California
California schools seeing fewer kids as birth rates fall
California saw a decline in public school enrollment for an eighth consecutive year, amid falling birth rates and the migration of families with children out of state.
Why It Matters
Declining enrollment in California has been an issue since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is an indicator of some of the issues facing the state, including falling birth rates, high housing costs pushing families out of the state and lasting impacts from the pandemic
On top of this, lower enrollment has major financial and social consequences for California’s public schools.
What To Know
In the academic year 2024-25, California schools had a total of 5,806, 221 students enrolled, according to data released by California’s Department of Education on Wednesday. This is a 7 percent decrease from the 6,235,520 recorded a decade ago.
There is also more than a 20 percent difference between the size of the number of students leaving school (488,295) and those starting it (384,822).
Stanford University education professor and economist Thomas Dee told The Los Angeles Times: “These losses largely reflect the fact that there are now substantially fewer school-age children in the state.
“This demographic decline is due to both lower birth rates and net migration of families with children out of California — e.g., due to housing costs and the growth of work-from-home employment.”
Indeed, California, like much of the rest of the United States, has a declining birth rate.
In 2023, the most recent year for which the California Department of Public Health records birth data, there were 400,129 births. This is down almost 100,000 births from a decade ago, when there were 494,392 births.
AP
The state’s fertility rate was 49 per 100,000 residents in 2023—down from 60.6 per 100,000 residents in 2013.
However, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond stressed that there has been growth in transitional kindergarten (TK) enrollment—a new grade that serves four-year-olds.
What People Are Saying
Thomas Dee also spoke about “the students who fled public schools at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic who still have not returned.”
“The public school enrollment losses also reflect an enduring increase in private and home-school enrollment,” he added.
Tony Thurmond said: “While we have more work to do, the dramatic growth in TK is inspiring and shows that providing rigorous and quality programs can be a key ingredient to bringing more families back to our schools.”
What Happens Next
It remains to be seen whether enrollment will continue to decline in California and what impacts that will have.
California
Chance of more showers in L.A., with a new storm set to hit Thursday
Showers could linger in Los Angeles on Tuesday following four straight days of rain — and even more rain is likely on Thursday and Friday.
There’s a 20% to 30% of showers and thunderstorms Tuesday across much of Los Angeles County, the National Weather Service said, although it’s expected to be mostly sunny. The thunderstorms will remain a slight risk because of a cold front that ushered in unstable air Monday.
By Tuesday, the cold front will have moved away from L.A., but the cold core of the low-pressure system will still be around. “This will bring enough instability to the area for a slight chance of thunderstorm development,” the weather service in Oxnard said.
Temperatures have chilled with the latest storm. While the L.A. coast and San Gabriel Valley on Monday reached the mid-60s, due to late arriving rain, most of L.A. County’s coastal areas and valleys “struggled to get out of the 50s,” the weather service said.
Wednesday will bring a reprieve with sunny skies, but another storm is expected to enter Southern California on Thursday and continue through Friday.
Thursday’s storm is expected to drop from 0.25 to 0.75 inches of precipitation. That’s on top of the 0.74 inches of rain that fell on downtown L.A. in the 24-hour period that ended at 9 p.m. Monday. Before that, the weekend storm that began Friday brought 2.68 inches of rain to downtown.
For the 24-hour period ending 9 p.m. Monday, Porter Ranch received 1.61 inches; La Cañada Flintridge, 1.5; Northridge, 1.43; Bel-Air, 1.21; Castaic, 1.15; Van Nuys, 1.12; and Beverly Hills, 1.11.
Warm Springs Camp, in the mountains overlooking the Santa Clarita Valley, recorded an 18-hour rainfall total of 2.5 inches by Monday evening.
The storms, thus far, have caused some mayhem but no severe or life-threatening damage in recently burned areas.
By late Monday night, landslides and flooding were reported on a number of roads. The 5 Freeway near Highway 14, between Sylmar and Santa Clarita, suffered flooding Monday afternoon, as did an offramp on the 91 Freeway at Carmenita Road. The California Highway Patrol said there was flooding at onramps to the 10 Freeway in El Monte and the 605 Freeway on the southern border of Baldwin Park.
Mountain roads were hard hit. One motorist on Angeles Crest Highway, a road that winds through the San Gabriel Mountains, became “stuck in mud, dirt and rock” in a northbound lane, while the southbound lane was completely blocked with multiple landslides, according to reports filed to the National Weather Service. Snowplows couldn’t haul away the debris because it was too heavy.
Near the 101 Freeway in Hidden Hills, a number of vehicles hydroplaned as Round Meadow Road flooded near Mureau Road.
Monday afternoon and evening also brought rockslides or mudsldies to San Francisquito Canyon Road, the mountainous route that connects Santa Clarita to the Antelope Valley; a section of Kanan Dume Road, which leads into the Santa Monica Mountains from Malibu; and on Mulholland Highway south of Calabasas.
Snow levels were at around 7,000 feet on Monday but were expected to drop to 5,000 feet by Tuesday. Officials issued a winter weather advisory for the eastern San Gabriel Mountains and the northern Ventura County mountains that is set to last through Tuesday night. About 2 to 5 inches of snow could fall in the mountains.
“As for the Grapevine area, there is a chance of a dusting of snow Tuesday morning as the snow levels lower,” the weather service said. The Grapevine is a key travel corridor on the 5 Freeway that connects L.A. and Santa Clarita with the Central Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The highest point of the Grapevine section is the Tejon Pass, which peaks in elevation at 4,144 feet above sea level. At that location, “some non-accumulating snow is possible,” the weather service said.
California
New roller coaster coming to Legoland California and Florida
Legoland doesn’t have the same mindshare as a Disney or Universal resort, but Merlin Entertainments, the owner of those theme parks, is hoping to get onto the radar of more theme park enthusiasts with an upcoming $90 million expansion.
The Galacticoaster, scheduled to open in 2026 at both the Legoland Florida and Legoland California resorts, will be an indoor family coaster that’s themed to one of the first Lego space sets from the 1970s, when a 100-piece set was considered expansive.
This will be the first new roller coaster at Carlsbad’s Legoland California in nearly 20 years. In Winter Haven, Fla., it will be Legoland Florida’s first new coaster in 15 years.
Legoland hasn’t offered a lot of details about the coaster just yet. The building that will house it, however, will have the same footprint as 10 basketball courts. The track will be more than 1,500 feet long.
California’s Lego Galaxy expansion will also feature two additional themed rides, food and gift shop offerings, and a “Junior Astronaut Training Zone” for toddlers.
Legoland’s expansion comes as Disney is in the midst of a $60 billion capital investment between now and 2033, which includes a variety of planned updates and changes at its park, updating legacy attractions and unveiling what it called “the largest ever” expansion plans for the Magic Kingdom. The company is also adding seven ships to its cruise line fleet, including the Destiny, which will begin sailing on Nov. 20.
Universal, meanwhile, recently launched Epic Universe, a $6 billion new theme park that spans 110 acres, with hundreds more for expansion. Universal, in August, said revenue at its parks was up 19% thanks to Epic Universe.
A $90 million expansion doesn’t come close to matching those numbers, but Legoland doesn’t have to fight at the same level as those companies. Merlin Entertainment, earlier this year, said annual sales hit a record high last year, with revenues jumping 8% to £2.1 billion (about $2.8 billion) in 2024.
Beyond Legoland, Merlin owns the Madame Tussauds museums and the Orlando Wheel at Icon Park, Central Florida’s tallest ferris wheel.
California
Lingering thunderstorms bring flooding risk after atmospheric river drenches much of California – WTOP News
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful atmospheric river had mostly moved through California after causing at least six deaths and…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful atmospheric river had mostly moved through California after causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state, but lingering thunderstorms brought the risk of mudslides in areas of Los Angeles County that were recently ravaged by wildfire.
Flood advisories remained in place through Sunday afternoon for LA, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, where localized showers were still possible after heavy downpours on Friday and Saturday.
“Due to the abundant rainfall the past couple of days, it will not take as much rainfall to cause additional flooding/rockslide conditions,” the National Weather Service said in a Sunday update.
Authorities on Sunday were still searching for a 5-year-old girl who was swept into the ocean by 15-foot (4.6-meter) waves at a state beach in Monterey County on Friday. The girl’s father, 39-year-old Yuji Hu, of Calgary, Alberta, was killed while trying to save his daughter, sheriff’s officials said.
In Sutter County north of Sacramento, a 71-year-old man died Friday after his vehicle was swept off a flooded bridge, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Off the coast of San Diego, a wooden boat believed to have been ferrying migrants toward the U.S. from Mexico capsized in stormy seas, leaving at least four people dead and four hospitalized, the Coast Guard said Saturday.
The long plume of tropical moisture that formed over the Pacific Ocean began drenching the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday night and then unleashed widespread rain over Southern California on Friday and Saturday. More than 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara County as the storm approached Los Angeles. Parts of the Sierra Nevada received more than a foot of snow.
The weather service said scattered rain could continue through Tuesday in the southern part of the state. Another storm was expected to arrive on Thursday.
Copyright
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