Lack of on-campus housing for students at many California State University campuses can be a major barrier for low-income students to attend college. To try to address this, CSU added more than 17,000 new beds over the last decade, with plans to add more. Yet students still struggle to find housing on or close to campus.

What are the barriers to building more on-campus housing? Why does it matter for students?

Guests:

Read more from EdSource: Cal State wants more housing. Can it add 18,000 beds?

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Education Beat is turning 4 years old, and to mark the occasion we’re rebroadcasting an episode from our very first days back in 2021.

It's the story of an Oakland woman, Oral Lee Brown, who adopted a class of first graders and promised to pay for their college educations if they graduated from high school.

Earlier this year, she was honored by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education for her contributions to education.

Guests:

Read more EdSource articles on this topic:

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Kat Stamatakos says she was able to turn her college career around thanks to the TRIO Writing Success Project at City College of San Francisco. It helped her get an "A" in an English class she failed the first time, but, more importantly, she found a community who cheered her on and held her accountable.

But the program that was so critical to Kat’s success is now on the chopping block. The Trump Administration has proposed cutting all funding for what are called TRIO programs — like Upward Bound and McNair Scholars — which prepare and guide low-income students through college. In California, the programs served over 100,000 participants in the 2023-24 academic year.

Why is the Trump administration targeting TRIO and what's at stake for students?

Voices:

Read more from EdSource: Trump wants to cut college access programs for low-income students; California educators are pushing back

Education Beat is a weekly podcast. This week's episode was hosted by EdSource’s Emma Gallegos and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Larry Ferlazzo is a well-respected teacher, both in the Sacramento high school where he taught for more than two decades and far beyond. He has spent much of his career teaching immigrant students and English language learners. He’s written 10 books about teaching and edited 3 more. He also maintains a personal blog and a column for teachers, where he shares resources and tips for a following of tens of thousands.

Now he’s retiring. In this episode, he shares how he became the teacher he is and some words of wisdom for other teachers who will carry his baton.

Guest:

Read more from EdSource: He taught and blogged for thousands — retiring teacher shares his wisdom

Read Larry's blog here.

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Monterey County offers the children of agricultural workers a fun summer filled with innovative science projects, dance and ceramics, in addition to beefing up their math and English skills. It’s one of dozens of these programs statewide and even more across the nation.

But this could be the last summer the program is offered. President Donald Trump froze funds for the program and wants to eliminate it entirely.

Voices:

Read more from EdSource: Migrant education helps farmworkers' children catch up; Trump wants to end it

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Hundreds of thousands of children and families will likely lose federally funded food stamps and health care under the new law.

Advocates for low-income families say that means that children will be coming to school hungry and stressed, making it harder for them to learn. Schools will also face cuts to health services they provide on campus.

Guests:

Read more from EdSource: What Trump's budget and tax law means for California students

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

Each year, most of California’s public colleges and universities are eligible for extra federal funding because they enroll high numbers of Latino students and are therefore classified as Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or HSIs. That designation has helped California colleges and universities get more than $600 million in grants since 1995.

But now, that funding could be at risk. The state of Tennessee and the anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions recently filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of HSI grants.

What's at stake for California students?

Guests:

Read more from EdSource: California colleges worry about lawsuit challenging funding for campuses with many Hispanic students  

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids ramp up across California, so have reports of family members — and sometimes students themselves — being detained or deported.

Listen to how immigration enforcement is affecting families, how teachers are stepping up to help, and what school staff need to keep in mind.

Guests:

Read more from EdSource:

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

This year Berkeley High School launched a new program that pairs professional filmmakers with high school students called Future Filmmakers.

Seven students created personal documentaries about their own lives on topics ranging from divorce to masculinity to grief. Students shared what they learned through the program about filmmaking, storytelling and about their own families.

Guests:

Read more from EdSource: Film program empowers Berkeley teens to tell their stories

Education Beat is a weekly podcast. This week's episode was hosted by EdSource’s Emma Gallegos and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, public health professor Noé Crespo applied for a research grant from the National Institutes of Health to study ways to boost vaccination rates among Latinos.

He and his colleagues designed a community outreach plan, paid a team to implement it, and collected results. All that remained was to analyze the data. But in April, the grant was terminated by the Trump administration, alongside many others nationwide, leaving his research in limbo.

Guests:

Read more from EdSource: Federal grant cuts hit California universities hard, putting research in limbo

Education Beat is a weekly podcast, hosted by EdSource’s Zaidee Stavely and produced by Coby McDonald.

Subscribe: Apple, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube