are spending on CalPERS

In a twist, the well-funded SEIU coalition behind Miller and Johnson previously supported Pacheco. The same groups in 2021 spent $483,000 through an independent expenditure committee to help him unseat former board member Margaret Brown.

Johnson, who is a leader in the same public sector union that initially propelled Pacheco, said the California School Employees Association gradually lost trust in Pacheco and chose to break with him.

Brown now is the president of a group called the Retired Public Employees Association, which has endorsed Bei and Pacheco and purchased campaign signs on their behalf.

Brown four years ago could not keep up with the union spending against her. She raised about $47,000 that year. Pacheco, with help from the trades, has a war chest to reach voters.

The trades earlier this year sponsored a bill in the Legislature that would have prohibited public pension funds from investing in construction firms that do not adhere to prevailing wage or apprenticeship programs. That effectively would boost trades unions but also would limit the pension fund’s options when it hires contractors for its $66 billion real estate holdings. The bill did not get a vote in a committee.

The trades also pressed CalPERS to adopt those rules on its own through the fund’s “responsible contractor policy,” which shapes about $1 billion in annual spending.

Reaffirming the policy without additional labor protections “will be a lost opportunity for CalPERS to use its market power to hold employers accountable and uplift the lives of local California construction workers and apprentices,” Jeremy Smith of the State Building and Construction Trades Council told the CalPERS board in March, according to a transcript.

The vote did not go his way, with seven members affirming the policy without additional labor protections and three voting against it. Pacheco was a no vote. According to the meeting transcript, he said some aspects of the policy “have fallen short, with respect to prevailing wages for instance, the apprenticeship program.”

In a written statement, trades spokesperson Brooke Patton said the unions were supporting Pacheco because he “has shown a strong commitment to protecting their hard-earned retirement savings and has advocated for responsible contractor policies. He has demonstrated genuine respect for working people, and we believe it’s more important than ever to support that leadership."

Correction: CalPERS board member David Miller was a leader in the California Association of Professional Scientists prior to winning a seat on the pension board. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described his union background.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Topline:

Sales: Wine sales have decreased by more than 20% over a five-year period, causing grape prices to drop and prompting California growers to take roughly a quarter of the state’s vineyards out of production.

“They have way too much of it, and they haven’t been able to sell it the last few years,” said Jess Lander, wine reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, during a conversation on AirTalk, LAist 89.3’s daily news show.

Bargain bottles: Lander has reported that bottles that typically cost around $150 are now, in some cases, going for less than $30 under a different label.

How to take advantage: Lander says if you’re looking to take advantage of the surplus bargain, look at the region on the bottle and then do a little experimenting with your palate.

Listen to the full conversation above: To learn more about the wine industry’s outlook and the effects on consumers.

California’s graduation rates reached a decade high last school year, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions continued to decline, according to the California School Dashboard released Thursday.

But progress remained uneven. Chronic absenteeism is still higher than before the pandemic, suspension rates have fallen only minimally and substantial disparities persist among student groups.

“At a time when California continues to focus on accelerating learning and closing opportunity gaps, these results provide important evidence that our sustained investments are making a difference,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement.

The California Department of Education’s dashboard tracks student success across several measures, including chronic absenteeism, suspensions, English learner progress, graduation rates and college and career readiness.

This is the first year the dashboard has been released alongside the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment scores in English language arts, math and, now, science, giving educators and families a broader view of student outcomes.

“That’s a smart thing to do,” said Tyrone Howard, a professor of education at UCLA. “I think that way we kind of get as holistic of a picture as we can from multiple standpoints.”

The 2025-26 data comes amid a significant, ongoing decline in California student enrollment. Since the 2016-17 academic year, the state has lost 496,975 students — an 8% enrollment decrease.

Over the past decade, the state has also seen significant changes in the student population, with more students identifying as Asian, two or more races and not reported. There has also been an increase in students with disabilities and in homeless youths.

Chronic absenteeism remains above prepandemic levels 

Chronic absenteeism continued to decline in California during the 2025-26 school year, falling 1.1% from the previous year to 18.3% among students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. The rate reached 30% during the pandemic-era spike in 2021-22. Students who are chronically absent have missed at least 18 instructional days, or 10% or more of the school year.

“The fact that we’re seeing drops, but not huge drops, is not too different from what you’re seeing across the country,” said Hedy Chang, CEO and president of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that works with school districts to reduce absenteeism.

The persistence of a high percentage of students chronically absent “points to the need for us to even deepen our work to reduce chronic absence to be even more strategic,” she added.

Downey Unified School District is among the districts that lowered its TK-8 chronic absenteeism rate from 19.2% last year to 18.4% in 2025-26. Its TK-12 rate also declined, from 20.4% to 19.9%.

Roger Brossmer, Downey Unified’s superintendent, attributes the progress to new schedules tailored to students’ needs. The district plans to “double down,” on its efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, which remains higher than the state average, with a special focus on English learners.

Brossmer said Downey’s strong improvement in test scores – among the highest in the state – has reinforced his belief in the connection between student achievement and attendance.

“If they weren’t progressing, the number one thing they had in common was they weren’t coming to school,” Brossmer said. “And so we’ve shifted from a punitive model to more of a ‘we miss you, we need you here’ model.”

Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaska native, African American and Hispanic or Latino students continued to experience chronic absenteeism at higher rates than the statewide average. The same was true for foster youths, homeless youths, students with disabilities, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners.

Migrant students had a lower rate of chronic absenteeism than the state average, however.

Chang said that migrant student rates may be lower because students are leaving the state, or being detained, before they reach the 30-day attendance requirement to be counted toward chronic absenteeism data.

“It is possible that migrant youth are moving too far. You’d have to look at mobility issues at the same time,” Chang said.

Suspensions decrease minimally 

California’s suspension rate measures the number of students who were suspended for at least one day. It fell by 0.1 percentage points between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years, to 2.8%.

That is part of a several-year trend of falling suspension rates since 2022-23, when the rate was 3.6%.

“It’s encouraging that suspensions are going down, but the racial disparities are still pretty noticeable and pretty significant,” Howard said.

African American students had the highest suspension rates among racial and ethnic groups, followed by American Indian/Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students. Hispanic or Latino students were close to the statewide rate.

Foster youths had a much higher suspension rate of 13%, while homeless youths, students with disabilities, migrant youths, socioeconomically disadvantaged students and English learners also exceeded the statewide rate.

Howard said the state should provide more comprehensive data that includes both in-school and out-of-school suspensions.

“I’ve seen in other states (cases) where their out-of-school suspension rates have gone down, which is what they lead with,” Howard said. “But then, when you do a deeper dive looking at the in-school suspension rates, they have gone up.”

Graduation rates: the highest in a decade 

California’s graduation rate reached 87.9% in 2025-26, the highest in a decade, according to the dashboard.

Graduation rates among Filipino, Asian and students identifying as two or more races exceeded the statewide average. Migrant students also graduated at a higher rate than the state average.

It’s likely that graduation rates are even higher in the state. The California average was skewed downward by two schools — Highlands Community Charter and California Innovative Career Academy.

Going deeper

Highlands Community Charter, an adult school, filed for bankruptcy earlier this month after an audit found it owed the state $180 million for funds it was not eligible to receive.

The school’s enrollment plummeted from 11,713 in 2024-25 to 487 in 2025-26. Its four-year graduation rate was 6.6%, according to Dataquest.

Statewide, Highlands lowered the graduation rate among Asian students by 2.8 percentage points and among white students by 4.7 percentage points.

The California Innovative Career Academy, one of the Highlands Community Charter schools, had a four-year graduation rate of 8.3%. Its enrollment fell from 1,729 students in 2024-25 to 800 in 2025-26.

College readiness also improved. Nearly 55% of graduates met the basic minimum requirements for the CSU and UC systems, a 0.9 percentage point increase from the previous year.

Meanwhile, 17.1% earned the State Seal of Biliteracy, a special designation on a student’s diploma showing a high rate of proficiency in a second language. And 33.8% received the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, which shows mastery in at least six subject areas, marking a 0.8 and a 1.5 percentage point increase, respectively.

Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, said graduation rates and college readiness are moving in the right direction, but more students need to meet standards in English language and math.

“A certain percentage of students are being pushed through without gaining the knowledge and skills that signify they’ve achieved a truly meaningful high school education and are prepared for their next step, whether that’s college or career,” Flint said.

This story was originally published by EdSource.

The star-studded Los Angeles Dodgers, so used to winning year after year, find themselves in unfamiliar territory lately — on the brink of playoff elimination.

The two-time defending World Series champions are aiming to become the first National League team to win a third straight title and the first club to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000.

But that seems increasingly unlikely.

The Dodgers are facing a 3-0 deficit against Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series after losing 6-2 on Wednesday. They’ll need to win four games in a row to advance, starting Thursday in Game 4 at Dodger Stadium.

“It looks like we’re going to have to make a little more history along the way if we want to accomplish that,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We still have the pitching staff to be able to do it. We just have to get some hits.”

Offense has been sparse in the postseason. The Dodgers are 3 for 32 with runners in scoring position overall and 1 for 14 against the Brewers. Los Angeles cranked out 204 homers in the regular season — seventh in MLB — but have none so far in the NLCS.

“It’s just this whole series they’ve outslugged us, outhit us,” manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve got to get a lead and find a way to tack on.”

The Dodgers scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 2-1 lead in Game 3 before pinch-hitter Kiké Hernández came up with runners on second and third and one out. But he struck out swinging, and Tommy Edman took a called third strike to end the inning.

“That was the game right there,” Hernández said. “We need to put the ball in play. I struck out and gave Tommy a way harder job with two outs. I have had two of the biggest at-bats in the series for our team and I haven’t been able to come through. I just need to do my job.”

Tyler Glasnow is scheduled to pitch Thursday for the Dodgers, who are 44-42 in postseason elimination games. If they can find a way to win, they would host Game 5 on Friday.

“We’ve never been in this big of a hole,” Hernández said, “but we’ve had our backs against the wall plenty of times before, and we’ve come out of it. We’re just trying to do it one more time.”

Except none of the Dodgers’ hitters are doing much of anything. Kyle Tucker, who struggled mightily in the regular season, has been a bright spot. He’s batting .304 after going 1 for 3 on Wednesday.

But the top of the lineup — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández — was a combined 1 for 11 in Game 3, when the Dodgers totaled five hits.

The deepest slumps involve four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani and catcher Will Smith. Ohtani was 1 for 2, raising his average to .182 a year after being MVP of the NLCS sweep against the Brewers. Smith was 1 for 4 with a two-run double, but his average is far south of the Mendoza Line at .074.

In Game 2, the Dodgers mustered just three hits in a 7-4 loss.

The only team in major league history to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven postseason series was the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who got a gutsy stolen base from Roberts to spark their comeback against the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series.

Roberts was asked if he might reminisce with his Dodgers players about that before Thursday’s game.

“I don’t think so. I think they’ve seen the documentary. They know it can happen,” he said.