Newsom’s Proposed Education Budget: ‘Big Spending, Little Results’

“Overwhelmingly, schools named for Dr. King fail to meet basic academic benchmarks established by the state for Reading and Math,” Gloria Romero reports at the Globe on Martin Luther King Day 2026.

Coinciding with MLK Day 2026, and Gloria Romero’s op-ed, Lance Izumi, Senior Director of Education at the Pacific Research Institute, analyzes California Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed education budget:

In his proposed 2025-26 education budget, Gov. Gavin Newsom brags that per-pupil education funding is at “the highest level ever” and that over the last four years his education programs have “improved English language arts and mathematics achievement.”  Well, he is right about the former, but wrong about the latter.

Izumi explains that under Gov. Newsom’s proposed budget, education funding would come to $121.4 billion. “And combining all funding from all sources, including federal dollars, then the budget would include $149.1 billion in total funding for all TK (transitional kindergarten)-12 education programs.”

According to the governor’s budget summary, “Over the last four years, the [governor’s] California for All Kids plan has significantly transformed the delivery of public elementary and secondary education in California and improved English language arts and mathematics achievement.”

But Izumi compares student test scores, and it’s not pretty:

On the 2024-25 state English test, 49 percent of California students taking the test met grade-level standards, which was a decline from the 51 percent who scored at grade level in 2018-19.

Also, on the 2024-25 state math test, 37 percent of students taking the test scored met grade-level standards, which was a drop from the 40 percent of students scoring at grade level in 2018-19.

And these scoring declines on California’s state tests were mirrored on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is often referred to as the nation’s report card.

According to a recent analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California, the percentage of California twelfth graders who scored at the proficient level on the 2024 NAEP exams were “33% and 21% in reading and math, respectively, compared to 36 percent and 24 percent in 2019.”

Further, “Scores were also lower for students in grades 4 and 8.”

The analysis also found that the longer a student stayed in California public schools, the lower their proficiency rates in math.

A career-long advocate of school choice, Izumi says kids need a way out of the failing California public school system. “Given the failure of California’s public schools to deliver results for all the tax dollars poured into it, parents should be given an exit ticket out of the system for their children. Luckily, Washington is making such an option available to states.”

“President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill offers $1,700 in dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits to individual taxpayers for donations to state-approved, federally recognized nonprofits, called scholarship granting organizations, that distribute scholarships to eligible children that can be used for private school tuition, tutoring, books, and other approved expenses.”

Be sure to read Lance Izumi’s entire article here.