Gov. Gavin Newsom was set to propose setting up $500 college savings accounts for nearly 4 million kids from poor families as well as an expansion of transitional kindergarten as part of his revised budget proposal due this week, according to reports.
At press time Wednesday, Newsom was set to discuss what his office calls “an unprecedented level of state school funding to better support the social-emotional well-being of students and transform schools into gateways of opportunity” in Monterey County, a $15 billion plan to “reimagine public schools” and reduce class sizes.
“As we reopen, we must center our education, health and social systems on meeting the needs of children holistically,” Newsom said in a news statement. “We must invest early and pave a path from cradle to career. And we must build robust supports at every school and for every child so they can thrive, regardless of their race or zip code.”
According to reports in the Los Angeles Times and EdSource, the governor’s education plans include establishing a $500 college savings account for every California student from a low-income family. Homeless and foster youth would be eligible for an additional $500.
As many as 3.8 million California school children could be eligible for the accounts under the $2 billion program that would be funded from the state’s share of the American Rescue Plan stimulus bill President Biden signed in March.
According to an EdSource report, Newsom also will repeat his expectation that schools resume full five-day in-person learning in the fall, and withhold student funding for those districts that do not.
“Now, it’s time to reopen our schools, full time in the fall,” Newsom’s statement said.
Newsom, expected to face a recall vote in the fall, driven in part by anger over school and business closures in the pandemic, has been traveling around the state this week on a “California Comeback Tour” talking about $100 billion in spending from the revised budget plan he must submit by the end of the week.
“No amount of funding matters when teachers and students aren’t in the classroom,” Cox said in a statement. “Instead of getting everyone back to school, Gavin Newsom makes political announcements about spending money.”
The governor has so far this week announced a $12 billion plan to tackle the homelessness crisis, which his office said is “the largest investment of its kind in California history.” He also announced $8 billion for a second round of $600 stimulus checks that would reach two thirds of Californians, $5 billion for rental assistance and $5.1 billion supporting the state’s drought response and water infrastructure.
The extra spending comes thanks to a massive windfall of tax revenues from a buoyant stock market, with the governor’s office projecting a $75.7 billion surplus. The new stimulus checks are triggered in part by a 1979 constitutional amendment requiring tax rebates when revenues exceed a cap on government spending.
Newsom is also expected to call for a $2.7 billion plan to expand access to transitional kindergarten to all California 4-year-olds. Newsom had also proposed transitional kindergarten expansion in his January budget.
Under the plan scheduled to be discussed Wednesday, transitional kindergarten for all will be phased in through the 2024-2025 school year. The proposal aligns with efforts in the legislature, where AB22 by Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, would expand access to all 4-year-olds.
California created its transitional kindergarten program in 2010, but only one in four 4-year-olds, those with birth dates between Sept. 2 and Dec. 2, are currently eligible, according to an AB22 fact sheet. An additional 266,000 4-year-olds would become eligible when universal transitional kindergarten, or TK, is fully implemented.
According to EdSource, Newsom will propose expanding it incrementally, first to children turning 5 by March 2, then for those who turn five by July 2 in 2023-24, with full implementation in 2024-25.
According to the AB22 fact sheet, a study by the American Institute of Research found that transitional kindergarten significantly improves kindergarten readiness, putting children ahead of their peers who did not attend TK by up to six months in some academic skills. Low-income children and English learners show the greatest learning improvements at the end of TK, it said.
