When San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten sat in front of a U.S. Senate committee this week as part of the process to confirm her as deputy education secretary, many senators got to ask questions of Marten we’ve been wanting to ask for a while.
On the show, our hosts unpack some of these exchanges between Marten and the senators that underscored the district’s decision to keep schools closed and how it’s fallen short in addressing the achievement gap in the Lincoln school cluster. You can read more about those moments here.
College Costs Keep Climbing
UC San Diego graduate and professional students who live on campus are about pay more rent.
A lot more.
The cost of one type of housing unit is expected to nearly double later this year, for example. The university’s housing department said it needs to raise rents to offset ongoing debts. And administrators say rents have been below market value for a long time now — so the rent hikes would be a correction.
VOSD’s Sofía Mejías Pascoe joined the podcast this week to lay out the rent hike drama and how students are pushing back.
Migration Waves Hit Convention Center
The San Diego Convention Center — which has sheltered homeless San Diegans during the pandemic — will soon house migrant children seeking asylum.
Leaders from the city and county reached a deal with the federal Department of Health and Human Services to turn the space into a shelter for unaccompanied minors.
Keatts got some clarity from local expert Tom Wong on what the data actually shows about who’s coming to the border. It turns out there is a higher number of minors here now as part of a typical seasonal pattern. (Keep an eye on the podcast feed for a bonus interview featuring Wong and a wider view of what migration patterns look like and what the Biden administration is up against this year.)