The rapid ascent of generative AI in education is often framed as a “Gutenberg moment”—a shift that promises to democratize personalized learning and level the playing field (Marohn, 2025). For policymakers and practitioners, however, the reality is more complex. AI carries the risk of deepening systemic inequities through what researchers call “digital redlining” (Greenlining Institute, 2021). We must look beyond the magic of the interface and confront its less visible consequences: access, bias, and environmental impact.

As the windfall of pandemic funds dries up, school districts across California are confronting deep structural deficits. At the same time, federal immigration crackdowns have sent waves of fear through school communities, forcing educators and local leaders to scramble to protect immigrant students while the media blasts images of five-year old children being detained. Meanwhile, educators themselves are reaching a breaking point — overwhelmed, exhausted, and increasingly walking out in strikes across the state. Ashley Powers Clark draws comparisons between these current crises that have now become a part of our daily operating conditions, and the arduous growing conditions of the California poppy.

In “Black-Serving Is Not New: Carrying a Legacy Forward in California Higher Education,” Dr. Tangela Blakely Reavis, associate professor at Saint Mary’s College of California, and Candace Jones, Vice President, Administrative and Business Services at Long Beach City College, invite us to use Black History Month to reflect not only on the past but on the present. The authors examine the opportunity that California’s expansion of the Black Serving Institution designation offers for meaningfully supporting Black student success, posing the question, “What does it take to effectively serve Black students?” Drawing on the model of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, they offer a compelling vision for how institutions with clarity of purpose can intentionally live into the designation in a way that is meaningful and impactful rather than performative.