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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Summer school for migrant students takes a double hit from Trump. Fewer kids go to the zoo
The 8-year-old girl is a migrant student whose family moves frequently in search of seasonal work. But for five weeks this summer, she found stability, fun and academic nurturing in a program for children like her that included visits to the L.A. Zoo twice a week. But like the axolotl, the salamander she studied, this program is critically endangered. Because migrant students may have family members who are living in the country illegally — or may themselves lack legal status — the Trump administration wants to end federal funding for it, saying the program wastes money and violates his policy directives. And in a more immediate blow to the program, amid fears over immigration-enforcement raids, fewer children went to the zoo and virtually no parents attended concurrent education workshops on how to support their children's learning. Although the federally funded zoo experience is a tiny program within the Los Angeles Unified School District — and a small part of a summer school that reaches tens of thousands of students, it offers a window into how Trump administration policies filter down to the classroom affecting California's complex education mission and some of the state's most vulnerable children. There are 1,700 students defined as migrants in the nation's second-largest school system, which has about 400,000 students ranging from transitional kindergarten through high school. Parents of these students typically work in agriculture or the dairy industry and they move with the seasons. The children sometimes move with the parents; sometimes they stay behind with relatives in the Los Angeles area or a different home base. Their parents typically have limited education and often limited English-language skills. The federal government provides L.A. Unified about $1.4 million for extra help for migrant students throughout the school year, part of some $400 million in federal migrant education grants available nationwide. The annual distribution of this funding was supposed to begin July 1, but the Trump administration held it back, even though it was approved by Congress earlier this year. Nationwide, this withheld funding for various education programs surpassed an estimated $6 billion, although some was released last week. Last week California joined other states in suing the Trump administration for holding back the money, much of which the administration wants to eliminate entirely in future years, including the migrant education funding. Those who applaud the federal cutbacks say that state and local governments should pay for these programs if they are valuable. Others believe the federal government retains an important role in helping children with special needs. Without federal involvement, 'some students are going to lose, and historically, it had been students of color, it had been migrant students, it had been low-income students,' said Mayra Lara, director of Southern California partnerships and engagement for the advocacy group EdTrust-West. RR — a rising third-grader whom the The Times agreed to identify by her initials to protect her and her family's privacy — has attended the zoo program for two consecutive years. 'I was kind of excited because I had the same teacher, because I really wanted the same teacher because she was nice and kind,' said RR, who wears glasses and has a dark ponytail. The number of participants who study at the zoo program is relatively small — because many families leave the area for summer work. In a typical year, 45 students, mostly in elementary school, take part. This summer, however, the number plummeted to 25, even though L.A. Unified provided buses to take students to the zoo and to Malabar Elementary in Boyle Heights, the home base for classroom work. What happened is no mystery to Ruth Navarro, the program's lead teacher for L.A. Unified. Concerned about immigration raids, four families asked if the district could pick their kids up from home. The district figured out a way to do this, but the families eventually declined to participate regardless, Navarro said. 'Even though we were willing to go to their home to pick them up, they didn't want to let their child out the door because of fear of what might happen to them,' Navarro said. Normally, the school system needs three buses to pick up participating students. This year, one of the buses was canceled. In addition, virtually no parents took advantage of a program for them that coincided with the hours their children were in class, Navarro said. This effort included workshops on such topics as social emotional learning and how to help children improve their reading skills. There also was advice on how to access help with immigration issues, Navarro said. In response to fears, parents were provided with an online simulcast for the workshops — in which about 15 parents participated, Navarro said. Los Angeles Unified also expanded an online version of the Malabar elementary classes, in which about 40 students participated to varying degrees — far more than usual. But the online students missed out on the heart of the program — seven trips to the zoo and in-person classroom interaction. RR took full advantage of summer learning — and became expert on the axolotl. At first, 'I thought it was just like a normal fish, but until I noticed the legs. I was like, 'Wait, a fish doesn't have legs,' ' she recounted. RR, like other students, created art projects of her animal and also served as a docent for parents and visitors. 'They have gills that help them breathe underwater,' she explained, holding a microphone next to the tank, adding that the axolotl can change colors to hide. 'There's one camouflaging over there,' she said, pointing. RR thinks it would be fun to be an axolotl and breathe underwater. She's never been to a pool or an ocean. The students are typically extremely shy at the start of the summer, said Coral Barreiro, community programs manager for the L.A. Zoo. 'They learn interpretation skills, which is amazing for building up confidence and public speaking in the future,' Barreiro said. 'They meet with the zookeepers, and they basically, at the end, mimic everything that we've done and make it their own.' L.A. Unified is continuing its migrant student program for now by using reserves that were designated for other purposes. During the school year, the migrant program pays for services such as tutoring and an extended instructional time after school and on Saturdays. Some argue that migrant programs — and many other examples of federal education spending — are not the responsibility of the federal government, including Neal P. McCluskey, director of the Center for Educational Freedom at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. 'The federal government doesn't have constitutional authority to fund programs like that, not to mention we have a $37-trillion national debt,' said McCluskey, who was not taking a position on the value of the effort. 'If government is going to provide such a program, it should be state or locally funded.' The Trump administration, in its budget proposal for next year, echoes this argument, but also classifies the migrant effort as an outright negative. 'This program is extremely expensive' per student, according to budget documents. 'This program has not been proven effective and encourages ineligible noncitizens to access taxpayer dollars stripping resources from American students.' Critics of the administration's approach say that the federal government has long stepped in to support the students who need it most — when a state is unwilling or unable to do so. Without federal regulation and funding, state and local governments have not 'done right by all students,' said Lara, of EdTrust-West. The pending cuts and withheld funds, she said, will result in 'denying opportunity to students. State and local governments are going to have to make really tough decisions.'
Los Angeles Times
23-05-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Elephants Billy and Tina are not the first giant mammals trucked out of L.A. overnight. Meet Orky and Corky
The middle-aged couple was nowhere to be found. Billy, 40, wasn't hanging out by the waterfall. Tina, 59, wasn't in the barn. On Tuesday morning, animal rights activists — who, for years, have fought for the two aging Asian elephants to be removed from the Los Angeles Zoo — were stunned to find the pachyderms' enclosure empty. 'We don't know where the elephants are!' the animal rights advocacy Social Compassion in Legislation wrote on Instagram. The L.A. Zoo, which is owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles, said Wednesday that the elephants were loaded into separate ventilated shipping containers for a 22-hour ride to a zoo in Tulsa, Okla. 'Transports like these,' the L.A. Zoo wrote on a website detailing the move, 'occur at night taking into consideration optimal temperatures, traffic conditions, and the safety of people in the zoo during loading.' The transfer to the Tulsa Zoo — announced last month — prompted weeks of protest from activists who wanted Billy and Tina to be taken to a sanctuary, not another zoo. Even Cher got involved. 'Billy and Tina have served their time in confinement,' Cher wrote in support of a lawsuit filed this month against the L.A. Zoo's director. 'They deserve the chance to live out their lives in peace and dignity.' Tuesday, the day the elephants were moved, was Cher's 79th birthday. The secretive truck ride took place despite a motion by L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield, who requested the move be paused until the zoo gave a report detailing options for moving Billy and Tina to a sanctuary. In a statement to The Times on Wednesday afternoon, Blumenfield said he was 'disappointed and frustrated' by the move and the lack of transparency surrounding it, calling the ordeal a 'sad reflection on the government of Los Angeles.' For years, advocates expressed anguish over Billy's repetitive head bobbing. L.A. Zoo officials called it a harmless habit. But various animal experts, including veterinarians, said it was a sign of stress, trauma and boredom. Over the last two years, the zoo — citing age-related health problems — has euthanized two female Asian elephants: Jewel, who died at age 61 in 2023, and Shaunzi, who died last year at 53. That left just Billy and Tina, who lived in a 6.5-acre habitat. To be in good standing with the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums — an accrediting body whose board is led by Denise Verret, chief executive of the L.A. Zoo — facilities must maintain herds of at least three elephants because they are social creatures. At the Tulsa Zoo, Billy and Tina will be joined in a 17-acre enclosure by five other Asian elephants. In 1987, Marineland of the Pacific, a theme park on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, trucked two killer whales, Corky and Orky, to SeaWorld in San Diego in the middle of the night under police escort. Orky, who weighed 14,000 pounds, was put onto a special stretcher. Corky, who had shared a tank with him for nearly 18 years, tried and failed to throw her 8,000-pound body onto the stretcher with him. 'As the crane lifted her mate hundreds of feet in the air, above the bleachers and into a tank aboard a flatbed truck,' The Times reported then, 'the sounds of her desperation filled the hollow tank.' The theme park closed a few weeks later. Orky died the next year. Corky, now 60, remains at SeaWorld. Joanie says, 'San Francisco, followed by Anaheim.'Lynne says, 'Cayucos! Cool beach town in Central California!' Email us at essentialcalifornia@ and your response might appear in the newsletter this week. Today's great photo was taken by staff photographer Christina House of the Descanso Gardens. Hailey Branson-Potts, staff reporterKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew Campa, Sunday writerKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
NBC News
22-05-2025
- General
- NBC News
Aging elephants quietly moved from L.A. to Tulsa Zoo should be in sanctuary, advocates say
LOS ANGELES — Billy and Tina, the last remaining elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo, were quietly moved this week to a zoo in Oklahoma despite pending lawsuits seeking to have them transferred instead to an animal sanctuary where they could live out their days with more room to roam. The announcement last month that Billy, 40, and Tina, 59, would be sent to the Tulsa Zoo angered animal advocates who argue that they would be subjected again to an enclosure that's too small for aging elephants. The move came "under cover of darkness," said Jake Davis, an attorney for the Nonhuman Rights Project. Davis said he received reports that the Asian elephants were transferred out about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to elude protesters who've been staking out the zoo. The nonprofit on Tuesday filed a petition asking a court to release Billy and Tina from the L.A. Zoo and send them to one of two accredited sanctuaries appropriate for elephants where they would have full-time care and ample space. "At a sanctuary, they could live as nature intended," Davis said Wednesday. "They need massive swaths of land; they need varied terrain." The L.A. Zoo said in a statement Wednesday that the elephants "have arrived safely at the Tulsa Zoo" but didn't say when the transfer occurred. The move was necessary because the Tulsa Zoo has other Asian elephants who will provide important socialization for Billy and Tina because "keeping them in larger groups is crucial for their well-being," especially at their advanced age, the L.A. Zoo statement said. Asian elephants typically live around 60 years. A move to a sanctuary was considered, but the Tulsa Zoo was the top recommendation based on the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Elephant Species Survival Plan, which considers "space, herd dynamics, and expertise of the staff," the L.A. Zoo said. "This option also ensured that Billy and Tina would be able to remain together," the statement said. Davis said he expects the Los Angeles lawsuit will be dismissed, but his group will not give up the fight to get Billy and Tina a sanctuary retirement home. He said his team is exploring legal options in Oklahoma. The Tulsa Zoo didn't immediately reply to a request for comment. A lawsuit filed this month by an L.A. resident sought to halt the elephants' transfer, but a judge denied an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. That lawsuit includes a declaration by the singer Cher, who has advocated for the elephants for years, the Los Angeles Times reported. "Billy and Tina have served their time in confinement," Cher said in the declaration. "They deserve the chance to live out their lives in peace and dignity." The L.A. Zoo referred questions about the court actions to the city attorney's office, which said it doesn't comment on pending litigation. Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion in April requiring the zoo to explore sanctuary options for the pair. But before the council could act, the zoo went forward with the move, "thwarting public discourse and transparency," In Defense of Animals said in a statement Wednesday. The nonprofit said the Tulsa Zoo's enclosure is "cramped, unnatural, and harmful to elephant health," with seven animals "jammed into an enclosure less than one percent the size of their smallest natural range." The Tulsa Zoo said last month that it has renovated and expanded its elephant exhibit, which dedicates 17 of its 124 total acres to pachyderms. A large barn was built in 2024 and an additional 10 acres will be added to the preserve this summer, the zoo said in an April statement. Zoos across the country have been targeted in recent years by animal activists who criticize living conditions for elephants. Broadly, some elephant experts say urban zoos simply don't have the space that elephants, who roam extensive distances in the wild, need for a normal life. Some larger zoos such as the Toronto Zoo and San Francisco Zoo have phased out their elephant programs, sending their aging animals to sanctuaries that have far more space. But other zoos say they are committed to keeping elephants and are turning to breeding, arguing that a sustainable population of zoo elephants will help spur a commitment to wildlife conservation among future generations of visitors. In New York, the Nonhuman Rights Project filed legal papers to try to free the Asian elephant Happy from the Bronx Zoo but lost in court in 2022. The group then filed similar papers in California to try to free the Fresno Chaffee Zoo 's three African elephants but a judge ruled against the group.
