The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released its latest snapshot of the state of California’s TK-12 education system in August.
The brief examines current enrollment trends, student achievement, funding and other factors in an effort to help guide local and state policymakers in better supporting and educating California’s youth.
“In recent years, education spending has been at record highs, and state policymakers have invested in new programs — including transitional kindergarten and literacy coaching — to boost student outcomes and close achievement gaps,” the document states. “But California’s schools face ongoing challenges, including poor student performance, chronic absenteeism and long-term enrollment declines. A clear understanding of the education landscape will help California’s leaders navigate these challenges and make effective investments to support the state’s students.”
Student enrollment
PPIC researchers noted that the state’s public education system is highly diverse. Among the more than 5.7 million students served across nearly 10,000 schools administered by 1,000 districts, 56 percent are Latino, 20 percent are white, about 13 percent are Asian and 5 percent are Black.
Significant shares of the state’s youth face challenges outside of school that can have significant impacts on their education. For example, more than 63 percent are socioeconomically disadvantaged, 14 percent have a disability, about 4 percent are homeless and 0.5 percent are in foster care.
And while the number of students who speak a language other than English at home has “shrunk substantially in the past decade,” with this demographic now accounting for about 40 percent of students, the key objective in schools of supporting English language development so that students can be reclassified as fluent remains a key goal. Spanish is still the most common language spoken at home among multilingual learners (1.5 million students, or 73 percent), but there are more than 25,000 speakers of other languages including Mandarin, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Arabic, Farsi, Russian and Korean, according to PPIC.
After recent expansions, 213,000 4-year-olds are in public transitional kindergarten programs, but “total enrollment has fallen 8 percent over the last decade and is projected to fall another 10 percent by 2035,” according to researchers.
The document notes that declining enrollment has been concentrated in large coastal Southern California counties including Los Angeles and San Diego, while the Central Valley and other inland regions have experienced enrollment growth.
Achievement
After the pandemic, proficiency rates on California’s Smarter Balanced tests (SBAC) have risen slowly, but as of 2025, only half of students met state standards in English and 37 percent scored proficient in math. Additionally, some achievement gaps widened as high-need students were more deeply impacted by pandemic disruptions.
For instance, while 62 percent of Asian students were proficient in English and 57 percent were in math (followed by a similar proportion of white students who scored proficient in English and 51 percent in math), “rates were significantly lower for Black and Latino students: 33 percent and 39 percent in English and 20 percent and 26 percent in math,” respectively.
Low-income students lagged behind their moderate- to high-income peers overall and across all racial and ethnic groups.
Researchers also found that among the 500,000 students in the class of 2025 statewide, about 87 percent graduated from high school in four years, and more had taken college preparatory coursework than in years prior. Nearly 30 percent passed two or more advanced placement courses and participation in dual enrollment has grown rapidly. However, less than half of students had completed the A-G sequence — courses required by the University of California and California State University systems for admission.
Funding
Total school funding in California reached roughly $151.6 billion in 2026–27. In 2023–24, per-pupil spending was at roughly $22,700. While that accounts for nearly $4,000 more than the average in the rest of the nation, that state ranks 26th in the U.S. after accounting for its high cost of living.
“Most increased funding has gone toward generalized increases in school budgets, but some has been used to create new programs,” according to PPIC. “Since 2021, California has spent about $14 billion to expand after-school and summer opportunities and invested roughly $7.6 billion in universal transitional kindergarten, which now enrolls just over half of the state’s 4-year-olds. The state has also spent over $4 billion to expand community schools that add wraparound health initiatives (including mental health) and social service programs to about 2,000 schools statewide. Other recent investments have included more than $700 million in literacy coaching and reading programs, which have been shown to increase test scores in targeted schools.”
Researchers noted that declining enrollment trends complicate school funding by putting pressure on district budgets that may result in difficult decisions about school closures or other downsizing options, while also leading to higher per-pupil funding.
Moving forward, PPIC recommends the state focus on several key areas, including improving student performance and college readiness, closing achievement gaps, addressing the impacts of declining enrollment, and identifying and expanding successful new programs.
