We asked California’s top minds in education for their 2020 priorities. Here are their answers

Note to readers: Each week through December 2019, a selection of our 101 California Influencers answers a question that is critical to California’s future. Topics include education, healthcare, environment, housing and economic growth.

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California Influencers this week answered the following question: What should the most important priority in the area of education policy be for Governor Newsom and the State Legislature in 2020? Below are the Influencers’ answers in their entirety.

More highly trained early learning and K-12 professionals is key

Ted Lempert – President, Children Now

Our children’s opportunity to thrive and excel, from the time they are born, is dependent on quality, enduring relationships with adults, both within and outside of the family. Yet, California lags behind most other states when it comes to access to high-quality early learning programs, student-to-teacher ratios, the number of staff on school campuses and extra-curricular activity offerings. Early learning and K-12 settings provide multiple opportunities for children to establish relationships with teachers, school administrators, school nurses, counselors and others, which help children feel a sense of belonging, foster a love for learning, and, ultimately, improve academic outcomes. We need state leaders to make kids well-being the top priority and create the policy changes needed to ensure children have the opportunity to form and sustain nurturing relationships with well-trained adults in the child care, preschool, and K-12 settings. These changes include increased education funding to hire more school nurses, counselors, and other support staff; higher-quality teacher training, evaluation and professional development; improved early learning quality standards; increased wages and benefits for early childhood caregivers; and more. There is no silver bullet to improving education, but with the right priorities and a focused effort, California can do much better.

“Access to critical resources should not depend on a child’s zip code or school district”

Connie Leyva – California State Senator (D-Chino)

As a legislator and chair of the Senate Education Committee, I look forward to working with my legislative colleagues and Governor Newsom in 2020 to advance education policy that benefits students, staff, faculty and families in California.

Above all else, we must prioritize equity for all students. Every student in California—regardless of where he or she may live or where they may attend school—should have access to the basic building blocks that lead to future success, including books and related learning materials, technology, healthy food, mental health resources and a school nurse. Access to these critical resources should not depend on a child’s zip code or school district, but they should instead be the bare minimum upon which we build the rest of the education system so that students may thrive.

Prioritizing equity for students will clearly require increased funding for schools, teachers and staff so that we can ultimately improve student outcomes and close the opportunity gap.

“Prioritize effective education funding while ensuring meaningful accountability and state oversight”

Ling Ling Chang – California State Senator (R-Diamond Bar)

Billions of dollars are being spent on California’s education system, yet there’s still a budget crisis. And while the public consistently ranks education as a top priority, the state’s policy fails to reflect that. What we need is to prioritize effective education funding while ensuring meaningful accountability and state oversight.

We can start with making sure my approved request for an audit of the California State Lottery is conducted in a timely manner. Let’s investigate the disparity between record-breaking revenues and the lottery’s contribution to California’s public education system; every dollar wasted by the CA Lotto is another dollar taken away from students and public schools.

If we want to equip children with the tools and resources necessary to succeed, we must demand action. It’s outrageous that California students’ test scores continue to lag far behind, with our low-income fourth graders ranking 48th in the country.

I’ve made it a priority to meet with educators and students in the 29th Senate District, and have seen firsthand how strong accountability, combined with expanded funding and tireless educators, helps close the achievement gap. California can improve its education system - we just need to propel it in the right direction.

Sufficient, sustainable funding to power California’s future prosperity

Timothy White – Chancellor, California State University

The top priority for the governor and legislature should be to continue with bold, new investment to build capacity in California’s public universities so that more Californians can earn a bachelor’s or graduate degree to fuel California’s economic and social prosperity. As the state does its part, the California State University also commits to its part: continuing to drive student success with the innovative Graduation Initiative 2025 that improves graduation rates, grows enrollment, increases the number of graduates with high-value degrees, and supports our students’ basic needs and well-being.

Let’s work together toward a funding model that provides sufficient, predictable and sustained investment in our higher educational institutions. Why? Higher education has always been a powerful escalator of social mobility, but a college degree has never been as important to Californians – and to California – as it is today.

The CSU is the nation’s largest and most ethnically and economically diverse university, with 23 campuses awarding more than half of the state’s bachelor’s degrees each year. Working side-by-side with the state, we are committed to helping California meet its future workforce needs as we provide more Californians – regardless of ethnicity, gender or background – with the life-changing opportunities higher education brings.

Investing in higher education to benefit California and beyond

Janet Napolitano – President, University of California

The collaboration between the state of California and the University of California has transformed lives, shaped the state’s economy and advanced global knowledge. Strengthening this partnership between Sacramento and UC – along with other higher education institutions – and prioritizing investment in higher education would help keep tuition low, expand enrollment, and meet the increasing demand from a growing, diverse population of high school students. These efforts would be a boon for California’s future workforce and economy and ensure young people of all backgrounds can achieve the California dream.

Expand need-based financial aid to community college students

Eloy Ortiz Oakley – Chancellor, California Community Colleges

California’s historic commitment to tuition affordability has ensured universal access to community colleges. Unfortunately, we have not updated the Cal Grant system to pair this commitment to access with the support needed to help low-income community colleges students succeed.

While our state has led the nation in programs like the California College Promise Grant, which waives tuition for approximately 50 percent of our students, other financial aid options fall short of covering non-tuition costs that make up the majority of student expenses. In fact, for low-income students, the net price of attending community college is often higher than UC or CSU because too few resources are directed to support these students costs and only 7 percent of Cal Grant resources are directed at community college students.

According to the #RealCollege survey, 50 percent of community college students experienced food insecurity, 60 percent experienced housing insecurity and 19 percent have been homeless. Students shouldn’t have to sleep in cars or turn to food pantries while they are striving at college to improve their lives.

Expanding need-based financial aid to community college students should be the top education priority for the governor and legislature. That is why our Board of Governors and a broad coalition is supporting SB 291 by Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino. This bill and a similar bill, AB 1314, put forward by Assembly members Jose Medina of Riverside and Kevin McCarty of Sacramento, provide the Legislature and governor an real opportunity for a comprehensive plan to help more students succeed.

Keep Early Childhood at the Top of the Agenda

Deborah Kong – Program Officer, Children, Families, and Communities program, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation

In 2020, Governor Newsom and the State Legislature must deliver on their promise to give every young child in California a strong, healthy start in life by continuing to prioritize early childhood development. In 2019, these state leaders made important commitments to support families by increasing access to early learning, taking steps to improve the quality of children’s health care, and expanding paid family leave. Next year is the time for bold action in the areas of both early learning and children’s health to ensure all of California’s youngest kids are prepared to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.

“Get the longitudinal data system up and running”

Roger Salazar – President, ALZA Strategies

The most important priority for education policy is to get the longitudinal data system up and running, starting with K-14 data available now, plus Cal-Grant data. Ultimately the data system should be expanded to include data from early childhood education, all of higher education, and then into workforce.

“Create a more stable source of funding for charter school facilities”

Mike Madrid – Principal, Grassroots Lab

The Governor and the Legislature made great strides toward stabilizing the environment for charter schools in California with legislation that established higher accountability standards for charter school managers and increased public notice and awareness. As we look to 2020, creating a more stable source of funding for charter school facilities should be a priority for the Governor and Legislators. Present funding formulas favor traditional public schools over charter public schools in both the state budget process and state and local bonds. One way to equalize funding would be to commit to larger budget appropriations for public charter school facility funding and to back-fill funding shortfalls in prior budgets. Another significant way to help public charter schools gain equity would be to include them in future statewide and local bond initiatives. Since public charter schools are often managed by non-profit boards they are not vested with the authority to levy parcel taxes or issue government bonds. However, there is no prohibition on the inclusion of public charter schools in statewide bonds placed on the ballot via the Legislature or through signature gathering. There is also no legal barrier to inclusion on local initiatives placed on the ballot by local school boards or education activists. Inclusion in bonds and the budget can go a long way toward helping public charter schools get the funding necessary to build new facilities and modernize existing facilities for their students and teachers.

Student Opportunity and State Economy Depend on Better Long-term Planning and Financing of Higher Education

Monica Lozano – President and CEO, College Futures Foundation

In 2020, California should plan not just for the new year, but the new decade and beyond. Our state’s higher education institutions are grappling with big challenges, including increasing capacity to meet demand and helping students afford the total cost of attending.

An important step is overhauling how the state finances higher education. Currently, institutions are at the mercy of each year’s state budget, and therefore operate reactively. Meanwhile, students face constant uncertainty about tuition costs and services.

We cannot afford this piecemeal approach, nor the inequitable outcomes it produces. Policymakers and educators need stable funding with multi-year budgets to make better resource allocation decisions. Adding financial incentives for collaboration and student success will fuel innovation. Tying tuition to a cost of living index and setting by cohort will make attendance costs predictable for students.

Now is the time to act. With the new Governor’s Council for Post-Secondary Education, state and education leaders are working more closely together. During a booming economy and budget surplus, planning can be more thoughtful and proactive.

Ensuring that all students have a clear path to college is key to generating economic opportunity and social mobility. United, we can realize the potential of our schools, our students, and our state.

Expand access to public universities and craft financial aid policy that includes the real, full cost of college

Michele Siquieros – President, The Campaign for College Opportunity

California families continue to worry about the cost of college and access to our four year universities at a time when a college degree is more valuable than ever. California has been a national leader in providing both access and affordability, but unfortunately, we are in a state of decline due in large part to a piecemeal approach to meeting the financial needs of students in this diverse state and not expanded access to our UC and CSU campuses to serve all eligible students. The Governor and Legislature have before them an opportunity to model for the rest of the nation a trailblazing approach to college affordability that takes into account the real and full cost of college (i.e. food, transportation, books, and housing) along with expanding the number of students who have a seat at our universities regardless of their zip code or money in their bank account. Our leaders should not miss a chance to craft financial aid policy and expanded access to our universities that help students reach their college dreams and power this economy in the 21st Century.

“Turn words into resources that make a difference for students”

Vernon Billy – CEO and Executive Director, California School Boards Association

In order to provide a high-quality education that improves outcomes for all students and helps close achievement gaps, our schools require significantly greater resources. California has an education funding crisis and any policy “solution” that fails to account for this reality is essentially grandstanding. Faced with a changing student population, higher standards, new curriculum, rising costs and unfunded mandates, school districts are already robbing Peter to pay Paul.

In his 2019 State of the State speech, Gov. Newsom said, “We’re still 41st in the nation in per-pupil funding. Something needs to change. We need to have an honest conversation about how we fund our schools at a state and local level.”

We want to deepen that conversation in 2020 and turn words into resources that make a difference for students. The Getting Down to Facts II research series determined that public schools need an additional $26 billion annually simply to educate every student to the California state standards. No single measure can accomplish this, so CSBA will be creative in its approach to Full and Fair Funding.

“Prioritize using funding well and transparently”

Myrna Castrejon – President and CEO, California Charter Schools Association

The most important priority to advance K-12 education is not a single policy but a value: transparency. Our vast education system is simply not delivering on the promise of a high quality education for all California youth, and is particularly challenged to close stubborn equity gaps among our struggling students. The recent state audit that determined districts are not spending critical LCFF funds as the state intended points to the challenges that remain when we only focus on inputs like spending, without needed clarity and accountability. We collect vast amounts of information about district finances and student achievement, but we are still unable to assess whether funding variations are producing improved results and how districts and schools can learn from each other to accelerate achievement. Governor Newsom took an important step in 2019 to create a system that follows students from cradle to career and that is a priority worth strengthening with additional investment. As Californians go to the polls in 2020 to consider increasing funding let’s also prioritize using funding well and transparently. Funding and results go hand in hand; indeed, without that balance we will fall short of creating the equitable schools our kids deserve.

Launch a new decade characterized by innovation

Rosie Arroyo – Chair of the Board, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality

As we enter 2020, California legislators have an unprecedented opportunity to launch a new decade that is characterized by collaboration, innovation and prioritizes an education policy framework that is grounded on equity, inclusion, transparency and accountability. A framework that is tied with measurable efforts that are intentional about closing the achievement gap. As we have seen with the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula, there are opportunities to better maximize existing resources to ensure they reach the intended population. Because these issues are complex and systemic, California also needs an education policy campaign that creates urgency, forms strategic partnerships with school districts and key stakeholders, sets intentional goals and standards about closing the achievement gap, provides adequate resources for our highest need students and engages Californian’s in a unified vision for our state’s future. 2020 will be a significant year for education with major initiatives set to be included in the November ballot. Now is the time to build political will for key reforms and efforts underway to ensure all students have the right resources and supports to reach their full potential regardless of race, income or zip code.

Demography is destiny, act accordingly

Kim Belshe – Executive Director, First 5 LA

We are in the fourth year of declining birthrates nationwide, continuing a steep decline that began in 2008 during the Great Recession. This will have ripple effects on every system and sector, including our education and future workforce. For this next generation of Californians, making sure that we successfully educate them is vital to their prosperity as well as ours.

Prioritizing a comprehensive approach to policies and programs that affect young children and their families is both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. Especially for those of us – with and without kids – facing a time in the future during which we will turn to others to help in our care.

The Governor and members of the State Legislature must prepare for this inevitable demographic shift by thinking about how whatever decision they make will affect young children and whether it sets them up for educational success through early care and education.

The top priority for everyone with a stake in our collective future is to shift their mindset so we think of every child in California as precious to our state’s future and act accordingly.

Aggressively pay down CalSTRS and CalPERS pension liabilities

Christine Robertson – Executive Director, San Luis Coastal Education Foundation

With the state forecasting a record surplus, policymaker’s top priority should be aggressively paying down the CalSTRS and CalPERS pension liabilities. Rising pension costs are consuming a growing share of school district budgets, reducing available funding for existing programs that benefit kids. Left unaddressed, the result will likely be larger class sizes and fewer intervention and enrichment programs. Although there are many new compelling policies and programs that would benefit students, the state’s top priority should be ensuring the financial viability of local school districts to implement and sustain these programs.