January 10, 2022
Statement on Education Funding in Governor Newsom’s Budget
Statement by Director of Education Equity John Affeldt on K-12 Budget:
This budget proposal rightly builds on and expands the many significant investments in last year’s budget, for example, by investing another $54 million in teacher recruitment and retention to buttress last year’s historic $2.9 billion investment. The Governor is to be particularly commended for proposing to expand educational opportunities that will greatly impact our state’s neediest students with major investments in afterschool and summer programs ($4.3 billion), universal pre-K ($1 billion), and universal school meals ($1 billion).Given the number and variety of historic investments in our public schools over the last 18 months coming from both the state and the federal government, Public Advocates and our community partners continue to believe that the state is in dire need of greater local capacity to involve families, students and community members in the use of these billions of dollars. We will continue to call upon the Administration and the Legislature in the coming months to exponentially expand its investment in community engagement, both by increasing local school district capacity to involve community members in local decision-making and by investing in community-based organizations themselves. Statement by Director of Higher Education Sbeydeh Viveros-Walton on Higher Education Budget:The Governor’s 2022-23 budget proposal builds on last year’s historic higher education investments with an eye to equitable implementation of existing initiatives at the three public segments. We are encouraged by the Administration’s proposed multi-year aligned framework for higher education. The framework promises greater intersegmental collaboration around equity, access and affordability and hopefully will increase Californians’ access to high quality higher education. We are pleased to see the Governor’s proposed budget align with many of Public Advocate’s Higher Education priorities in 2022, including:
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The need for the state to support students by addressing the total cost of college, including the cost of textbooks and the rising cost of housing, especially for community college students–issues we have heard voiced by many students.
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Optimizing the time students spend at community colleges to ensure that they complete a degree and/or transfer to 4-year institutions as quickly as possible. Our current work ensuring the faithful implementation of AB 705 (remedial education reform) will be critical in ensuring that low-income students and students of color are not spending unnecessary time and money on non-transferable courses.
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Increasing the capacity of the CCC Chancellor’s office to support curriculum-related reforms like AB 705 and monitor implementation of key equity initiatives like CCC’s “Vision for Success” with additional staffing ($1.4 million in 2022-23 and another $1.4 million in 2023-24).
We were disappointed not to see a more aggressive investment in Cal Grant reform in the Governor’s proposed budget. We will continue to work with students and the Administration to ensure that full implementation of the Cal Grant Equity Framework remains a priority as we move towards an adopted budget in June. Reforming the State’s grant aid program outright will ensure that more low-income students have access to California’s state aid program and participate in California’s economy. We commend Governor Newsom for his leadership on college affordability and his pledge to make post-secondary education accessible to all by bringing the three segments together to create a unified framework with a 70% statewide degree completion goal.
