California Schools Seeing Fewer Kids As Birth Rates Fall. Published May 23, 2025 at 6:26 AM EDT Updated May 23, 2025 at 7:15 AM EDT. By . Jordan King is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K.

California’s reading scores were steadily climbing before the pandemic, but fell during remote learning and have stalled since then. Almost 60% of third graders weren’t reading at grade level last ...