All California Kids Want for Christmas Is a Tutor

Forget Naughty or Nice, Every Student Should Get the Gift of Academic Support This Holiday Season

Tutor us, Santa baby.

And don’t bother bringing Californians another four lords-a-leaping or eight swans-a-swimming, St. Nick. What we need this year are nearly 5.9 million tutors—one for each and every one of our public school students.

Because you could fill a giant sack with all the research showing that one-on-one tutoring is students’ best bet for playing academic catch-up, which is needed more than ever right now.

St. Nick: Most of our kids, both the nice and the naughty, would need a team of flying reindeer to get back to grade level …

by Joe Mathews | December 6, 2022

California’s Bad Bet on School Finance Leaves Too Much to Chance

It’s the Already-Fortunate Who Are Most Likely to Luck Out in the State’s Public Education System

By Joe Mathews | September 15, 2016

Californians may think we have a system of public education. But what we really have is a state system for rationing public education.

I got a personal taste of this …

A South L.A. Novelist on Why He Teaches Kids It’s OK to Be Weird

Jervey Tervalon’s Inner City Education Made Him a Passionate Reader and Respected Writer

By Jervey Tervalon | July 7, 2016

As a teenager in South Los Angeles, I worked for Anti-Self Destruction, a government-funded neighborhood advocacy nonprofit. There I met Ollie, a handsome, slender supervisor who rocked lime green jumpsuits …

In South L.A., a More Approachable Police Force Has Led to a Safer Community

An LAPD Commander Returned to the Area Where He Was Born to Help Officers Get to Know the Neighbors

By Phillip Tingirides | July 7, 2016

Here’s one big lesson from the progress we’ve seen in South Los Angeles: effective policing requires building deep relationships and real personal connections with the people whom you’re charged with …

Teaching South L.A.’s Kids to Believe That They Are Scholars, Leaders, and Good Citizens

The Principal of Dolores Huerta Elementary Uses Her Own Struggles With Adversity to Inspire Her Students

By Susana Ansley-Gutierrez | July 7, 2016

Four years ago, when I was asked to be the summer principal at Florence Griffith Joyner Elementary in Watts, I was nervous about working in South Los Angeles.

I grew …

Why California Keeps Failing to Grade Its Schools

The State Is Inexcusably Late in Delivering a Revamped Public School Index

By Joe Mathews | May 19, 2016

It’s a California educational reality worthy of Kafka. Our state’s leaders keep asking parents and communities to take bigger roles in making local schools better—even as those same leaders keep …

public schools