In a turnaround from recent dire predictions, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget boosts next year’s funding for K-12 school districts and includes emergency grants to reopen campuses as soon as possible — part of a sweeping effort to address learning loss and social stresses in children.
Higher education also benefited from increased support, and the governor rejected any increase in tuition.
The total dollars — about $90 billion for kindergarten through community college — is almost certain to leave education officials wanting more, but also provides much of what they’d asked for. Newsom’s proposal comes in addition to $6.7 billion in recently approved federal education funding for California.
“We are proposing to the Legislature a record investment in our public schools,” said Newsom, “to deal with the disproportionate impacts of this pandemic on … our low-income communities.”