The Learning Curve: Newsom’s Latest Budget Proposal Boosts Community Schools

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently released budget proposal had some good news for California schools – billions of dollars of good news. His proposal also includes extra money for a program that’s been embraced by some local school districts and is beginning to show results.  

Newsom’s proposal, released two weeks ago, allocates $22 billion more than expected for K-12 schools and community colleges. That unexpected windfall is thanks to high tax revenues from companies dumping money into the AI boom, officials said during a press conference announcing the proposal. 

Those funds will help push per-pupil funding to its highest ever point – $27,418, including federal money. That’s a massive 61 percent increase from the 2018-19 fiscal year per-pupil funding amount of $17,014, as EdSource reported.  

But the new dollars aren’t just topping off per-student funding. Newsom is also proposing to invest the funds into some programs he’s championed during his time in office, like the state’s community schools program.  

Community schools are schools that provide wraparound services that can include everything from student focused resources like additional tutoring or extra medical care to community focused ones, like food pantries or job training for family members.  

The hope is the additional resources, which are tailored to meet the needs of communities, help improve school climate and student performance. The model is specifically aimed at improving outcomes for the most underserved students, like poor or minority students, or those who are English learners. 

Since 2021, when Newsom’s program launched, California has invested more than $4 billion into setting up community schools across the state. San Diego Unified alone has secured planning or implementation grants for 35 of its schools, Jason Babineau, the district’s senior director of community schools told me.  

Last year, I profiled the community schools program at Chollas-Mead. That program brought a community garden, after-school sports, a full-time social worker and reading volunteers to the Chollas View elementary school.  

Those additions are thanks largely to Chollas-Mead’s community schools coordinator. The district has hired a coordinator at each of the schools that has received grants. Their job is to conduct outreach to determine the needs of their school’s community, identify potential community partners that can help provide resources and keep collaboration between families, staff and administrators well-oiled.  

But because of San Diego Unified’s fiscal uncertainty, it’s been unclear whether the district will be able to foot the bill for the positions once grant funding inevitably runs out.  

Newsom’s proposal brings some good news on that front. The governor is floating injecting an additional $1 billion into the program. Details on how that money would be spent – like whether it will be reserved to set up new community schools or used to keep staff operating existing ones on the payroll – aren’t yet available. 

“It’s a tremendous step in the right direction because it shows that this work is being prioritized and that we, collectively, across the state are seeing value of this strategy,” Babineau said. “My hope is that this extra ($1) billion will really be allocated towards sustaining of the community school coordinator position minimally, and that additionally, if there are sites within schools with strong infrastructures in terms of strategy implementation, that there’s an opportunity for those schools to become grant awardees.” 

The news also comes as the model is beginning to show more concrete benefits. A recent study by the Learning Policy Institute found that English and math test scores at schools in the first cohort of the community schools program improved, whereas scores at similar schools not embracing the model fell during the same period. Rates of chronic absenteeism and student suspensions also significantly declined compared to comparable schools.  

Babineau thinks that if schools continue to support this model, these improvements may just be the beginning.  

“I wholeheartedly believe that we are going to see lagging indicators, like SBAC (English language arts) scores and math scores begin to shift as well,” Babineau said. “Specifically in San Diego Unified, because … yes, this strategy is about whole child support, but it’s also about transformation of the learning space. It’s about teaching and learning, and we are providing the professional development supports to our educators.” 

The budget is far from a done deal, though. It won’t be finalized until June 15 and it’s already assuming a $3 billion deficit thanks to rising costs despite the increased AI earnings.  

There are some known unknowns, like the fact state lawmakers will try to leave their mark on the budget during the negotiation process. The proposal also doesn’t account for the possibility of federal cuts to education-related programs.  

The next five months, though, also leaves plenty of time for any number of fiscal monkey wrenches to upend the preliminary earning assumptions – from an AI-bubble implosion to, who  knows, an alien invasion. Fingers crossed.  

Albert Einstein Revolt Continues to Simmer 

Parents at Albert Einstein Academy have for months revolted against leadership of the charter school. At the root of early frustrations were significant changes to the school’s German immersion program that left parents who’d chosen the school specifically for the program feeling betrayed.  

In December, leadership abruptly fired the principal of the charter chain’s elementary school. That decision led to a whole new wave of anger.  

Now, families have launched a petition to express a vote of no confidence in the charter’s longtime superintendent, David Sciaretta. An attached letter raises concerns about everything from the superintendent’s high pay, to a growing lack of trust in Sciaretta to claims that enrollment has declined following the decision to alter the charter’s German program.  

“Despite having multiple opportunities to unify the community, the superintendent has not meaningfully intervened,” the letter reads. “Staff and parents report that division has been allowed to persist, and in some circumstances appear to have been encouraged by the superintendent, undermining cohesion and trust.” 

Sabrina Bochen is one of the organizers of the petition. While her youngest is a third grader at Einstein her frustration moved her to send her now sixth-grade daughter elsewhere. The final straw for her was the firing of the elementary school’s principal over Thanksgiving break. 

“When we came back, we found there was no principal at the school, there was no contingency plan as to who would be put in charge and minimal communication with the community,” Bochen said. “We want the board to replace (Sciaretta).  I don’t see a way forward for him to stay in his current role with everything going on.” 

Bochen said that the petition has received 311 signatures since its launch on Monday. The organizers plan to submit the petition to the charter’s board next week. 

What We’re Writing 

This is a big week for longtime-San Diego Unified Trustee Richard Barrera. His campaign for State Superintendent may well leap from longshot to frontrunner. That’s because the board of the state’s largest teachers union – the 310,000-member-strong California Teacher Association – has recommended an endorsement of his campaign. The union’s state council will vote on whether to confirm the endorsement this week. Every state superintendent candidate endorsed by the CTA has won for nearly 30 years.  

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