What does Gavin Newsom’s $291 billion budget mean for California’s education programs?

Education programs largely avoided steep cuts in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2024-25 budget.

There are reductions, notably in aid to schools, colleges and some other education programs.

But per pupil spending would be $23,519, thanks to the requirements of the state’s Proposition 98. That’s about $200 less than in the 2023-24 budget.

One of California’s biggest teacher unions applauded Newsom’s budget.

“With the state facing a $37.9 billion budget deficit, Governor Gavin Newsom has once again demonstrated his strong support for public education by putting forward a budget proposal that avoids steep cuts to our public schools,” said California Federation of Teachers union president Jeff Freitas.

Newsom proposed a series of cuts to different programs in an effort to balance the 2024-2025 budget, which faces a $37.9 billion deficit. He and the Legislature must agree on a balanced budget by July 1.

But he cited the per pupil spending as evidence of his promise to adequately fund education.

“We’re maintaining multi-year commitments,” Newsom said Wednesday, as he cited billions of dollars going toward learning recovery and learning loss mitigation, special education programs, behavioral health, community schools, and educator workforce.

The Cuts

The proposed education reductions include reducing $500 million from the School Facilities Aid Program, which provides funding for K-12 school maintenance and repairs. Another nearly $500 million cut would affect the Student Housing Revolving Loan Fund Program, which provides interest-free loans for affordable student and staff housing on college campuses.

Despite only announcing the launch of the University of California Los Angeles Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy last week, Newsom proposed reducing funding for it by $300 million.

The Institute is part of a major investment in the UCLA Research Park in Los Angeles, which will be built in the abandoned Westside Pavillion shopping mall, and also be home to the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.

The Middle Class Scholarship program, which provides college scholarships for students with family income and assets of up to $217,000, will also be cut by $289 million.

However, much of the state’s education funding is guided by Proposition 98, which requires a minimum amount of state General Fund dollars to go toward public schools and community colleges.

Prop. 98 funds come from income, sales, corporate, and capital gains taxes, as well as local property taxes — all of which were affected last year by a months-long extension for tax filings after a series of severe winter storms, higher interest rates, and lower incomes in a post-COVID-19 economy.

Delays and deferrals

Beyond the proposed reductions, Newsom proposed $499 million in funding deferrals for the California State University and University of California systems to the next fiscal year.

The budget also proposed delaying $550 million from the Preschool, Transitional Kindergarten and Full-Day Kindergarten Facilities Grant Program. This is not a cut or reduction, but it would delay funding for the grant program and spread it out over a three-year period, starting in the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Some advocates were concerned about cutting funding from programs that serve young children.

“While we recognize the large deficit affecting the Administration’s budget proposal, we can’t continue down this path of deprioritizing kids that has led to alarmingly poor outcomes,” said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, a child advocacy nonprofit based in Oakland.

The group is “particularly concerned with some proposed reductions, including ... taking dollars back from state preschool.”