FRESNO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 30, 2026--
The need for dental assistants is tremendous – and California leads the nation in the most opportunities for dental assistants in both pay and career growth. 1 One hundred Central Valley students are well positioned to meet the demand thanks to a career technical education (CTE) pathway from Learn4Life High Schools.
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Six campuses throughout the valley offer students hands-on training in a clinic to become certified as dental assistants, while earning credits to graduate with a diploma. Learn4Life covers the tuition that would typically cost more than $5,500, and provides students with scrubs and transportation. After graduation, students can immediately get a job in a dental office earning more than $25 per hour.
“I like the flexibility of Learn4Life because I have so many opportunities to do more with my day, like this dental assistant program, completing credits for my diploma and helping my parents work in agriculture,” explained Angelica L., a senior who is currently enrolled in the program. “I plan to continue my education to become a dental hygienist so I can continue to support my family.”
Learn4Life partners with Kingsburg School of Dental Assisting, which trains students and helps them with job placement upon completion of the program.
Dental assistants help care for patients, schedule appointments, take X-rays and support the dentist. They are different from hygienists, who examine patients and provide preventative oral care.
The curriculum is rigorous, with students doing classroom and hands-on clinic sessions two full days a week for six weeks – all while handling their regular schoolwork in their final year.
Maribel Verduzco, CTE instructor at Learn4Life, points out that programs like these are a wonderful stepping-stone for someone who is eager to explore careers in dentistry, which has a big need for a skilled workforce.
“Our schools are committed to providing a flexible, career-focused education that prepares students for life after graduation,” Verduzco said. “They graduate with a clearer direction and employable skills that can lead to stable, well-paying careers. We’re opening the door for them to further their education in dental or other healthcare professions.”
For more information on the dental assistant pathway, visit Learn4Life.org/dental.
About Learn4Life
Learn4Life is a network of nonprofit public high schools that provide students personalized learning, career training and life skills. Each school is locally controlled, tuition free and gives students the flexibility and one-on-one attention they need to succeed. Serving more than 64,000 students through a year-round program, we help them prepare for a future beyond high school. For more information, please visit www.learn4life.org.
1Dentist Assistant National Board, May 2025.
A Learn4Life high school student practices on a patient during clinical training for a Dental Assistant certification
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are swinging again Monday as oil prices keep climbing because of uncertainty about when the war with Iran could end.
The S&P 500 inched up by 0.1% in morning trading, coming off its worst week since the war with Iran began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 164 points, or 0.4%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.
That followed gains for stock markets in much of Europe, but caution was still prevalent throughout financial markets. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 quickly gave up nearly all its gain of 0.9% from the start of trading. Stocks in some Asian markets fell sharply, while the price for a barrel of Brent crude delivered in June rose 3.2% to $108.73.
The mixed movements followed a whirlwind of action in the war over the weekend, none of which cleared up when the fighting may end. The main issue for investors worldwide is whether oil and natural can resume their full flow from the Persian Gulf to customers and prevent a brutal blast of inflation.
Shortly before the U.S. stock market opened for trading Monday, President Donald Trump said on his social media network that “great progress has been made” with “A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran.”
But he also threatened the possibility of “blowing up and completely obliterating” Iranian power plants if a deal is not reached shortly and if the Strait of Hormuz, an integral waterway for the flow of oil, is not opened immediately.
The statement fit and condensed last week’s pattern, where Trump would tout progress being made in talks and offer some optimism for the market, only for doubts to rise quickly afterward about whether the war can end soon.
All the back and forth has some investors saying they’re giving Trump’s pronouncements less weight than before. But stock prices are nevertheless cheaper than they were before the war, which has some investors waiting for an opportune time to buy.
The S&P 500 finished last week 7.4% below its all-time high, which was set in January. The Dow and Nasdaq both were more than 10% below their records, a steep-enough fall that professional investors call it a “correction.”
Taking into account how much profits are expected to grow in the coming year for companies in the S&P 500, the index looks 17% cheaper than before the war, by one measure. That’s in a similar range as where prior growth scares for the market ended, as long as they didn’t result in a recession or the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley.
That’s one of the signs that the strategists led by Michael Wilson point to as “growing evidence the S&P 500 correction is getting closer to its ending stages.”
Of course, the Federal Reserve could upset that if it decides oil prices are threatening to stay so high that it needs to raise interest rates. Higher interest rates would help keep a lid on inflation, but they would also slow the economy and push down on prices for all kinds of investments.
Treasury yields have been leaping in the bond market since the war began because of such worries, but they eased somewhat on Monday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.35% from 4.44% late Friday. That’s a significant move for the bond market and offers some breathing room for Wall Street, though it remains far above its 3.97% level from before the war.
On Wall Street, Alcoa jumped 10.7% on thoughts it could get more revenue after Iranian attacks damaged rival aluminum facilities in the Middle East over the weekend.
Sysco fell 11.8% after it said it was buying Jetro Restaurant Depot for $21.6 billion in cash and enough Sysco shares to value the company at about $29.1 billion.
In stock markets abroad, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 1.1%, and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.4%. That followed drops of 3% for Seoul’s Kospi, 2.8% for Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and 0.8% for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng.
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott and AP journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.
People walk past the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A general view shows the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, March 27, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Workers walk in an area at a degassing station in Zubair oil field, whose operations have being reduced due to the Mideast war triggered by the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, near Basra, Iraq, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A person walks by an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index in Tokyo Monday, March 30, 2026. (Yusuke Hashizume/Kyodo News via AP)
A dealer walks near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won and the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ) at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Dealers work near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Dealers work near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
