Legislative Analyst Opposes Newsom’s $300 Million Plan for California’s Poorest Schools

The California legislative analyst last month voted against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $300 million earmarked in his proposed 2023–24 budget proposal to fix academic gaps and racial disparities in the state’s lowest-income schools—saying the state should focus on accountability and transparency instead.

The additional funds—which Newsom calls “equity multiplier”—came at the push from members of the Legislative Black Caucus, a group of black lawmakers who address legislative concerns for black Americans and other ethnic groups.

“I am … happy to announce that Governor Gavin Newson and his staff have committed to on-going funding and to work with us, to create a comprehensive policy aimed at improving the academic achievement of students in the lowest-performing groups and the related goal of addressing the needs of black students,” Assemblymember AkilahWeber (D-San Diego), stated in a statement last august. “This proposal will be included in the Governor’s January 2023 budget.”

Newsom’s proposal would see the funds given to the state’s lowest-income school districts. They would then choose where to spend them based on the goals and needs they have set in their plans to address student needs.

Each district creates these plans based on how it meets state standards, such as test scores, chronic absenteeisms and graduation rates. The state then provides money according to the needs.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office urged lawmakers to reject the funding in a February 23 report. They cited a 2021 study which showed that additional funding doesn’t always result in better outcomes for low-income or low-performing schools.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California’s study, only 55% of the supplemental funds given to districts were used for the schools that qualified.

“Initial studies … have shown evidence that additional funding has led to improved outcomes for districts with larger shares of supplemental and concentration funding but has not resulted in the same levels of improvement for the lowest-performing schools or subgroups within districts,” According to the report.

Analysts also suggested that districts ensure their regular needs are met by state funds based on current needs.

Instead, legislative analysts called for more transparency and accountability to ensure that the funds received by districts are being used to meet needs.

“We find that the key issue is increasing transparency to ensure existing funding actually targets the highest needs schools and student subgroups,” The legislative report was stated. “Rather than provide more funding, we recommend the legislature consider options to provide greater transparency regarding how funding is spent across schools.”

The state could use this information to see if schools are being targeted at the most need schools, the report stated.

The state should also require that education boards publicly report on the number and experience of credentialed teachers and the student-to teacher ratios in each school. Most school funding is used to pay for salaries and benefits.

“This information would give the public and the state a good sense of how funding is spread across schools,” According to the report.

Newsom spokespeople were not immediately available to comment.