Newsom’s not upholding Prop. 98, Sacramento City Unified says amid budget crisis
Tara Jeane, Board President of the Sacramento City Unified School District, said California Gov. Gavin Newsom is not upholding the legislative intent of Proposition 98 by withholding $3.9 billion funds from going into schools and community colleges.
The remarks came as the district tries to dig out from its unprecedented budget crisis and followed Newsom’s May Revise, in which he celebrated the state’s “significant increases” in education spending in the revised budget.
The revised budget bumped total TK-12 funding from $149.1 billion in January to $151.6 billion, including a major increase in special education funding. But the fate of billions of funding the governor has proposed setting aside remains uncertain, after the issue went unaddressed in Thursday’s speech.
“The bad news is (Newsom) is not upholding the voter-approved budgetary decision that 40% of the state budget goes to education,” Jeane said.
In January, Newsom proposed delaying $5.6 billion in Prop. 98 funding, pointing to uncertainty in state revenue forecasts. In the revised budget, that amount was adjusted to $3.9 billion.
The state can reduce the Prop. 98 guarantee by suspending the law, but doing so requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature — a step that has not been taken. As things currently stand, school boards and teachers unions have threatened to litigate if the proposal remains in the final budget.
California’s education system “is not funded the way these voters have said they want it funded,” Jeane said. The governor’s office did not respond to The Sacramento Bee’s request for comment.
Still, Jeane said she remains cautiously optimistic about two elements of the May Revision in particular: a 4.31% “super COLA,” which would boost the Local Control Funding Formula, and nearly $2.4 billion in increased special education funding, as special education is one of the fastest increasing expenses for the district’s budget.
The board now awaits the district’s third interim report, scheduled for June 4, which Jeane said will provide a more accurate fiscal picture based on how much the district has spent through April 30 and how much it may receive from the state budget.
On Thursday, Michael Fine, chief executive officer of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, said the agency’s grim outlook on the district’s budget crisis remains unchanged, noting that the revised state budget would affect when the money runs out, not whether SCUSD ultimately depletes its reserves.
“Instead of running out of cash in mid-February, maybe they’ll run out of cash in mid-March,” Fine said.
This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 4:03 PM.
