Joe Hong
CalMatters ReporterJoe is the K-12 education reporter for CalMatters. His stories use data to highlight inequities in California’s public schools. Before joining CalMatters in June 2021, he was the education reporter at KPBS, the public media station in San Diego. Previously, he covered the schools in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun, a daily newspaper in Palm Springs. He has a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from the University of California, Irvine and a master's degree from Columbia Journalism School.
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State education officials — who initially seemed to be delaying the release of student scores until after the election — instead shared them in a way guaranteed to hinder coverage of what’s expected to be a steep pandemic-driven decline. -
California schools received more than $33 billion in COVID stimulus money. Some districts won’t say how they’ve spent it. -
California froze funding to its school districts at pre-pandemic enrollment — a help to most schools, but not for those gaining students. -
California’s schools are struggling to staff up — despite billions in state money flowing to school districts to remedy teacher shortages. Grants have helped but, educators say, they aren’t enough. -
According to new data from the California Department of Education, enrollment continues to drop at faster rates than before the pandemic. -
Parents, educators and now students are caught in the polarized debate over mask and vaccine mandates. Officials are worried communities might not recover. -
Without help from the state, California’s school districts could face a sudden drop in funding after two years of not being penalized for declining enrollment. -
Some parents are being forced to decide between risking sending their kids with disabilities to school and getting all their needs met or keeping them at home and forfeiting their special education services. -
Even as the delta variant causes spikes in COVID-19 case numbers just weeks before the new school year, state lawmakers have yet to issue a vaccine mandate for public school teachers.
