May 28, 2026 · Budget Sub1 · 2,362 words · 8 speakers · 70 segments
Subcommittee number one on education will come to order. This is our closeout hearing as the Senate Subcommittee number one on education of 2026, where we will take votes that reflect the Senate's budget plan. The Senate plan fully funds Prop 98 and doubles down on our commitments to universal school meals, career education, and supporting our most vulnerable students, including immigrant students. The Senate plan also maintains our commitments to higher education by funding the fifth year of the Compacts for UC and CSU, supporting immigrant and LGBTQ plus students through our resource centers, and prioritizing the long-term stability of the community college budget. We look forward to continuing conversations with the administration and assembly in a collaborative and thoughtful manner towards a final budget agreement in the coming weeks. We will begin with public comment on these issues, take any final comments from subcommittee members second, and then move to the vote-only calendar. Before we begin, we'll establish a quorum. Will the consultant please call the roll? Perez? Here. Perez here.
Archuleta? Here. Archuleta here.
Ochoa Bogue? Here. Ochoa Bogue here.
The consultant notes of quorum has been established, so we will go ahead and begin public comment. For members of the public who wish to comment, please begin by stating your name and organization. We can use the mic here at the railing.
Good morning, Chair and members. Natalie Shin here on behalf of California's Together. We are in strong support of the $350 million for CalNU. This funding is critical for the only state program dedicated to immigrant students and will ensure the safety and success of vulnerable students amidst unprecedented funding cuts and attacks against them and their families. We also want to uplift Senator Ochoa Bogue's request for reinvestment and renewal of the Educator Workforce Investment Grant for English Learner Roadmap Policy, which is due to expire this year and is the most effective toolkit that we have for ensuring anyone working with English learners understands the best practices. practices. We also support rejecting the definition for students at risk of becoming long-term English learners and appreciate the engagement on this. We are also in strong support of the governance proposal, funding for dream resource centers, teacher residencies, community schools, dual enrollment, the Golden State Teacher Grant, and maintaining a clear instructional window before the administration of reading screeners for K through to second grade. Thank you.
Michelle Warshaw with the California Teachers Association. There's a lot of really great things in the Senate recommendations that we really appreciate and we're very supportive of. We appreciate the rejection of the governor's proposal to underfund Prop 98, but we do have significant concerns with including non-LEA preschool programs into Prop 98. Although the rebench is appreciated, Prop 98 growth is tied to ADA and state economic factors and will therefore not grow to accommodate new preschool enrollment. We also strongly support the approval of the paid pregnancy leave proposal, the rejection of the education governance proposal and the special education funding. Thank you.
Great. Do we have anybody else here to speak on public comment?
Hi. I'm Ossian Yujan. My request would be for higher ed. Will there be a second part or should
I just do it now? You should speak right now. We're doing all public comment.
All right, so my request consists of the middle class scholarship. I don't look for that to be cut by $500 million. I think that's really ridiculous for our students. I also would hope that you guys invest in the public innovation hub for public resources, which would support students on getting CalFresh and make a statewide more operative administrative part for the CalFresh and students in college And I would also thank you for putting $10 million for the CC financial aid administrative on the agenda. Thank you.
Do we have any other members of the public that would like to offer public comment? All right. Having heard.
Thank you, Chair Perez and members. Manny Thomas, on behalf of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, I want to thank you guys for advancing support for item 18, the community school apportionment program, item 30. Sorry.
It's okay. Take a breath. We're in no rush here. As you can see, it's a very, very small audience.
Item 30, special education funding, including the proposed $2.4 billion increase, and items 40 and 41. These investments are critical to meeting the needs of students, families, and the providers that support them. Thank you.
Excellent. Do you have anybody else that would like to offer public comment, either on K-12 or higher education? All right. Seeing nobody else rising and having heard from all members of the public. Members, are there any additional questions or comments? Senator Archuleta, Senator Ochoa Bogue? Any additional questions or comments?
Would now be our time to do our comments on the votes?
Yes. Yes, that now would definitely be the appropriate. Thank you.
Good morning, Madam Chair and Senator Choleta and education stakeholders. As I begin, I'd like to acknowledge our Republican Caucus fiscal consultants for their dedicated and late-night work in analyzing each of these votes. I greatly appreciate your time and your expertise. Before I jump into the specifics of the line items, it is important to note that there is a significant amount of placeholder language. While many of the proposals seem supportable on the surface, I have concerns that we haven't seen the final language and we're nearing the conclusion of the budget process. I hope that these items will be formally presented to the subcommittee in order to ensure transparency and allow for public comment. In most areas of today's agenda, my colleagues and I are in agreement. We all want to ensure that students have the opportunity for high-quality, affordable education at every grade level up through college. In some cases, I will be abstaining or voting no. And it's important to communicate why. There are areas where I'm concerned about the lack of accountability and oversight and whether we'll achieve actual results from these spending items. In some cases, there are unfunded mandates or borrowing that isn't necessary. I want to thank the LAO, our nonpartisan budget advisors, for highlighting areas where the state has not done enough to ensure the dollars allocated actually achieve the intended goals. In many instances, I'll align my vote with their recommendation. When I vote no, which isn't very many, I think as a matter of fact, I think it's one, it's because these programs are redundant or other programs already funded by the state or where funds have not achieved the desired result. Item 11, Various Appropriations, and 40, the Adult Learner Program in Higher Ed. In addition, I have concerns about the borrowing approach for the middle-class scholarship program. While I support the higher funding level, I don't believe that we need to borrow the entire amount to achieve the goal. Item 68, Borrowing Structure for the Middle-Class Scholarship. For my abstentions, I'm supportive of these items in concept, but I have concerns regarding the lack of accountability, lack of results, or the unfunded mandate. Item 31, Common Cloud Platform. Calbright has made major strides in its producing results but as the LAO points out the manner providing these funds lacks accountability Item number 28 While I supportive of providing paid pregnancy leave I have concerns the way this proposal is being funded and the uncertainty around what actually cost of this new requirement could be. Some schools and districts will not receive the additional funding, and without additional information, the funding being provided might not even be enough to cover those entities receiving the additional funds. Item 25, mandate for pregnancy leave. We have received concerns about some schools not receiving this particular funding. For the backfill on past apprenticeship costs, I align my comments with our nonpartisan LAO and would like more detail on how these funds will be used to increase access to apprenticeships. Item 35, backfill for past apprenticeship cost. Lastly, I want to acknowledge how blessed we are to be in this sub one because I know that other subcommittees are struggling to decide which programs should be prioritized for funding. This budget is providing a historic level of funding for our schools and we're providing providing more targeted service to provide our students with the best opportunities possible to succeed. While we are able to fund both needs and wants for education, other subcommittees must make difficult choices about which of many worthy programs to fund, sometimes between different life-saving services. Thank you for your time and thank you to the chair for her leadership in this committee.
Thank you so much, Senator Ochoa-Boke, for your comments. I just want to, first of all, say thank you to everybody that's participated. Would you mind getting Senator Ochoa? To all of the members that have participated in these discussions over the last several weeks, the members of the public that have come out to our committee hearings, as well as both of my budget subcommittee members, Senator Archuleta and Senator Rochelle Bogue, for being active participants, and our staff that have done so much work to put together documents as we've engaged in huge conversations around this budget. Between both K-12 and higher education, we cover about 48% of the state's budget, and I don't take that lightly. It's a significant percentage. Funding our schools, making sure that our institutions of higher learning, as well as our K-12 institutions, are successful in serving our students is probably one of the most fundamental things that we do as government. It is so, so critical and important. I'm really heartened by the investments that we've made in making sure that Prop 98 is fully funded, that the Senate has chosen to move forward with our plan to get rid of the settle-up amount. We know how critical that is that we've made huge investments into the middle class scholarship rejecting the cuts that we saw proposed by, you know, the governor and that we are continuing to make investments in our dreamers resource centers at a time when we know that our immigrant students and particularly students from mixed status families need more supports, not less. And we really need to make sure that we are meeting the needs of every Californian, regardless of documentation status. And I really think that that's what this budget does. It addresses some of the critical challenges that our education institutions are facing, both in the K-12 space and in the higher ed space. We know that so many of our schools across the state are having to do more with less. and we want to continue to meet that challenge and provide them with the resources that they need to do the good work of making sure that our students are academically successful. So with that, I'm just so grateful for all the work that we've put in together, all the feedback from stakeholders, and excited to take action on this budget today that been informed by feedback from all of you here in the audience as well as our budget subcommittee members and members of the Senate So we will now move to the vote calendar We are going to start with Part A issues number 2 through 15 24 26 through 42 44 to 71 74 to 90 and 92 to 117 Do we have a motion to adopt the staff recommendations for these issues? We have a motion by Senator Ochoa Bogue. And thank you. The staff recommendation has already been moved, and the motion is to adopt the staff recommendations consultant. If you can please call the roll. Perez? Aye. Perez, aye. Archuleta?
Aye.
Archuleta, aye. Ochoa Bogue?
Aye.
Ochoa Bogue, aye. Thank you. Those items are out. We will now move on to Part A, Issue Number 1. Do I have a motion to adopt the staff recommendation?
Motion.
We have a motion by Senator Archuleta. If we could have the consultant please call the roll.
Vittes.
Aye. Vittes, aye. Archuleta.
Aye.
Archuleta, aye. Ochoa Bogue.
No. Ochoa Bogue, no. Next we have part A, sections 16 to 23, 25, 43, 72, 73, and 91. Do we have a motion?
Motion.
We have a motion by Senator Archuleta. Consultant, if you can call the roll.
Vittes.
Aye. Vittes, aye.
Archuleta.
Aye.
Archuleta, aye.
Ochoa Bogue.
Not voting.
Ochoa Bogue, not voting. Thank you. We will now move on to Part B, Issues 1 through 10, 12 through 24, 25A, 26 through 27, 29 through 30, 32 through 34, 36 through 44, 48 through 49, 51 through 67, and 69. Do we have a motion?
Motion.
We have a motion by Senator Ochoa-Bogue. Consultant, can you call the roll?
Perez.
Aye. Perez, aye.
Archuleta.
Aye.
Archuleta, aye.
Ochoa-Bogue.
Aye.
Ochoa-Bogue, aye. Those items are out. Thank you. Those items are out. Next up, we have Part B, Issues 11, 40, and 68. Do we have a motion?
Motion.
We have a motion by Senator Archuleta. Consultant, can you call the roll?
Perez?
Aye. Perez, aye.
Archuleta?
Aye.
Archuleta, aye.
Ochoa Bogue?
No.
Ochoa Bogue, no. Those items are out. Those items are out. We'll now move on to Part B, Issues 25B, 28, 31, 35, 45 through 47, and 50. Do we have a motion?
Motion.
We have a motion by Senator Archuleta. Consultant, can you call the roll?
Perez.
Aye. Perez, aye.
Archuleta.
Aye.
Archuleta, aye.
Ochoa Bogue.
Ochoa Bogue, not Bogue.
Thank you. Those items are out. I want to say thank you to all the individuals who participated in today's public testimony. If you were not able to testify today, please submit your comments or suggestions in writing to the Budget and Fiscal Review Committee or visit our website. Your comments and suggestions are important to us, and we appreciate your participation. Thank you, everyone, today for your patience, your cooperation, your participation. We have concluded the agenda for today's hearing. The Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Education is adjourned.