In keeping with the requirements of statute, the Governor’s Department of Finance released their budget trailer bills. Providing greater clarity on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January Budget Proposal, the trailer bills provide the details where specific statutory amendments are proposed on how specific programs and proposals are intended to operate. As part of that release, the education trailer bill helps to shed light on significant proposals made last month.
As provided by CSBA’s Governmental Relations team in its write-up of the Governor’s January Budget Proposal and subsequent budget webinar, the proposed state budget is generally balanced in the current and coming fiscal year. However, beginning in 2026–27, it is projected that the state’s operational budget will re-emerge with a year-over-year deficit amounting to potentially $30 billion annually.
In regard to the specific proposals in the January Budget release, the trailer bills help to flesh out many of the proposals announced last month, but also raise additional questions as to the intent and purpose of others. The following is a summary of the education budget trailer bill and its specifics.
Proposition 98
- Noticeably missing from the release of the education trailer bill was the specific proposal to withhold $1.6 billion from the calculated Proposition 98 funding guarantee for the coming fiscal year.
- Opposed by CSBA, that proposal appears to undermine the integrity and purpose of Prop 98 by underfunding the minimum funding guarantee by $1.6 billion. The stated purpose of this maneuver is to respond to the “inherent risk in revenue projections” and “is intended to mitigate the risk of potentially appropriating more resources to the [Prop 98] Guarantee than are ultimately available in the final calculation for 2024–25.”
- As shared in CSBA’s write up of the Governor’s January Budget Proposal, the stated intent is to repay Prop 98 in order to make it whole when the state is required to reconcile the final 2024–25 Prop 98 amount in 2026. However, this is a new interpretation of Prop 98 raises concerns as to its constitutionality and, if adopted, would set a dangerous precedent for future Governors and Legislatures to underfund Prop 98 when they see fit.
County offices of education (COEs)
- When reviewing COE budgets, requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to also review and consider studies, reports, evaluations or audits commissioned by the county, superintendent and state control agencies that may indicate the county is showing fiscal distress or at moderate or high risk of requiring intervention.
- If a county does not provide adequate assurance of its ability to meet current and future obligations and resolve any issue raised by the above, then the superintendent is required to conditionally approve or disapprove the county’s budget.
Student Support and Professional Development Block Grant
- Provides clarity that the $1.773 billion one-time Student Support and Professional Development Discretionary Block Grant will go out on an average daily attendance (ADA) basis, and is available to all COEs, districts and charters, as well as the State Special Schools, and that funds will be available through June 30, 2029.
- Funds may be used to address rising costs and fund statewide priorities, including:
- Professional development on the English Language Arts/English Language Development (ELA/ELD) Framework and Literacy Roadmap or the new Mathematics Framework.
- Developing and expanding teacher recruitment and retention strategies.
- Expanding career pathways and dual enrollment.
- Though rising costs are a valid use of funds, on first glance this appears less discretionary than the previous Arts, Music, and Instructional Materials Discretionary Block Grant, which allowed funds to be used for operational costs
Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant (LREBG)
- The budget partially restores previously reduced LREBG funding by appropriating $379 million in additional one-time funds. This is consistent with intent to fully restore funding over the course of the next three years.
- The trailer bill does not exclude this additional funding from the requirement, added during last year’s budget, for LEAs to develop a needs assessment for expenditures of funds in the 2025–26 through 2027–28 school years.
ADA hold harmless for fire impacted local educational agencies
- Language includes an ADA hold harmless for Pasadena Unified School District and impacted Los Angeles USD charter schools impacted by the Eaton and Palisades wildfires in the greater Los Angeles County area.
Teacher recruitment and retention
- Teacher Incentive Grant Program
- Announced with little detail, Teacher Incentive Grant Program with $150 million in one-time non-Prop 98 General Funds, it now appears to be a loan forgiveness program for teaching candidates of $20,000, through four annual payments of $5,000. Referenced as the Loan Repayment for Teachers in Priority Schools Program, it would provide these payments to teachers who are serving in a school, or an LEA-operated preschool, with an unduplicated pupil percentage (UPP) of 55 percent or higher.
- Teacher vacancy definition
- Adds language defining a teacher vacancy with the intent of knowing and understanding the scope of the teacher shortage, which states that a vacant position is where a course or class assignment “has not been permanently filled by a single-designated certificated employee serving for either the entire school year or for a one-semester course at the start of the semester.”
- National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Incentive Program
- Appropriates $100 million in one-time Prop 98 General Funds to extend the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification Incentive Program to 2031, with at least $10 million used to cover fees for first-time candidates. It would provide grants of up to $25,000 for National Board-certified teachers to teach at a high-priority school, which is defined as a school with a UPP of 55 percent or more.
Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELOP)
- As announced in the January budget, the state proposes adding $435 million for a total of $4.4 billion in ongoing Prop 98 to fund ELOP and keeps with the proposed expansion of eligibility by requiring LEAs to offer ELOP to all K-6 students with a UPP of 55 percent.
- It also sets the Tier 1 per-pupil funding rate at $2,750 and prohibits the Tier 2 rate from being higher than the Tier 1 rate, which sits at $1,580. With the growth of this program and the increased enrollment, concerns remain regarding funding adequacy and the ability to serve all students wishing to enroll.
Reading and literacy supports
- In line with the January announcement, the budget is proposed to include $500 million for literacy and math coaches and assistance is split up into several pots:
- $250 million for LEAs to employ and train mathematics coaches and specialists. These mathematics coaches and specialists would be required to support teachers in implementing the new K-12 California Mathematics Framework. Eligible school sites would be rural schools with a student bodies of at least 75 percent UPP or any schools with student bodies of at least 90 percent UPP.
- $235 million to develop school literacy programs, employ and develop literacy coaches and specialists, and develop and implement interventions for pupils in need of targeted literacy support, including English learners. Eligible school sites would be defined as an elementary school with a 94 percent UPP for students in grades 1-3, inclusive.
- $15 million for the state to select a county office of education or a consortium of COEs to provide training for educators to become literacy coaches and provide credentialing opportunities for educators to become reading and literacy and bilingual specialists, working with the California Reading and Literature Project, the California Writing Project and other experts.
- $40 million in one-time General Funds for LEAs to administer literacy screenings for dyslexia for students in grades K-2. LEAs would be required to use the funding for the procurement of screening instruments and training of educators to administer the screenings.
- $25 million for the California Collaborative for Education Excellence (CCEE), in consultation with the California Department of Education, to convene a Statewide Literacy Network through 2029–30 to support the statewide implementation of evidence-based practices aligned with the ELA/ELD standards.
Instructional materials
- $1 million to be allocated to a COE to contract with a research or nonprofit organization to study the process by which other states develop curriculum guidance and make recommendations about how to improve and streamline California’s processes.
- Proposes to revise existing law relating to the assessment of a financial penalty for violating the prohibition against adopting discriminatory instructional materials. Specifically, it would clarify that the financial penalty would not be assessed against an LEA’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) apportionment but the LEA’s total principal apportionment and limits it from exceeding the amount the LEA spends on instructional materials.
Special education
- $1 million for the CCEE to digitize the individualized education program (IEP) template and another $1 million to fund the translation of the template it into the top 10 most spoken languages other than English.
Kitchen and infrastructure training
- Announced as $150 million in funding to assist LEAs with kitchen infrastructure projects, the amount is proposed to be broken up into two pots:
- $100 million in competitive grants for kitchen upgrades that will increase the capacity to provide freshly prepared meals onsite using minimally processed, locally grown and sustainable food.
- $50 million to LEAs to be allocated based upon the number of lunches served in October 2024 to provide in-person training and professional development for food service staff and additional compensation to help improve the provision of school meals that eliminate processed and ultra-processed foods, lower sodium and sugar levels and more freshly prepared meal options.
Homeless Education Technical Assistance Centers
- Extends the authorizing statutes for Homeless Education Technical Assistance Centers by deleting language limiting their operation to the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. This essentially extends their continued operation with $2.5 million in state funding to help meet the needs of the state’s homeless student population.
What’s next?
With the release of the budget trailer bills, the Legislature will now have more information to conduct hearings on the Governor’s proposed budget. Hearings have already begun and will be held between now and May 15 when Gov. Newsom will release his May Budget Revision. Negotiations between his Administration and the Legislature will be ongoing until the June 15 deadline for the Legislature to pass the budget bill. The Governor will then have until July 1 to sign.
CSBA will provide updates and opportunities for advocacy as the budget cycle continues.
