This week we welcome to the program Assembly Member Phil Ting. Ting represents Assembly District 19 and serves as Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. We discuss Ting’s career, education access, affordability, housing, and more.

As a new school year gets underway in California, districts are desperately trying to lure thousands of missing, tardy and truant students back to the classroom in what many view as a pivotal moment for education in California.

In 2021-22, 30% of students in California’s public schools were chronically absent, an all-time high and more than three times the pre-pandemic rate. Advocates fear that unless schools can reverse the trend, so many students will fall behind that they may never catch up.

In the next few years, San Francisco’s Chinatown may see the construction of a brand-new landmark called Edge on the Square, a center for Asian American arts and culture. 

The ambitious plan, with a price tag of $40 million, started back in 2019 as a coalition of community-based nonprofits who envision a massive new home tasked with uplifting Asian American storytelling.

The City’s effort to diversify its jury pool is working, according to new analysis.

A San Francisco Treasurer and Tax Collector study published on Tuesday revealed their pilot program, aiming to boost jury participation among low-income residents and people of color, did just that over its first year.

Scrutiny of college admission secured through the privilege of money, family ties, and fraud hit a fever pitch after the 2019 Varsity Blues Scandal. But after the U.S.

Two new programs from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will give a clean slate to drivers who may be saddled with debt from outstanding tolls, penalties and fees.

The battle over legacy and donor admissions to college — the practice of giving special treatment to family of alumni and contributors — is about to heat up in California as critics take aim at what they see as a long-standing barrier for less privileged students to access elite institutions.

Affirmative action is no longer legal in college admissions, after it was outlawed this summer by the U.S. Supreme Court. But many universities still give preference to so-called “legacies”, The children of alumni and prominent donors.

A recent report found that at at least three colleges in California, some of those applicants get in even when they’re not qualified for admission. An attempt to ban legacy admissions in the Golden State fell short four years ago, but now the author of that bill wants to try again.