Ed Trust–West Statement In Response to California’s Final 2019-2020 Budget

Dr. Elisha Smith Arrillaga issued the following statement on behalf of The Education Trust–West:

Yesterday Governor Newsom signed a budget that takes a number of smart steps toward educational equity and justice in California. We applaud the legislature and the governor for their work here, and for listening to the voices of students, families, and community members. Our own poll last year showed just how important education is to parents of color in this state, and we appreciate the notable investments that expand early learning opportunities for low-income families and support students on their higher education journeys. We are particularly excited by investments that address some of the most urgent and longstanding equity issues in the state. We expect that once the Governor signs all budget trailer bills, the state’s investments will include:

• $10 million to finally begin the process of planning for and establishing a longitudinal data system that pulls together early education, K-12, higher education, and workforce data into one system
• $89.8 million to support an initiative we championed this year through ETW-sponsored legislation AB 1623: the creation of a teacher incentive grant for teacher candidates who commit to teaching in schools with some of the most pressing teacher shortage issues
• $18.5 million for the UC, $21.5 million for the CSU, and $12.9 million for California Community Colleges to better address the actual cost of college, focusing on food and housing insecurity

It is encouraging to see state leaders acknowledging both that our K-12 educator pipeline needs serious support and that the cost of college is too high for California families and includes significant non-tuition costs. The investments made in the 2019-2020 state budget are indeed solid steps in the right direction – our focus now must shift to intentionality in implementing these investments. Policies implemented equitably, with true community participation, have the power to propel us forward as a progressive state. We look forward to continuing to work with state and community leaders, and alongside families and students, to ensure these new investments are successful.

Final 2019-20 Budget At-A-Glance

• Full-Day Kindergarten: The Budget provides $300 million to expand facilities and remove barriers to full-day kindergarten. The local match for facilities grants will be 25 percent.
• Masterplan for Early Learning and Care: The Budget provides $5 million to the Department of Education for the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Secretary for Health and Human Services and the Executive Director of the State Board of Education, to contract for research on specified areas of the child care and early education system to be completed no later than October 1, 2020. The Budget also provides $2.2 million annually for three years to establish the Early Childhood Policy Council. This council would build on the valuable work of the Assembly Blue Ribbon Commission.
• Library Programming: The Budget includes $5 million in one-time General Funds to support grants to local libraries to establish early learning and afterschool programming.
• LCFF Investment: The Budget provides an increase of $2 billion for a cost-of-living adjustment of 3.26 percent.
• Pension Obligation Relief: The Budget provides over $3 billion in one-time non-Proposition 98 funds to reduce CalSTRS ($2.246 billion) and CalPERS ($904 million) school long-term liabilities. Funds would be used to reduce the CalSTRS unfunded liability and employer contribution rates to both systems in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. This would apply to both LEAs and community college districts.
• Community Engagement and Transparency: The Budget provides $350,000 to align and integrate the Local Control and Accountability Plan electronic template, California School Dashboard, and other school and district reporting tools including the School Accountability Report Card.
• System of Support: The Budget provides an increase of $1.3 million in ongoing support for county offices of education to support school districts improvement (differentiated assistance).
• Longitudinal Data System: The Budget provides $10 million in one-time non-Proposition 98 funding to begin development of a statewide longitudinal data system.
• Special Education: The Budget provides $152.6 million for Special Education equalization to bring LEAs to the statewide base rate ($557/ADA). It also provides $492.7 million to provide grants to LEAs serving 3 and 4-year old’s with Individual Education Plans. Ongoing funding for these purposes is contingent upon reform to improve outcomes for students.
• Teacher Recruitment: The Budget provides $89.8 million in one-time, non-Proposition 98 General Funds for the Golden State Teacher Incentive Grant. This program will provide 4,487 grants of $20,000 to prospective teachers who commit to teach in subjects with shortages and in schools with the highest rates of non-credentialed or waiver teachers.
• Computer Science: In order to provide statewide coordination in implementing the computer science content standards, the Budget provides $250,000 per year over the next 4 years to the State Department of Education to establish a California Computer Science Coordinator. Additionally, the Budget provides $7.5 million in one-time, non-Proposition 98 funds for the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Program to improve broadband connectivity at California local educational agencies and improve digital learning opportunities for students.

• Charter Schools: The Budget makes several policy changes related to charter schools. Statutory changes enacted through a budget trailer bill will: (1) Permit chartering authorities to use financial or other information provided by charter schools to perform their oversight duties, including monitoring the fiscal health of charter schools; (2) prohibit charter schools from discouraging students to enroll in a charter, or encouraging students to disenroll, on the basis of academic performance or student characteristics, such as special education status; (3) prohibit charter schools from requesting or requiring a student’s academic records prior to enrollment; (4) create a process for charter school students and families to report concerns to the charter’s authorizer; and (5) require the Department of Education to examine the feasibility of using data from CalPADS to identify charter school enrollment disparities that may warrant inquiry and intervention by authorizers.
• Professional Development for Teachers and Administrators: The Budget would provide $13.8 million on ongoing federal funds to establish the 21^st Century California School Leadership Academy. This program is intended to provide the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to educate and support the diverse student population served in California public schools. The Budget also provides $37.1 million for the Educator Workforce Investment Grant program which funds competitive grants for professional learning opportunities. Of this amount, $10 million is allocated for English Learner Roadmap-related professional development, $5 million is allocated for Special Education-related professional development, and the remainder for other areas, including ethnic studies. The Budget also provides $6.7 million for the California Subject Matter Projects.

• Tuition for Postsecondary Institutions: Given the investments in the Budget, it is confirmed that tuition at the UC, CSU, and CCC systems will not increase.
• California College Promise program: The Budget would provide $42.6 million ongoing Proposition 98 General Fund to waive fees for a second academic years for first-time, full time community college students. Participating college still need to meet all requirements and they still maintain the flexibility to waive some or all fees for first-time, full-time students or use funds for other equitable purposes that advance the programs goals. .
• The Student Centered Funding Formula: The Budget modifies the Student-Centered Funding Formula as follows: (1) cap the student success allocation to 10 percent of the total formula allocation; (2) clarify that for 2018-19, transfer data is based on publicly available information; (3) starting in 2019-2020, transfer data is based on recently enrolled students; (4) implement a three-year rolling average for the student success metrics; (5) implement an unduplicated count for the highest award obtained; and (6) extends the existing hold harmless provisions by an additional year so that no district receives less funding than they did in 2017-18 with COLA until 2021-22.

Enrollment Growth:

• UC: The Budget provides $59.9 million in General Funds for enrollment growth; $10 million will continue supporting 2018-19 efforts and $49.9 million will support the enrollment of 4,860 new resident undergraduate students by 2020-21.
• CSU: The Budget provides $85 million to increase undergraduate enrollment by 10,000 students.
• CCC: The Budget provides about $24.7 million from Proposition 98 to cover a 0.55 percent enrollment growth (equating to about 6,000 additional FTE students)

Legal Services for Undocumented Individuals

• UC: The Budget does not provide any funding for this purpose. The UC is still working through one-time funds from the previous fiscal year. The Governor’s Office has expressed the intent to fund these services beginning in 2022.
• CSU: The Budget provides $7 million ongoing from the General Fund to provide legal services to undocumented students, staff, and faculty at the CSU. These services will be run in collaboration with the Department of Social Services.
• CCC: The Budget does not provide any funding for this purpose.
• Cal Grant Awards for Private Non-Profit: The Budget outlines that beginning with the 2019–20 award year, the maximum tuition award for private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions will be either $9,084 or $8,056. This is dependent upon whether the number of new transfer students accepted by private nonprofit postsecondary educational institutions through the associate degree for transfer commitments meets and exceeds specified targets.
• Student Loan Awareness Initiative: The Budget does not provide any funding for this purpose.
• Higher Education Innovation in San Joaquin and Inland Empire regions: The Budget provides $10 million General Fund one-time to support grants to education institutions to implement innovative educational strategies, promote partnerships, and collaborative efforts to increase postsecondary capacity in the San Joaquin and Inland Empire regions of the state.

University of California

• Expanding UC Extension Centers: The Budget provides $15 million in one-time General Funds to support degree completion and certificate program for individuals with some college but no degree.
• Degree Attainment, Student Success, and Equity: The Budget does not provide any funding for this purpose.
• Mental Health Services: The Budget provides $5.3 million in ongoing General Funds to support mental health services.
• Food and Housing Insecurity: The Budget provides the UC system a total investment of $18.5 million in ongoing General Funds for this purpose; $15 million will be used to address student hunger and housing needs and $3.5 million will be used to support rapid rehousing efforts for homeless and housing insecure students.

California State University

• Graduation Initiative 2025: The Budget provides $45 million ongoing and $30 million in one-time funds from the General Fund to support the Graduation Initiative.
• Deferred Maintenance and On-Campus Child Care Centers: The Budget provides $239 million one-time General Funds to address the deferred maintenance backlog and improve or expand on-campus child care centers.
• CSU Basic Needs Initiative: The Budget provides the CSU system a total investment of $21.5 million for this purpose; $15 million in one-time General Funds to support basic needs partnerships and $6.5 million in ongoing General Funds to support rapid rehousing of homeless and housing insecure students.
• CSU Expansion Planning: The Budget provides $2 million in one-time General Funds for the Chancellor’s Office to explore a potential CSU campus in San Joaquin County and an additional $2 million in one-time funds to conduct campus studies for the Chula Vista, San Mateo, Concord, and Palm Desert regions.
• Project Rebound: The Budget provides $3.3 million in ongoing General Funds to support Project Rebound. This program helps formerly incarcerated individuals attending or seeking to enroll in participating CSU campuses.

California Community Colleges

• Cost Of Living Adjustment: The Budget proposes an increase of about $230 million in Proposition 98 General Funds for a 3.26 cost-of-living adjustment.
• Basic Needs at CCCs: The Budget provides the CCC system a total investment of $12.9 million for this purpose; $3.9 million one-time for basic needs and $9 million ongoing for student homelessness and housing insecurity.

California Student Aid Commission

• Increased Access Award for Student Parents: The Budget provides $97 million to establish or increase financial aid awards to students with dependent children attending the UC, CSU, or the CCCs.
• Increase Amount of Competitive Cal Grant Awards: The Budget provides $42 million to increase the number of Competitive Cal Grant awards by 15,250.
• Cal Grant B Service Incentive Grant: The Budget provides $9 million to create the Cal Grant B Service Incentive Grant Program. This program will provide Cal Grant recipients at the three public segments, who are not eligible for federal work study programs, with non-tuition aid of up to $1,500 per semester or $1,000 per quarter for performing at least 150 hours per semester or 100 hours per quarter of community or volunteer service.
• Access to Competitive Cal Grant for AB 540 students: The Budget removes statutory language limiting AB 540 students’ access to the competitive Cal Grant program. This action will allow AB 540 students the same opportunity at a competitive Cal Grant as other students.
• Summer Aid for UC and CSU students:  The Budget includes $4 million to UC and $6 million to CSU to waive summer tuition and fees for students eligible to receive state financial aid. This program will be suspended in 2021-22.

Additional Resources

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