Local news in the classroom: Weekly roundup 10/14/25
Time to dig out the umbrellas and raincoats. It’s mid-October and we’re seeing some brief but mighty rain push us further into fall before the sun returns. This week we also see several health-related issues brought to light through multiple attempts to increase healthcare access in the county. A community doctor comes out of retirement to help alleviate the lack of primary care physicians in the county, and a free rideshare program expands to Pajaro Valley to help farmworkers access medical care. Read this week’s highlighted stories and some discussion questions you may want to use with your students.
Also, it’s that time of year…Digital Citizenship Week! The goal of this annually recognized week is to help students navigate a technology and media dominated world. Use our new “News Detective” media literacy lesson to help students practice critical media habits with a local news story, and check out more resources linked below from CommonSense Media and the California Department of Education.
This week’s highlighted stories
Local doctor cuts his retirement short to help address ongoing primary care shortage in Santa Cruz County
Why it matters: A primary care physician came out of retirement after only three weeks to help Watsonville Community Hospital launch their new clinic, welcoming patients back who had struggled to find a primary care provider in his absence. He claims one major difficulty in recruiting and hiring doctors is the high cost of living. Younger doctors fresh out of residency are choosing more lucrative specialty fields, like surgery, over family medicine, prompting consideration of discrepancies between fields of medicine that might not be obvious at first.
In the classroom: What are some of the hopeful plans mentioned in the article for recruiting new primary care physicians? How does the fee-for-reimbursement model create pay discrepancies between medical fields? Why is it important to have dedicated primary care physicians?
A green rideshare program aims to help Pajaro Valley farmworkers get to the doctor
Why it matters: The Green Raiteros program provides zero-emission vehicles with drivers for farmworkers and low-income residents without reliable transportation of their own to get to medical appointments. This free service is currently in six counties and expanding to Pajaro Valley in late October, linking economic and health justice.
In the classroom: Prompt students to consider the intersection of economic hardship, environmental justice, job demands, healthcare, and the impacts each can have on another. (For example, farmworkers often acquire more health risks due to the demanding physical labor of their job.) Inspired by the transportation program with an intent of improving health, can students think of other social programs centered on one sector that can have an impact on another?
More current events for the classroom
Santa Cruz County teachers, saff see health insurance costs increase dramatically
By Hillary Ojeda
Teachers and school staff across Santa Cruz County are facing steep health insurance premium hikes — with some monthly payments increasing by more than 70% — prompting fears of educator departures amid already strained school budgets and a soaring cost of living.
For affordable housing and a humane Santa Cruz – vote yes on Measure C
By Christopher Connery
Santa Cruz’s beauty and desirability drive up housing costs — and the market alone won’t build homes for teachers, bus drivers or grocery clerks, writes UC Santa Cruz professor emeritus Christopher Connery. Measure C, he says, offers a fair, modest step toward fixing that.
New essay collection explores what it means to be a Californian, one book at a time
By Wallace Baine
John Freeman’s “California Rewritten” is a collection of essays on significant books by living writers on the experience of living in California. Freeman comes to Bookshop Santa Cruz to talk about the new book Thursday.
CALIFORNIA NEWS
Newsom signs law overhauling local zoning to build more housing
By Ben Christopher / CalMatters
After weeks of waiting, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will allow midrise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California’s biggest metro areas.
Interested in more stories? Browse all our recent coverage here.
EDUCATOR RESOURCES
Digital Citizenship Week
Check out CommonSense Media’s main page about Digital Citizenship Week that offers elementary, middle school, and high school specific calendars with themes for each day (e.g. Critical Thinking, Creativity, Healthy Habits), related lesson options, and resources to share with families. There are similar resources created and shared by the California Department of Education.
ChatGPT and Beyond: How to Handle AI in Schools : How to Help Prevent AI Use for Plagiarism
From CommonSense Media, these articles explore the dangers of AI in the classroom and provide methods and strategies on how to mediate them.
Book a class visit with Lookout Santa Cruz
We’d love to visit your classroom! Lookout staff can come to your classroom and lead a workshop about various different things from journalism to elections. These workshops last the length of one class period and are a great way to get your students engaged in different aspects of learning. Reach out if you are interested.
Educators, thank you for all that you do helping to mold younger generations into well-informed, empathetic, and engaged democratic citizens. If you’d like to learn more about our school programs, get involved, or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at interns@lookoutlocal.com or my mentor Jamie Garfield (Director of Student and Community Engagement) at jamie@lookoutlocal.com
Best,
Ava Salinas
Educational Program Assistant
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