Students will benefit from California’s new budget

On Monday of this week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a series of budget bills worth more than $ 100 billion, giving the most detailed snapshot yet of how the state’s huge budget surplus will be distributed over the next few months, and how California’s social democracy experiment is accelerating. in 2021 in the run-up to the September recall elections. It’s a stark contrast to the far right in Texas, the country’s other giant state, in the recent legislative session. The difference paves the way for national struggles, in future election cycles, between states drawn to the Texan model and those seeking to recalibrate their fiscal and political priorities in the more inclusive way California is currently doing.

Included among the details of the California budget: dunning checks or $ 600 for Californians with a gross income of less than $ 75,000 per year or $ 1,200 for residents excluded from federal stimulus programs due to their immigration status, more than $ 5 billion to cover the rent arrears of low-income tenants who have been put in arrears by the pandemic, and $ 2 billion to help cover rental bills. water and utilities of these tenants.

In terms of education, the budget inaugurates extraordinary changes. In the foreground, it is the creation of a whole new year of school, called “kindergarten of transition”, for all the children of 4 years old—rather than just the 100,000 currently eligible– and extended school days and years for all low-income children. The Transitional Kindergarten, which will be implemented by 2025, is an attempt to promote educational equity in a state that has long been plagued by enormous extremes of opportunity and development. ‘access to educational establishments. In the meantime, however, other important changes will come into effect, including the provision of two free school meals at all public school students. The state will also invest billions of dollars in expanding extracurricular and summer study programs.

For a State which, since the adoption of the tax limitation proposal 13 in 1978, has long been plagued by both under-spending on education Overall, and most notably, huge shortfalls in education dollars and resources channeled to students and low-income communities, this is a huge change. Once implemented, California will no longer be among the worst states in the country for expenditure per pupil. Instead, as was the case during the golden days of California’s expansion after World War II, she will once again be a national leader in innovative education reforms.

And the shift in priorities isn’t limited to the K-12 arena. Building on proposals that legislators started growing earlier this yearThe budget measures also remove the age limit for Cal grants, meaning well over 100,000 mature students in the state’s sprawling community college system will now be eligible for increased financial aid.

Reforms are also continuing in other areas. On the mental health front, the Child and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative will receive, as was widely announced in May, a $ 4 billion unique brew, to be spent over the next five years, to tackle the cascading mental health crises experienced by young people during the pandemic.

Less publicized, but just as important, the budget allocates $ 50 million per year to the state’s public defender offices to facilitate the implementation of sentencing reforms that lawmakers have already approved and to hire social workers who can help families of inmates who seek to change their original sentences.

Over the next two months, according to criminal justice reformers I spoke with in Sacramento, the Newsom administration will continue to negotiate with lawmakers to repeal a number of fees …court costs and other expenses– which, over the decades, have proved particularly devastating for the poorest people caught up in the criminal justice system. These charges, which are of marginal importance to the wealthiest defendants, may prove impossible for the poorest people to ever get out of it. (As an example of how devastating they can be, in Florida a few years ago, GOP lawmakers dramatically reduced the impact of an amendment to rehabilitate criminals by passing a law requiring all of these fees have been fully paid before a person can re-register to vote.)

For California, which once had nearly 170,000 prisoners and tens of thousands more in county jails, until then Governor Brown, under pressure from federal courts, has begun to cut back on the incarceration system. a decade ago, those were big changes.

Too often in the recent past, prisoners have been released onto the streets, the system washed their hands of them and they floundered, contributing to the soaring number of homeless people in the state. From now on, if the legislator and the administration reach an agreement, significant resources could soon be devoted to the accompaniment of the ex-prisoners, to their navigation in the expenses due, and more generally to their offer of assistance in reintegration. outside.

These are fascinating times in California. The huge influx of dollars into the general state fund – at a time when Governor Newsom is desperate to leave his mark on the state as the recall vote looms – is leading to a blossoming of policies and programs creative. Their impact will likely be felt for decades.