wice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat, defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. many cities have passed soda taxes, including in the bay area, to try to cut sugar consumption, but do these taxes actually work? a study provides some answers and want to share your opinion on issues important to building a better bay area. our media partner, the san francisco standard, launches a new platform for you to be heard

. but first, we heard a lot about learning loss during the pandemic. but have american and bay area students caught up by how much and is there unevenness to the recovery? you're watching getting answers. i'm kristen sze , thanks for joining us. we'll get to all those stories in just a moment. but first, scattered storms are dumping more rain. only a day after an atmospheric river drenched parts of the bay area. a flood warning is in effect for parts of marin and sonoma counties, and there's a flood watch for every other part of our area. a high surf advisory is also in effect along the coast. here's a live look at our santa cruz camera showing some choppy surf, even though i think you can see a little bit of sun out there now. abc7 news meteorologist drew tuma has more. >> we are still tracking like kristin said, the potential for more thunderstorms this afternoon. here's live doppler seven along with satellite. the peppering of clouds off the coast, some instabilities in the atmosphere, and as they move onshore, we still have the chance later today that we could hear a rumble of thunder, see

some lightning. so the storm prediction center has outlined us for the chance later today to see more lightning, thunder, and even some hail. if you do see lightning, hear thunder, please move inside. you do not want to be outside during one of these thunderstorm days. wait 30 minutes until the storm passes. so today and tomorrow, scattered showers that thunder and lightning chance. also rough surf on our coastline. so here's future weather. you can see some showers later on today. we may get a break into the evening, but then tomorrow we just stay unsettled. once again, we'll track the potential for more thunderstorms comes friday morning and even into friday afternoon. we'll likely get a bit of a break as we head towards saturday, but just know we are tracking another atmospheric river on sunday. it's currently a level two on the storm impact scale. >> all right drew, thanks so much. and we're tracking the weather with live doppler seven. and you can as well. you can scan the qr code on your screen using the camera on your phone. that will take you to our website, abc7 news.com, where you can stream live doppler seven. bookmark the page so you'll have it any time it rains. all right, california

plans to spend $2 billion to help disadvantaged students catch up in school. it comes after a lawsuit filed by students in oakland and los angeles accusing the state of failing to provide an equal education to lower income students during the pandemic. this news comes as a new stanford harvard study sheds light on how much or how little america students have recovered in math and reading since the pandemic. joining us live now is one of the lead authors sean reardon, professor at stanford's graduate school of education. professor reardon, welcome to our show. >> thanks for having me, kristin. >> tell us what you set out to discover in this study. >> well, we all know that there was a big learning loss during the pandemic, and we wanted to see how well students are recovered. so we looked at student data from 30 states, about 8000 school districts around the country to measure how much recovery students were making in the last year or so. >> all right. so the recovery does seem to be underway, right?

according to your findings. let's go ahead and put up the national trends. i think, in average test scores in math and reading. and you can walk us through this. >> yeah, exactly. that's, um that's right. so you can see the decline was quite large during the pandemic about a half grade level in math, about a third of a grade level in reading. and the recovery has gotten us part of the way back, about a third of the way back in math, about a quarter of the way back in reading. so we still have a ways to go. so but this is a bigger recovery than than i and many other experts would have predicted. it's very large relative to sort of historical trends about how much kids learn in a given year. so i think we should we should be happy for that. we should thank our teachers and principals and superintendents for the work they've done on behalf of our kids. >> all right. so that is good news. but is there hidden bad news or pockets of bad news? >> yeah, i we need to temper that good news with the fact that inequality rose a lot during the pandemic, but particularly between poor districts and non-poor districts. the non-poor poor

districts didn't fall that far behind. and in many cases, they fully recovered by now. but the but the poorest districts in the country and in california fell very far behind and still have a long way to go to recover. so there's been there's been that widening inequality as a result of the pandemic. all right. >> let's take a look at three of the bay area's largest school districts and see how they're doing this new york times visual comparison tool is pretty helpful. so we'll put that up. i'm sure you saw this as well. it is. fremont is the red line san francisco school district is the green and oakland unified is the blue. tell me what we are seeing here. >> well, i first of all, i think california in general has not seen as large a recovery as the nation as a whole. in fact, average scores went down a bit in in reading in california, and they went up in math, but not as much as nationwide. and then within the state there's been variation. so san francisco has seen a pretty flat recovery. not a lot. whereas fremont, um, has

seen a pretty sizable recovery. it's a little hard to see on that graphic, given the scale, but i think the fremont recovery has been pretty substantial on that graphic to me, it just looks like pretty much flat lines for all three school districts. >> as in, no real drop during the pandemic. so hence no real recovery either. and that made me wonder, right, because there was a lot of talk about how the bay area schools were closed the longest, if you will, right? not being in person and almost a full year on zoom. so i was actually kind of surprised to see that we didn't really dip, at least those school districts didn't really dip too much during the pandemic. >> yeah, it's a little misleading. i think on that figure, because the scale is enormous. so fremont is five grade levels ahead of oakland in that figure, i think. and so the dip is hard, about half grade level dip is hard to see on that scale. um, but certainly can didn't see the same size dips as much of the rest of the country despite the fact that california schools were were closed for

much of that first year. so we didn't pick a decline. >> yeah. was explains that, you know, i, i think in part, um, california has invested a lot to support students during the pandemic. >> and so you know, some people have argued that it was the state's support that that made a difference. um, but beyond that, we don't have a good answer for why. um, what i think is concern , though, is that in california, like most of the other places, it's the high poverty districts that fell far behind and are still quite far behind. right? >> i mean, the drop was greater, the recovery is slower. and again, just looking at those three school districts in the bay area, oakland scores were, am i seeing this correctly that the like let's say you're a third grader. uh, and oakland third grader on average in math is testing that first grade level. and in fremont, they're testing at sixth grade level. is that how i should interpret that ? >> unfortunately, that's exactly how you should interpret that.

the gap with nationally and in california between the most affluent and the poorest districts is about five grade levels. um, and so, you know, that inequality was there before the pandemic. it's gotten a little bit worser, worser kind of word is that that's okay. worse but i'm a professor. i'm supposed to know how to speak, but, uh, it's gotten a little worse, but it's still, um, quite enormous. >> so i guess, given that. right. and given also the slower recovery in the socioeconomic lower districts like you found in your study, i guess, what is the solution? what are the investments need to be made that need to be made? >> yeah, that's the right question. i think you should ask. and school district superintendents and the and the state department of education should ask. and what we know is that there's very good research showing that things like high intensity tutoring and after school programs and summer programs that that combine learning with activities and engage students, all of those

things can be very effective in helping students catch up. so the challenge is, is finding the resources or providing the resources at the state level to the districts and schools that need those the most to make sure that the kids in those places have access to those kinds of strategies that are going to really help them catch up right. >> so in terms of the states and the school districts where they recover fully from the pandemic, and then some, i think alabama was one that stood out in your study, which surprised me. um, what are the things that they're doing? were you able to look at that as well? we haven't been able to fully dig into that. >> i mean, the anecdotally, what we hear is that the places with the highest recovery, we did a number of things. one of them is make sure that kids had more instructional time, whether that was tutoring or after school or summer. um, and another was to kind of support kids, um, in other ways, mental health, for example, there was a lot of mental health challenges for, for young people during the pandemic. and school districts, i think, have been trying to

address those issues as well. and, and addressing the academic and the mental health and social aspects together, i think is a very effective strategy. >> all right. um, so is there urgency to some of these proposals that you are, um, talking about, these actions that school districts can take? >> yeah, i think there's urgency for two reasons. one is even though there's been a big recovery in many places, a lot of kids are still far behind. and we need to address that before they graduate and move out of school. but the other urgency is that the federal money that was provided during the pandemic to support schools, um, to help with recovery, that money is running out. it has to be spent by september of this year, and many districts won't be fully recovered by then. and so i think they need to think about how to use the funds they have remaining. most effectively with kind of evidence based strategies. and then i think we need to think about, uh, state supports. the state needs to

kind of pick up the baton and carry it on. and, and provide some resources to those schools and districts, uh, where students are still most in need. all right. >> professor sean reardon at the stanford graduate school of education, fascinating study on the varying pace of recovery from pandemic learning loss. thank you so much for joining us, kristen. >> thanks for having me. >> up next, the power of soda taxes. a study finds they are working encouraging people not to buy soda in several major u.s. cities, including the bay area. we'll dig into the findings next on getting a

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is to reduce public consumption of sugary drinks and health problems associated with sugar, but is the tax effective? joining us live now is one of the authors of a new study done jointly by uc berkeley and boston university. boston university professor in the school of public health justin white. professor white, thank you for your time. good to be here. all right. so you set out to answer the question about the effectiveness of soda tax in curbing consumption. you looked at some bay area cities, right? >> that's right. our study included five large cities that have implemented a sugary drink tax, including oakland and san francisco. all right. >> so what is your conclusion? >> well, we evaluated how the price and purchases of sugary drinks changed following the implementation of the taxes. and we found that the taxes led to a 33% increase in prices of sugary drinks. and resulting 33% decrease in the purchase of those drinks. after the taxes went into effect. so people respond to the taxes by

substantial reducing their purchases. >> it was, i think, around here it was about $0.01 per ounce, right. so if you have like a 12 ounce drink, that's $0.12 more. um, right. something like that. >> that's exactly right. yeah. so it works out, you know, depending on the particular product, maybe about a 10% increase in the price. >> so do we know if that is necessary? chile. like i just decided i wasn't going to pay the 10% extra and decided not to buy. or do you think it's possible that i walked across the street to a neighboring town that doesn't have the tax, and still bought my soda anyway, our study did look at whether there were increases in purchases in the bordering untaxed cities around the cities that had implemented the taxes, and we did not find any evidence in this study that there were offsetting increases in uh- of in the purchase of drinks in those areas. >> so we don't think that there was that sort of cross border shopping happening at least as a

result of our study. >> is it possible, then, that i just bought something else, like something else that has sugar but isn't included in the sugar tax? >> we didn't look at that specifically in this study, although other studies have looked at that. and generally they're the, you know, switching to other types of sugary products like sugary foods has been found to be pretty minimal. >> okay. so, you know, our taxes on, you know, the soda tax, is it just soda or there are other drinks associated or included in that? >> it's it includes other drinks as well. it includes, uh, basically any drink that has added sugar and calories, although the taxes do differ a little bit from place to place. so, for example, philadelphia includes artificial sweetened beverages are taxed as well. >> look, why why do they want to pass these taxes. right. how big of a problem is sugar diet related disease in the us? i assume that's the end goal is to cut that down. that's right.

>> i think in a lot of places these taxes have been implemented really with health aims in mind. it also happens to raise a lot of tax revenues as another bonus. and you know, that's millions of dollars that can be used for, uh, other things such as increasing access to healthy foods and drinks. um, and i think that, uh, you know, chronic diseases, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease are really major causes of disease in this country. and those are all linked to consumption of sugar, of added sugar. so i think that is something that these taxes are aimed at reducing. >> how much of the sugar we take in actually come from drinks. >> so i think the data that i've seen, it's about 60% of americans drink uh- sugary drink each day. and i think it's about maybe 140 to 150 calories a day. that are consumed from these sugary drinks. mhm

>> all right. so based on your findings is right that if there is this 33% drop in consumption or sales of soda, then what does this mean i guess, what is the implication for more cities to adopt or statewide action. >> so the bay area has really been a leader in this area in implementing these local taxes on sugary drinks. you know, berkeley was the first to pass pass them. and as you mentioned, albany, san francisco, oakland have all followed. and i think our study points to the success of the taxes in reducing sugary intake, uh, sugar intake for the residents of those cities. so i think that, you know, those residents are healthier today as a result of the taxes. i do think that, um, it does have, uh, implications. our study that is for, uh, passing these taxes more widely. uh, the us doesn't have any national or state taxation of sugary beverages. and i think that our study indicates that if we did and if we join the, you know, 100 countries that currently have,

uh, tax on sugary drinks that we could expect important improvements in our health. >> all right. just curious, how did you get the data, uh, you know, from these retail outlets? yes. >> so we purchased it. uh, there's a marketing research company, uh, called nielsen that , uh, you know, basically has contracts with each of these retailers and makes the data available to academics for research. >> got it. okay. i'm pretty familiar with nielsen. i think they do tv ratings as well. all right. so that's right. right. the amount that, you know, people are giving up their sugary drinks bottom line that's enough to make a dent on their health. is that what doctors believe? >> that is what what they think. um, it's there's lots of studies that have tried to, to, uh, you know, look at what the expected impact would be on health outcomes. and many studies find that these sorts of changes in purchasing and consumption would be expected to make a significant, uh, decrease in risk of diabetes, obesity and

other chronic diseases. >> all right. finally, some answers on whether these soda taxes in the bay area are working. well. professor justin white, thank you so much for your time. thanks for having me coming up next, the san francisco standard wants your opinion. they've launched a new feature accepting editorial essays exploring the city and beyond. find out how you can weigh in next on getting an

a doctor or an engineer. those are good careers! but i chose a different path. first, as mayor and then in the legislature. i enshrined abortion rights in our california constitution. in the face of trump, i strengthened hate crime laws and lowered the costs for the middle class. now i'm running to bring the fight to congress.

you were always stubborn. and on that note, i'm evan low, and i approve this message. san francisco standard wants to hear from you. it's recently launched an opinion section to have a forum where thought provoking commentary and conversations can take place. there is already a series of published pieces that address everything from san francisco's image street safety to budget woes. joining us live now to tell us all about this project is the standard's opinion editor, julie williams. hi, juliet. >> hi, kristen. very nice to

speak to you. >> what is the mission behind the standard's opinion section? >> sure. i'm i'm really looking forward to creating a space where we can have a dialog, as you said, about a lot of the issues that are facing the city. but also a place where people can provide proposed solutions and discuss and debate those. um, there's a lot going on in our city and our community, and so i hope that this is a place where people can really debate and discuss different topics. >> i imagine some of the essays might start with a complaint or a problem, but the goal is not just to stay there, but to move forward to solutions and discussion. all right, so why launch this section now? >> so, um, sure. well, the standard is only a couple of years old, and it takes a long time to build out a newsroom. and this is a new thing that, um, we decided to add. i joined the team at the end of last year, and it's a great time to launch an opinion section, given that it's an election year and there's lots to debate and discuss. >> oh, there. sure is. all right, so what opinion pieces

have you published so far? >> uh, sure. we've only published five as of this afternoon, but we started out with one from the ceo of yelp, jeremy stoppelman, and he argued that we need a yimby movement for transportation in in the city to make it safer for pedestrians and for cyclists. and to make, uh, make public transportation more accessible to more people. >> yeah, i think there's also one from a former bay area news anchor, hank plante. i thought that was interesting. he was talking about the city's brand. right. and he wrote san francisco's brand is clearly on life support. it happened because officials allowed 4400 people to destroy it. that's the number of unsheltered people in the city's official 2022 point in time count. and they have essentially held the city's reputation hostage. um, those are strong words. i imagine you must have gotten some strong reaction to that piece. >> oh, we definitely did. i think hank's bigger point, though, was that city officials really haven't. um haven't grabbed the baton in terms of

taking care of our homelessness problem in the city. um, and, and, you know, i think that's a position that a lot of san franciscans agree with. they might not agree with all of the language that he used in his opinion, but we thought it was a useful discussion to have. >> i wonder, do you seek out opinion pieces across the political spectrum? >> absolutely. we i absolutely want to hear from people on all sides of all debates and across the political spectrum. um, just this afternoon, uh, a little bit before we came on, we published a pro and a con on, uh, on gary tan and his, uh, the ceo of y combinator, his recent, um, tweet in which he was said to threaten several members of the board of supervisors. so we have a piece out there, um, critiquing him and the other moderates, uh, for wanting to wipe out progressives in san francisco. and then we also have someone defending him. >> i saw that, yeah, two pieces on that very controversial issue . and i wonder if you're only looking for serious content or or maybe even some lighter,

whimsical ones, or are they meant to be for bigger social issues? >> no, not only for bigger social issues. we have a piece coming up about why it's great to live in the city, and we should all double down in terms of making our community better. um, but your your opinion should have a strong thesis and a point of view that you can back up with strong arguments. it doesn't have to be on something really heavy all the time, though. we hope to make it a fun place as well. >> i read your guidelines and i was thinking, oh, this is a good starting point for a good writing. it's got some good tips for me that i should try to learn from. >> okay, so i'm glad. >> how can people submit their opinion essay? >> sure, we do have a tab on our website, but the probably the fastest way to find it is to click on one of our recent opinion columns and you'll see a box at the bottom where it directs you how to how to submit a piece. >> all right. and what about the selection process? i imagine you'll get many more than you can actually publish. >> yeah, absolutely. you know, we're i'm i'm trying to curate

them based on, um, difference of topics and engagement and the writing thing. you know, there's a lot to consider. and we also have to think of our friends who are in our illustration department in terms of helping organize them and get them presentable. so you know, i want to hear from everyone, but i can't promise that we'll be able to run everything all right? >> and no anonymous submissions, right? no your argument is much stronger if you put your name to it. >> and as a long as a long time news person, i stand by that. yeah >> this is not twitter. all right. uh, juliet williams, thank you. so much. really appreciate you coming on. >> thanks, kristin. >> all right. you can submit your opinion essay to the san francisco standard on their website, sf standard.com. and abc7 will continue to bring you more segments featuring the standards city focused journalism twice a week right here on getting answers. and remember, abc7 news is streaming 24 over seven. you can get our app and join us whenever you want. wherever you

two very different visions for california. steve garvey, the leading republican, is too conservative for california. he voted for trump twice and supported republicans for years, including far right conservatives. adam schiff, the leading democrat,

defended democracy against trump and the insurrectionists. he helped build affordable housing, lower drug costs, and bring good jobs back home. the choice is clear. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message.

from around the bay area. i'll see you tonight, breaking news. for the first time ever, the mother taking the stand, charged in her son's deadly school shooting. you will hear what that mother says. jennifer crumbley, the mother of the michigan school shooter ethan crumbley, visibly nervous, breaking out in hives, telling the jury why she frantically texted her son "don't do it" after the shooting. the prosecution saying the son wrote in the journal, my parents don't listen to me, i have here

h