California’s Public Education has Fallen to One of the Worst in the US

How far the great state of California has fallen, from having the best public education systems in the country to one of the worst.

American teachers and teachers unions have failed children. Teachers unions have become the biggest school bullies, sacrificing school children on the altar of power and control.

How did California’s public education system go from best in the United States to one of the worst? How did the classical Liberal Arts education, once made up of rigorous disciplines from the natural sciences to the fine arts, get sidelined by textbooks and course materials that include multiple perspectives and diverse representation from varied racial, ethnic, sex, gender, sexuality, SES, religion, age, and abilities perspectives (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices), as opposed to core curriculum of the seven Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music, and Geometry.

Teachers used to teach Liberal Arts disciplines enthusiastically. Now too many indoctrinate.

Actual curriculum changes include:

• Agendize and normalize DEI discussions and intentionally alter practices that perpetuate barriers.
• Create a curriculum committee handbook that requires a diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracist lens for the COR.
• Make time for critical conversations, empowering faculty to hold each other accountable for embedding cultural humility in faculty self-reflection and cultural competency into lessons and activities.

Notably, much of this educational erosion comes from California Democrats, former Governor Jerry Brown and Governor Gavin Newsom. The current ethnic studies curriculum stems from a bill signed into law by Gov. Brown in 2016 that mandated new ethnic studies programs in California’s public schools. Gov. Newsom signed another in 2021 requiring California high school students to complete a semester of ethnic studies in order to graduate, starting with the class of 2030. Ethnic studies also was made a requirement for community college students to graduate.

In 2019, I reported:

The axis of public sector unions and the identity politics industry has come up with a new way to increase their power and profits – force college students to take a class in “ethnic studies” if they want to graduate.

To do this, AB 1460 was introduced earlier this year by California State Assembly Member Dr. Shirley Weber, a San Diego Democrat who, prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2012, was a Professor of African-American Studies at San Diego State University. The bill has passed the assembly and is currently being considered in the state senate.

AB 1460 was signed into law by Gov. Newsom despite that compliance with AB 1460 costs around $80 million per year in pay and benefits for the new instructors (a gift to the CTA). The money and facilities necessary to implement AB 1460 come out of other departments, and taxpayers pay for the increased budget. And while hiring another 800 ethnic studies instructors might only add around another $1 million per year to the union’s coffers, these 800 individuals would have a far greater propensity to become activists for the union than, say, another engineering professor.

But who needs engineering professors, or the future engineers they will train? California needs more human resources managers and community organizers. Every woke ally knows this.

WalletHub just published an article identifying the Most and Least educated cities in America. California has a few on the “most” list, but has 6 of the 10 least educated cities, as well.

“To identify where the most educated Americans are putting their degrees to work, WalletHub compared the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across 11 key metrics. These range from the share of adults age 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree to the quality of the public-school system and the size of the gender education gap.”

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA ranked #3 on the most-educated cities list. Gee, guess why? San Jose – Santa Clara is home to Silicon Valley.

WalletHub reports:

San Jose, CA

The San Jose, CA metro area is the third-most educated in the country, with over 55% of the population ages 25 and older having at least a bachelor’s degree and nearly 28% having an advanced degree.

San Jose also ranks third among metro areas for university quality and has nearly a 1.6% gap between the share of women and men who have at least a bachelor’s degree.

Stockton, Fresno, Salinas, Modesto, Bakersfield and Visalia ranked at the bottom of the WalletHub Most & Least Educated Cities in America for 2026.

WalletHub explains their process:

Research shows that a skilled and educated workforce provides a significant boost to the economy. For strategies aimed at increasing a city’s brainpower and the best approaches to educational development, we asked a panel of experts to share their thoughts on the following key questions:

1. Should local authorities target policies and programs to attract highly educated people? If so, what works?
2. Are highly educated cities better able to withstand economic shocks?
3. In your opinion, what is the most important step we can take as a country to develop a more educated and skilled workforce?
4. What are the top education issues in 2026?
5. How can the U.S. reform its immigration policy in order to attract and retain highly educated workers from abroad?

The most educated city in the country is Ann Arbor, Michigan. WalletHub reports:

The Ann Arbor, MI, metro area is the most educated in the country, with over 96% of adults ages 25 and older having at least a high school diploma, nearly 59% having a bachelor’s degree and nearly 32% having an advanced degree, all of which are among the highest rates in the country.

Ann Arbor also ranks ninth in the country when it comes to the quality of its universities, and it has the best public-school system. In addition, the metro area has a lot of equality in educational attainment, with only a 1.8% gap between the share of women and men who have at least a bachelor’s degree.

Dr. Tony Lima, who taught economics at CSU East Bay for 37 years, posted online a six page takedown of AB 1460. He wrote:

“Cal State University (CSU) is today graduating students who cannot do basic algebra, supposedly a requirement for admission to the university. They also cannot compose a paragraph, much less an entire research paper. Once the CSU has figured out how to teach those two R’s, they can take the time to guarantee full employment for ethnic studies faculty.”

Remember that the Cal State system dropped algebra in 2017.