$1.005 Trillion Of TK-12 Spending Under Newsom

As Gavin Newsom prepares to enact his final budget as governor, I have been looking back at all of his budgets. The first post was about employee compensation and benefits, which is the third largest category of state spending. This post looks at $1.005 trillion of spending on public schools, which is the second largest category of state spending.

For Newsom’s first seven budgets, I used the annual overview of education-related funding published by the California Department of Education (CDE). For Newsom’s eighth and final budget that will be enacted next week, I have used a proxy recommended by Claude.

On a per-pupil basis, real (ie, inflation-adjusted) spending rose 40.49%, from $18,435 under Jerry Brown to $25,900 under Newsom. Yet teacher take-home pay remained under pressure, leading to strikes in several school districts. That’s in large part because pension spending by school districts continued rising at a fast pace. That’s not Newsom’s fault.

But Newsom is responsible for California’s schools being closed longer than any other state during the COVID pandemic. He was afraid to challenge the California Teachers Association (CTA), which was steadfast in its opposition to opening schools and can wreak havoc for governors when it doesn’t get its way. But that’s true of other blue states with powerful teachers’ unions, yet none were as late as California to open school doors. Less fearful blue state governors such as Jared Polis in Colorado and Gina Raimondo in Rhode Island risked their political careers to take on teachers’ unions for the benefit of students and their families. Only now that he is leaving office is Newsom finally taking a position opposed by CTA, which can no longer do him political harm as he pivots to a national stage.