{"id":342037,"date":"2026-06-01T22:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/342037\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T22:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:30:11","slug":"educations-disappearing-act-in-californias-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/342037\/","title":{"rendered":"Education’s Disappearing Act in California’s Governor’s Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Gavin Newsom ran for governor in 2018, education was front and center of his campaign. His central pledge was to create a hugely ambitious\u00a0\u201ccradle to career system\u00a0<\/a>of education,\u201d beginning at birth through college and into the workplace.<\/p>\n

Yet in this election season, education has been a non-issue. It has barely come up in any of the debates \u2013 in fact, none of the moderators asked a single question about it.\u00a0Go to the candidate\u2019s web pages, and almost all\u00a0make a range of pledges on education<\/a>. Yet I can\u2019t recall seeing any candidate\u2019s television ads focusing on the issue.<\/p>\n

State Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, elected twice to his statewide office, is on the ballot for governor. But his candidacy has barely registered with voters.<\/p>\n

This is worth sitting with for a moment. About 40 percent of California\u2019s general fund, roughly\u00a0$127 billion in the next school year,<\/a>\u00a0will go to K-12 schools and community colleges under Proposition 98. The next governor might well inherit more direct authority over education policy and spending, because of legislation being considered in Sacramento that would place the California Department of Education in the governor\u2019s office rather than under the direction of the State Superintendent.<\/p>\n

And yet the candidates have largely treated education as a campaign footnote.<\/p>\n

Ensuring California\u2019s future<\/p>\n

The absence is even more striking because of its contrast with the last two governors, for whom education was a critically important part of not only their campaigns, but their terms in office as well.<\/p>\n

Gov. Jerry Brown<\/a>\u00a0made the radical reform of school finance the signature achievement of his final two terms, championing the\u00a0Local Control Funding Formula<\/a>, which far more than any other state has directed substantially more state dollars to schools serving the highest-need students.<\/p>\n

In close collaboration with State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, Newsom went further. He led efforts to expand\u00a0Transitional Kindergarten to all 4-year-olds.<\/a>\u00a0He also introduced massive multibillion initiatives \u2013 notably the\u00a0Expanded Learning Opportunities Program,\u00a0<\/a>subsidizing expanded preschool, after-school and summer enrichment programs, at a cumulative cost of\u00a0about $18 billion<\/a>\u00a0so far. Another is the $3 billion\u00a0Community Schools Partnership Program<\/a>, creating \u201cschools within schools\u201d providing a range of support services to students as well as families. That\u2019s in addition to the $4 billion\u00a0Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative,<\/a>\u00a0to improve children\u2019s mental health.<\/p>\n

Both governors understood that education was not a line item to be managed. It was an argument for ensuring California\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

So what to attribute education\u2019s invisibility in this year\u2019s campaign?<\/p>\n

Not a major concern<\/p>\n

One is that voters in general give their local schools positive ratings.\u00a0They generally approve of the way the governor, and the State Legislature are handling TK-12 education, according to the\u00a0latest PPIC poll<\/a>\u00a0conducted in late March. That\u2019s especially the case among Democrats who comprise by far the majority of voters in the state.<\/p>\n

Voters with children in public schools are even more positive, saying their local public schools do an excellent or good job preparing students for college.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0Feb. 2026 PPIC poll<\/a>, one third of voters listed cost of living, inflation, jobs and the economy as the most important issues for the governor and the Legislature to address. Only 2 percent placed education, schools or teachers at the top of their list.<\/p>\n

There is also the fact that less than one in four California voters have children in public schools. Candidates may thus be responding to the realpolitik that, for the majority of voters, education is not a major concern.<\/p>\n

Another factor is that California has made huge progress during the Brown and Newsom governorships in boosting funding to its schools. School funding has been a perennial priority for voters especially since Prop. 13, the 1978 initiative that eviscerated local school boards and the state\u2019s taxing powers.<\/p>\n

When Gov. Brown returned to the governorship for a second time in 2010, average spending on education per student was a mere $8,340, putting California\u00a0dead last in the nation<\/a>. During the current school year, average spending per students is $24,500, an enormous increase, putting California at the national average, after adjusting for high labor costs in the state. That\u2019s according to an analysis from the exhaustive\u00a0Getting Down to Facts<\/a>\u00a0initiative issued last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a lot better shape in terms of the money, and the services kids had before than we were before,\u201d said Michael Kirst, the Stanford professor emeritus who was Gov. Brown\u2019s closest education advisor for all his four terms as governor.<\/p>\n

Kirst points out that the last time schools were a matter of intense statewide concern was during the pandemic, when most students were\u00a0out of school.\u00a0<\/a>Now the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, and\u00a0the controversies about school closures<\/a>\u00a0have receded.<\/p>\n

Finally, the culture wars around issues like book bannings, parental control of the curriculum, and transgender rights have not caught fire in California to nearly the same extent as they have in other states, except in some more conservative districts like\u00a0Temecula<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reforming education reforms<\/p>\n

On one level, education\u2019s absence from the campaign could be regarded as good news, because it could reflect the significant progress made in recent years. But that ignores the fact that schools still face major challenges the next governor won\u2019t be able to avoid \u2013 and candidates should be pressed on.<\/p>\n

Principle among them is the crisis brought on by declining enrollments, which is not unique to California but\u00a0is especially acute<\/a>\u00a0here because of lower birthrates, decreased immigration, and high housing costs forcing many families to move to other districts or out of state. Fewer kids mean less funding for schools, often resulting in school closures and layoffs. It also threatens to undermine promising education reforms introduced over the past decade.<\/p>\n

As Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education says<\/a>, declining enrollments threaten a \u201cfinancial catastrophe which will have implications not just for education, but for our economy, and our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters have a right to know what the candidates would do in response \u2014 and whether they will continue to back the multiple education reforms currently underway, or whether the reforms should themselves be reformed.<\/p>\n

Another major decision the next governor will have to make is whether California will participate in the Trump Administration\u2019s stealth\u00a0tax credit scholarship scheme<\/a>\u00a0inserted into the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill without any hearings.<\/p>\n

Beginning on Jan. 1, taxpayers can contribute up to $1700 to \u201cscholarship-granting organizations\u201d \u2014 and get every dollar back as a tax credit. These organizations can then dole out the funds to parents for private and religious school tuition. Some funds, however, could go to public school parents to cover expenses not normally covered by state and local funding.<\/p>\n

States have the choice to participate in the program. So far, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado are the only Democratic governors to have said they will opt in. By contrast, Newsom, and most Democratic governors, are avoiding the issue.<\/p>\n

Voters are also bombarded, and understandably confused, by conflicting reports on test scores \u2014 some showing improvements, others saying the state is falling behind. After a deep analysis, Stanford professor\u00a0Sean Reardon<\/a>\u00a0in Getting Down to Facts produced this overview of where California is at:<\/p>\n

\u201cTest scores in California grew faster than the national average from 2003-2019 and have declined less than the U.S. as a whole from 2019-2024. California students\u2019 academic skills are, on average, still slightly lower than the national average.\u201d<\/p>\n

An inflection point<\/p>\n

Despite progress, there is still work to be done.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is at an inflection point in its long arc of education reform,\u201d argues Getting Down to Facts\u2019 lead researcher\u00a0Susanna Loeb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, she notes, \u201cthe state has built stronger foundations: more equitable school funding, stronger standards and assessments, expanded early childhood education, improved data systems, and new investments in community schools, early literacy, and the educator workforce. Those changes matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Loeb argues, \u201cCalifornia now faces a different question: whether those stronger foundations can support a public education system prepared for a very different future.\u201d That includes the impact of artificial intelligence, and the erosion of federal commitments to civil rights, student welfare, and holding states accountable for student achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

California\u2019s role, she says, \u201chas become more consequential as states carry greater responsibility for protecting educational opportunity and advancing equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education could still surface this fall during the general election, when debates between the two final candidates will allow for deeper probing of their views.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, this will be a topic in the fall given the central role of state education policy and the importance of education outcomes for California\u2019s future,\u201d said Mark Baldassare, the veteran PPIC polling director.<\/p>\n

We shall see. \u201cPoliticians generally tend to avoid discussing easy solutions, and the problems facing California public schools are incredibly difficult,\u201d said Carl Cohn, the esteemed former superintendent in Long Beach and San Diego. \u201cSo I\u2019m not surprised that the candidates haven\u2019t waded in with solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But how successfully we educate our students does affect everyone. With nearly 6 million public school students in California \u2014 1 in 8 of all students in the US \u2014 how well they do in school is key to the nation\u2019s economy and its future.<\/p>\n

This story first appeared on the Education on the Line<\/a> Substack. Louis Freedberg is a veteran education journalist and former executive director of EdSource. <\/p>\n

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