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Eater
23-06-2025
- General
- Eater
At Houston's First LGBTQ+ Senior Center, Lunchtime Is for Building Community
As noon — lunchtime — rapidly approaches, it is somehow both hot and muggy and pouring rain on a Wednesday in late May in Houston, but the vibes inside the Law Harrington Senior Living Center are totally sunny. In the Annise Parker Multipurpose Room, named for the city's first openly gay mayor, elderly residents are sidling up to their tables as workers prepare to distribute lunch trays while they chat with regulars and newcomers alike. On the menu today: King Ranch casserole, a Texas staple that's sort of like cheesy layered enchiladas, plus steamed broccoli and carrots. For the folks who aren't feeling the day's chosen casserole, there's cold sandwiches and tons of snacks scattered around the room. Everyone, though, is excited for dessert — an iconic Little Debbie Nutty Buddy bar. Most were really looking forward to that upcoming Friday, when a local funeral home was scheduled to drop off donated cupcakes for a monthly party celebrating all the Center's June birthdays. 'That's kind of ironic, the funeral home sponsoring the birthday party cupcakes,' I said as I chatted with one particularly gregarious resident. Her response? 'I think they're out here trying to recruit new customers.' Law Harrington's well-appointed building on Cleburne Street in Houston's historic Third Ward looks much like the many luxury midrise apartment complexes that dot the city's landscape — it boasts a sleek modern design, a dog park, a gym. But as the city's only senior living facility specifically focused on supporting the city's aging LGBTQ+ population, this building isn't your average old folks home. Inside these walls is a vibrant hub for building queer community among LGBTQ+ elders, all while enjoying a hot meal with friends and neighbors. In Houston and across the country, LGBTQ+ seniors are uniquely vulnerable to housing instability and poverty in their golden years. They're more than twice as likely than non-LGBTQ people to live alone without family, which means that many lack the support network that becomes increasingly important as a person gets older and needs help cooking meals, getting to medical appointments, or doing chores around the house. 'Our seniors have been on the front lines of our movement, and they didn't really have the high-powered oil and gas jobs that many people in Houston had,' says Dan Cato, director of marketing and communications for the Montrose Center, which operates the Law Harrington Senior Living Center. 'They were our bartenders, our entertainers, our drag queens, and so they are on very limited incomes. We wanted to support them in a way that meant that they could stay in the neighborhoods that they helped create.' Law Harrington's location was chosen specifically because of its proximity to both the Montrose, historically the nucleus of queer culture in Houston, and the Third Ward, a historically Black neighborhood. Both the Third Ward and the Montrose have been impacted heavily by gentrification in recent years, displacing Black and LGBTQ+ seniors from their respective homes as wealthier, less diverse residents move in. Since opening its doors in 2021, Law Harrington serves as a place of connection for two communities, both of which are more likely to experience financial instability, housing discrimination, and other inequities as they age. About a third of LGBTQ+ seniors are low-income, and those rates increase dramatically for transgender seniors, people of color, and persons over the age of 80. Even though Black seniors only make up about 9 percent of the total American elderly population, they make up 21 percent of all elders living below the federal poverty level. They also experience food insecurity at a rate that's nearly four times higher than their white counterparts. Open to all people over the age of 62 who are income-qualified to live there, the Law Harrington is not exclusively home to LGBTQ+ people. It can't be, because of the way that federal housing law works — it must be equally open to all regardless of their sexuality or gender identity. But the Center is unapologetically and unabashedly queer-centric. It's named for Charles Law and Gene Harrington, both legendary queer activists with roots in Houston. The space is decked out with trans pride flags and rainbows are abundant. Still, there's a large contingent of non-LGBTQ+ residents, and the Center's staff members aren't afraid to have confrontations with anyone who might not be respectful of their queer neighbors. 'There's a pretty large contingent of residents who are not LGBTQ+, and every LGBTQ+ senior center has kind of struggled to find the balance,' Christian Capo, the Center's social services program director, says. 'But we're very insistent on being clear that this is a LGBTQ+ affirming space, and if you're not comfortable with seeing 17 rainbow flags every day, that's not going to work.' Lunch is delivered daily by Baker Ripley, a 100-plus-year-old Houston nonprofit that operates a sprawling range of social programs across the city. Meeting the nutritional needs of seniors, many of whom have dietary restrictions or specific dietary requirements, is a highly specific task. Most of their diets are low-sodium and low-calorie, to help with conditions like hypertension or diabetes. Each meal is developed in conjunction with a registered dietician to ensure that the meals can actually meet the needs of those who eat them. Judging by the May menu posted outside the lunchroom, there's an emphasis on lots of veggies, grains, and pulses like lentils, and milk is offered with most meals to help combat issues like osteoporosis and vitamin D deficiency. You don't have to live at Law Harrington to score a lunch plate free of charge. Seniors over the age of 60 who live elsewhere are asked to sign up a day in advance for their hot meal, so that Law Harrington employees can ensure that they've ordered enough meals for everyone who needs to eat. Diners who don't live at Law Harrington are encouraged to show up early and enjoy free coffee, play board games or dominoes, and of course, socialize with the folks in their community. Today, there are about 45 people signed up to eat, including both first-time visitors and longtime residents. Carmen, a resident who lives at Law Harrington with his cat, Princess, says that lunch is his favorite part of living at Law Harrington. Born in North Carolina, he was living in Atlanta when he came to Houston for the first time, and fell in love with the Montrose's vibrant queer culture. He moved here in 1981, but eventually, as its real estate became more desirable among real estate developers, Carmen got priced out of the Montrose. At Law Harrington, he can both live affordably in the neighborhood he loves while getting the support he needs. He can obtain medical care, get a ride to a nearby grocery store, hang out in one of the cozy chairs in the building's library, or simply relax at home with Princess before coming to lunch to socialize. It's this sense of community that the Center's congregate meal program hopes to foster. 'Congregate meal program' is a jargony term popular in the elder care world that simply means healthy, nutritious meals that are served in a group setting, according to the Nutrition and Aging Resource Center. Research shows that congregate meal programs are incredibly beneficial for seniors for a number of reasons, not least of which is that they can combat the serious loneliness that many elderly people experience. For many seniors these meals are literally a lifeline — getting out for lunch and staying social can help them stay healthy and maintain their independence for longer. 'It really is all about the interaction. Maybe you can't come every day because you've got doctor's appointments or you're going to your grandkid's soccer game, but knowing that you have the option to come and have a meal five days a week makes it a lot easier to keep interacting,' Capo says. 'We want everyone to have some consistency and some social interaction in their lives, on their terms. The loneliness is really the number one thing we're trying to address.' According to the residents, not all the dishes served here are winners, but they agree that the quality of the food is generally excellent. Even Jeremy, a resident who had a few gripes about some of the Center's policy choices and expressed an interest in more pork-free options for religious reasons, couldn't help but brag. 'The food really has gotten much better over the last two years,' Jeremy said as he enjoyed his lunch. 'And the service is impeccable. Everybody is so accommodating, for the most part.' Beyond lunch, the team at Law Harrington also works to keep seniors fed the other two meals of the day. The apartments are equipped with kitchens, and many residents cook meals for themselves and their neighbors. An emergency pantry stocked with staples provided by the Houston Food Bank is open a few times a week, and the nonprofit Common Market drops off boxes of fresh produce every two weeks that residents can use to cook at home. Second Servings, a nonprofit that rescues unused food from restaurants and grocery stores, frequently drops off meals and regularly hosts a pop-up grocery store at the Center where seniors can 'shop' for produce and pantry staples. Richard, a resident who's been at Law Harrington practically since it opened, especially loves the produce deliveries, which he uses to make a big batch of veggie soup that he slow-cooks all night long. 'I'll spend an hour cleaning up the vegetables and cutting them, then you just throw it all in there with chicken broth,' Richard says. 'It doesn't matter what you put in there, it always tastes wonderful.' His lunch companion Peter, on the other hand, is more of a baker, who just finished off the last of a homemade red velvet cake. The residents of Law Harrington have lived a thousand lives before landing here. Before retirement, Richard worked as a teacher, a fashion consultant, and a hospice chaplain. One woman, whose family had been heavily involved in the Nation of Islam organization in her youth, showed me a photo of herself as a smiling 20-something standing next to the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, taken shortly before he famously refused to make himself eligible for the draft during the Vietnam War. All of these experiences make for excellent conversation over lunch, and the atmosphere in the dining room is heady with stories, cheeky jokes, even a little light political chatter. Now nearly five years old, Law Harrington's staff is continually looking to build even more bridges between the people it serves and the broader community, especially young queer people. There's discussions of bringing in participants from Hatch, the Montrose Center's group for LGBTQ+ teens, and a few summers ago, a group of Boy Scouts built community gardens for the residents to complete their Eagle Scout projects. The Houston Gaymers, a group for LGBTQ+ video game enthusiasts in the city, stop by yearly to spend a day playing board games and chatting with the residents. 'The coolest thing about this space is the way that it brings so many different people together, and you can really see the impact of that,' Capo says. 'The conversations that we've had here, and the tolerance and community building that comes out of people just talking to each other is incredible. There was a time in the beginning when people were a little more shy, but now you see people from very disparate backgrounds and life experiences all intermingling and hanging out together. It's incredible to see.'
Toronto Sun
28-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Sun
NATO floats cybersecurity to be included in new spending target
Published May 28, 2025 • 2 minute read Mark Rutte Photo by Simon Wohlfahrt / Photographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bl (Bloomberg) — NATO proposed including expenditures on cybersecurity and activities related to border and coastal security to qualify for the military alliance's new defense-related spending target of 1.5% of GDP. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account NATO started negotiations with countries on what will be allowed under its new spending target that it plans to adopt at a June summit, according to a document shared with member countries and people familiar with the matter. The total spending target will be 5% of GDP, with 3.5% on hard defense expenditures and 1.5% on defense-related outlays. Other expenditures that may qualify for the 1.5% portion will be protecting critical infrastructure spending, non-defense intelligence agencies and space-related activities, according to the document. A broader definition of what qualifies as a defense-related outlay would make it easier for countries to meet the target, with some nations lobbying to have expenditures such as counter-terrorism to be included. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said this week that he expected alliance members to approve the new 5% target. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A spokesperson from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Talks are expected to continue in NATO's policy and planning committee Wednesday, according to the document. The proposal is subject to change and will form the basis for discussion among alliance members, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Infrastructure expenditures, particularly for the purpose of military mobility, will likely be included, according to the document. Those outlays will have to contribute to the military alliances defense plans or enable the use of the core-defense spending activities. Southern NATO countries are pushing for counter-terrorism related spending to be included, some of the people said. The inclusion of dual-use goods other than infrastructure will also have to be agreed on, said people, who stressed an agreement will need to be found before the summit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Kyiv is pushing for Ukraine aid to count toward this spending, according to a person familiar with the matter. This would allow the country to make up for the fact that NATO isn't currently discussing the renewal of last year's €40 billion ($45.3 billion) pledge for Ukraine. US President Donald Trump first demanded allies spend 5% earlier this year after threatening to pull out of the alliance or to only protect the allies that spent enough on defense. The figure was widely regarded as unrealistic when he first mentioned it, but European allies and Canada have come around to the understanding that their spending had to drastically increase. Only 23 out of 32 allies reached the current spending target of 2%, according to NATO's annual report published in April. But all of them are expected to meet it by the summer, Bloomberg reported earlier. — With assistance from Andra Timu. Toronto & GTA Canada Canada Tennis Music
New York Times
16-04-2025
- General
- New York Times
The Impact of the L.A. Fires Was Felt Far From the Burn Zone, Poll Shows
A new survey released on Wednesday found that the Los Angeles wildfires took an extraordinary financial and emotional toll on millions of people in Southern California that extended far beyond the communities that burned. More than 40 percent of the adults surveyed said they knew someone who had been personally affected by the wildfires that began on Jan. 7. The polling equivalent of more than a million adults said the fires had directly cost them jobs or income. And about a third of respondents said they had donned masks to protect themselves from the smoke hazards. The survey, by the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles, underscored the extent to which the fires transcended the vastness of Southern California, where even large-scale disruptions can often be swallowed up by the region's sheer size. Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous at about 9.7 million residents, stretches for more than 4,000 square miles, encompassing 88 cities and about a quarter of the state's population. The two main January fires — in Pacific Palisades on the Pacific Coast and in Altadena to the east, at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains — were more than 34 miles apart. But as hurricane-force winds whipped up one inferno after another, claiming 30 lives and destroying thousands of buildings, the threat of the disaster seemed to stretch countywide. The survey found that even in relatively unscathed places 20 miles or more from the fires, like the suburbs on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and in northern areas of the county, roughly a quarter of respondents said they knew someone who had lost a home or a business. 'In the past, wildfires here have been compartmentalized,' said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former Los Angeles city councilman and county supervisor who directs the Luskin School's Los Angeles Initiative, which conducted the survey. 'But this time, the fires were everybody's problem,' he continued. 'Everybody had a stake in it. Everybody was threatened to one degree or another. It was a communitywide disaster, like an earthquake. Except that, even here, we've never had an earthquake that destroyed 15,000 homes.' The fires also have posed political challenges, particularly for Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, the poll showed. Ms. Bass, who had been in Ghana on behalf of the Biden administration when the fires broke out, was among the most popular and best-known Democrats in Southern California in 2022, when she was elected. A former community organizer, legislator and member of Congress, Ms. Bass, who is Black, had deep roots in Los Angeles's Black communities and broad liberal support that transcended demographic lines. But the survey showed that her popularity had plummeted after the wildfires. Last year, 42 percent of the survey's respondents viewed her favorably, and only 32 percent expressed an unfavorable opinion. This year, only 37 percent viewed her favorably, and nearly half viewed her unfavorably. Support among Black residents has remained solid, the survey showed, but it has slipped significantly among other demographics, particularly white residents, of whom 60 percent said they now view her unfavorably. Other Los Angeles leaders, including members of the county's board of supervisors, experienced no such slide in their popularity from last year. The survey has been conducted for the past decade to measure satisfaction with the quality of life in Los Angeles County. This year's poll, which took place in late February and early March among 1,400 adult residents, was the latest one to reflect the shaken mood among Californians in the aftermath of the wildfires. In an earlier poll, cosponsored by The Los Angeles Times and conducted in February by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, almost a quarter of the county's residents said the fires had prompted them to consider moving out of Southern California, though only 9 percent had considered it seriously. In the Luskin survey, nearly nine respondents in 10 believed that people who had lost homes in communities such as Pacific Palisades and Altadena should be allowed to rebuild in the same location. And with the cost of living as the top concern of respondents, a slim majority supported some sort of tax increase to fund improvements in the county's wildfire preparedness. 'This is going to scar the psyche of Los Angeles for a long time,' Mr. Yaroslavsky said. 'I think people are going to mark their lives by it. There will be 'before the fire,' and 'after the fire.''
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
One Giant Stunt for Womankind
This morning, Jeff Bezos' private spaceflight startup, Blue Origin, launched six well-known women into space. The company documented the event with a livestream hosted by the sportscaster Charissa Thompson. The celebrities Kris Jenner, Orlando Bloom and Oprah Winfrey watched from the ground. Bezos himself escorted the crew to the capsule. As the rocket blasted into the sky, live audio from inside the ship was broadcast down to Earth. One of the occupants could be heard screaming: 'Oh my goddess!' Bezos has said that it's his generation's job to 'build a road to space, so that future generations can unleash their creativity.' Now he has made his spaceship into the world's most extravagant influencer platform. The flight's roster seems to have been assembled with the energy of an American Girl doll collection, with seats awarded to women with different claims to fame and relevance. There was the pop star Katy Perry, the journalist Gayle King, the aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, the feminist activist Amanda Nguyen, the film producer Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez — the television journalist, aviation businesswoman, philanthropist and children's book author who is engaged to marry Bezos. Bezos' company has promoted this as the 'first all-woman spaceflight' since the Soviet Union cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she made a solo trip to the Earth's orbit in 1963. Tereshkova spent three days in space, circled the Earth 48 times and landed an international celebrity and feminist icon. The Blue Origin flight attempted to reverse-engineer that historic moment: By taking established celebrities and activists and launching them into space, it applied a feminist sheen to Blue Origin and made its activities feel socially relevant by association. Blue Origin pitched the flight as a gambit to encourage girls to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers and to, as Sánchez put it in an Elle cover story on the trip, inspire 'the next generation of explorers.' But the flight was recreational, and its passengers are not space professionals but space tourists. Their central mission was to experience weightlessness, view the Earth from above, and livestream it. They are like payload specialists with a specialty in marketing private rockets. If the flight proves anything, it is that women are now free to enjoy capitalism's most decadent spoils alongside the world's wealthiest men. Though women remain severely underrepresented in the aerospace field worldwide, they do regularly escape the Earth's atmosphere. More than 100 have gone to space since Sally Ride became the first American woman to do so in 1983. If an all-women spaceflight were chartered by, say, NASA, it might represent the culmination of many decades of serious investment in female astronauts. (In 2019, NASA was embarrassingly forced to scuttle an all-women spacewalk when it realized it did not have enough suits that fit them.) An all-women Blue Origin spaceflight signifies only that several women have amassed the social capital to be friends with Lauren Sánchez. Blue Origin is one of several private spaceflight companies — among them Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures and SpaceX — now offering rich people and their friends access to space. Its New Shepard rocket is self-piloting, and the six women had no technical duties on the flight. Though two participants had some aerospace experience (Bowe worked for NASA, and Nyugen interned there), Sánchez has said she picked them all because they are 'storytellers' who could step off the flight and promote their experiences through journalism, film and song. To Blue Origin, their value lies expressly in their amateurism. Kristin Fisher, a journalist and the daughter of the NASA astronaut Anna Lee Fisher, who joined the livestream, called the flight's roster 'so refreshing.' In the early days of human spaceflight, astronauts 'were all white male military test pilots, and they had to have 'the right stuff.' You could never talk about nerves, or being nervous, or your feelings,' Fisher said. 'But now, in 2025, it is the right stuff.' Sánchez arranged for her favorite fashion designers to craft the mission's suits, leveraging it into yet another branding opportunity. Souvenirs of the flight sold on Blue Origin's website feature a kind of yassified shuttle patch design. It includes a shooting-star microphone representing King, an exploding firework representing Perry and a fly representing Sánchez's 2024 children's book about the adventures of a dyslexic insect. Each woman was encouraged to use her four minutes of weightlessness to practice a different in-flight activity tailored to her interests. Nguyen planned to use them to conduct two vanishingly brief science experiments, one of them related to menstruation, while Perry pledged to 'put the 'ass' in astronaut.' The message is that a little girl can grow up to be whatever she wishes: a rocket scientist or a pop star, a television journalist or a billionaire's fiancée who is empowered to pursue her various ambitions and whims in the face of tremendous costs. In each case, she stands to win a free trip to space. She can have it all, including a family back on Earth. 'Guess what?' Sánchez told Elle. 'Moms go to space.' (Fisher, the first mother in space, went there in 1984.) The whole thing reminds me of the advice Sheryl Sandberg passed on to women in 'Lean In,' her memoir of scaling the corporate ladder in the technology industry. When Eric Schmidt, then the chief executive of Google, offered Sandberg a position that did not align with her own professional goals, he told her: 'If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on.' It is the proximity to power that matters, not the goal of the mission itself. As Blue Origin loudly celebrates women as consumers of private space travel, it has elided the experiences of professional female astronauts — including the little details that humanized their own flights. Elle suggested that the Blue Origin flight 'will be the first time anybody went to space with their hair and makeup done.' As Perry put it, 'Space is going to finally be glam.' But in fact, female astronauts have long brought their beauty work into space with them. Life magazine published an image of Tereshkova at the hairdresser, explaining that she was 'primping for orbit.' The astronaut Rhea Seddon, who first flew to space in 1985, took NASA-tested cosmetics onboard, knowing that she would be heavily photographed and the images widely circulated. Though sending women to space has largely been framed as a project for inspiring other women, it stokes certain male fantasies too. Life described Tereshkova's mission this way: 'A blue-eyed blonde with a new hairdo stars in a Russian space spectacular.' Senator Kenneth Keating of New York said she was 'carrying romance to a new high.' Robert Voas, who served as a NASA astronaut-training officer in the 1960s, put it this way: 'I think we all look forward to the time when women will be a part of our spaceflight team, for when this time arrives, it will mean that man will have really found a home in space — for the woman is the personification of the home.' Blue Origin's vision is that 'millions of people will live and work in space with a single-minded purpose: to restore and sustain Earth, our blue origin.' This spaceflight feels like a training mission for the billionaire fantasy of escaping Earth's smoldering husk. In order to fulfill that dream, women will need to get onboard. The private aerospace industry's largely male clientele may not wish to bro down forever on Mars. They will desire moms to go to space with them, and fiancées too.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
LA Schools Face Stiff Headwinds From Wildfires and Trump, Report Says
The Los Angeles Unified School District is at a critical turning point, with fresh obstacles from both the recent wildfires and changes in federal aid and policies under the Trump administration, a new report argues. The 26-page document, 'Looking Ahead as LAUSD Confronts Fire Recovery and Federal Policy Uncertainty,' found those twin events will place new 'operational and financial pressures' on the nation's second-largest district in 2025 and beyond. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The report, published earlier this month by the L.A.-based nonprofit education advocacy group GPSN, points out that LAUSD was already strained, with cratering enrollment, intense budget pressure and mixed marks on recent state and federal exams, although it is making progress compared to the rest of the state by some metrics. Other U.S. school districts are facing some similar post-pandemic headwinds and the second Trump administration, GPSN Executive Vice President Ana Teresa Dahan said in an interview, but the crisis at LA Unified is especially bad because of additional threats posed by the fires and years of plunging enrollment exacerbated by the pandemic. 'LAUSD was facing declining enrollment before these two crises occurred, and there's a chance that this can make that worse,' said Dahan. 'Between declining enrollment and delays in funding, LAUSD could find itself in a financial crisis.' Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, said the dangers to the district posed by the fires and the Trump administration are very serious. 'Those things are looming,' said Polikoff. 'LAUSD would be a great target for the Trump administration if they want to put a trophy on the shelf.' Drawing on academic research, news reporting and publicly available data, the GPSN report found the wildfires which ripped through Los Angeles in January affected more than 700,000 students and staff with school closures and displacements at the height of the disaster. Related Even schools that were spared by flames suffered smoke damage, debris, and environmental hazards, according to the report. Ongoing hardships caused by the fires, such as financial uncertainty caused by job losses — estimated at 25,000-45,000 in the report — and the displacement of families from lost homes and neighborhoods, also compound LAUSD's fire woes, said Dahan. Meanwhile, LA school officials are preparing for the Trump administration to change, cut, or significantly diminish federal funding for public schools, which typically accounts for about 10% of the district's budget. Trump on Thursday issued an executive order to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. He has also threatened to withhold funding for districts that use race-based programming. LAUSD last year was forced to overhaul its signature program for Black students, the Black Student Achievement Plan, after a Virginia conservative group filed a civil rights complaint against the program. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has said he would fight to impose any restrictions placed on the district. Merely the fear of federal immigration enforcement at LAUSD schools, and uncertainty about the status of federal funding, could be enough to depress attendance and cause budgeting troubles for the district, Polikoff said. Related In a written response to the GPSN report, a district spokesperson acknowledged the dangers faced by LA Unified. 'As this report correctly indicates, these are challenging times,' a district spokesperson said in a statement. 'Not only is our community still recovering from the impact of the Palisades and Eaton fires, but we are now facing an increasingly volatile economic and political landscape.' The GPSN report gave LA Unified high marks for quickly relocating two schools that were destroyed in the fires, and formarshaling resources to provide food for families at LAUSD campuses while schools were closed. Dahan said she also found hope for LAUSD in the district's state test scores, which show that it is closing the gap with the rest of California, in both reading and math. To maximize its chances of mustering a strong recovery from the fires, and an effective response to the new federal landscape, Dahan said LA Unified needs to double down on social and academic services for students, and work with local community groups to bring those things directly to families. 'I think that they have demonstrated that they know how to respond to these crises,' Dahan said. 'Now the real test will be, what does this mean for instruction and academics moving forward?'
