Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education

Subcommitte 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. 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. Archuleta here. Achuleta here. Achuleta here. Achuala Bogue here.

The consultant notes a 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 Shinn here on behalf of California's Together. We are in strong support of the 350,000,000 for Cal New. This funding is critical for the only state program dedicated to immigrant students and will ensure the safety and success of the vulnerable students again amidst unprecedented funding cuts and attacks against them and their families.

We also wanna 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 practice 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 residences, community schools, dual enrollment, the Golden State Teacher Grant, and maintaining a clear instructional window before the administration of reading screeners for K through second grade. Thank you.

Michelle Warshaw with the California Teachers Association. There's a lot of really great things in the Senate recommendations and we 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 re bench re bench 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?

Alright. Mine I'm listening to Jean. My request will be for higher ed. Will there be a second part or should I just do it now?

I'm gonna I know. You should you should speak right now.

We're doing all public comment. Yeah.

Alright. So my request it consists of the middle class scholarship. I don't look for that to be cut by 500,000,000. I think that's really ridiculous for our students. I also would I 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 10,000,000 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? Right. Having heard?

Thank you, chair Perez and members. Annie Thomas, on behalf of the California Alliance of child sorry. I ran here. Whoo. Child and family services. I want to thank you guys for advancing support for item 18, the community school apportionment program. Item 30, special sorry.

It's okay. Take a breath. We're we're in no rush here. As you can see, it's a very, very small audience.

Start. Item 30, special education funding including the proposed 2,400,000,000 increase, and items forty and forty one. 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 through 12 or higher education? Alright. 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?

What's that? Any additional questions or comments? Yes. I yes. Now would definitely be the appropriate.

Thank you. Good morning, madam chair and Senator Cholera 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 and your expertise. Before I jump into the specifics of the line items, it is important to note that there is significant amount of placeholder language.

While many of the proposals seem supportable on the surface, I have concerns that I had 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 supported 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. Calibrite has made major strides and is producing results, but as the LAO points out, the manner providing these funds lacks accountability. Item number 28. While I'm supportive of providing paid pregnancy leave, I have concerns the way this proposal is being funded, and the uncertainty around what actually costs this new requirement could be.

Some school districts, 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 cost, I align my comments with our non partisan 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 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 in this committee.

Thank you so much, Senator Chua Bogue for your comments. I just wanna, first of all, say thank you to everybody that's participated.

Would you mind getting Senator Chua 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 Ochoa Bogue, for being active participants, and our staff that have done so much work to put together documents, as we've engaged in in huge conversations around this budget.

Between both K through 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 through 12 institutions, are successful in serving our students is probably one of the most fundamental things that we do as government.

It's it is so, so critical and important. I'm really heartened by the investments that we made in making sure that Prop 98 is fully funded, that the Senate chosen to move forward with their plan to get rid of the sell a 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 through 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, you know, 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's 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 only calendar.

We are going to start with Part A, issues number two through fifteen, twenty four, 26 through 42, 44 to 71, 74 to ninety, and ninety two to 117. Staff recommendations for these issues?

We have a motion by Senator OChua Bogh. And thank you. And 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 Bogh, aye.

Thank you. Those items are out. We will now move on to Part A, issue number one. 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.

Perez. Aye. Perez, aye. Archuleta. Aye.

Archuleta, aye. Or Choe Bogue?

No.

Choe Bogue, no.

Next, we have Part A, sections 16 to 23, 25, 43, 72, 73, and 91. We have a motion by Senator Archuleta, consultant if you can call

the roll. Perez. Aye. Perez, Aye. Archuleta.

Aye. Archuleta, Aye. Ochoa Bogh. No

Bogue. Thank you. We will now move on to part b. Issues one through ten, twenty nine through thirty, thirty two through 34, 36 through 44, 67, and 69. Do we have a motion?

Motion.

There's a motion by Senator Ochoa Bogh. Consultant, can you call the roll?

Perez. Aye. Perez, aye. Archuleta. Aye.

Archuleta, aye. Ochoa Bogh. Aye. Ochoa Bogh, aye.

Thank you. Those items are out. Next up, we have part b, issues eleven, forty and sixty eight. 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 Bogh? No. Ochoa Bogh, no. Those items are out.

Those items are out. We'll now move on to part b, issues 25 b, 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 Bogh. No. Those items.

Thank you. Those items are out. I wanna thank say thank you to all the individuals who participated in today's public testimony. If you are 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've concluded the agenda for today's hearing. The Senate Budget Subcommittee number one on education is adjourned.