California Gov. Gavin Newsom has released a new multibillion-dollar education budget for the state. The spending proposals are getting mixed reactions. Newsom is being praised for addressing special education, pregnancy leave and discretionary spending, but criticized for deferring billions in constitutionally mandated funding and failing to tap into federal funding.

Supporters laud special education funding, pregnancy leave increases

Newsom’s recently announced May revision to his previous January budget proposal — the last budget before the governor retires due to California term limits — is being celebrated for its “historic” $2.4 billion allocation to special education in California, up from $509 million in the January version of the budget.

California State Assembly Member Darshana Patel said the budget is important in the context of the federal government not fulfilling its required funding levels for special education in the state.

“The federal government has consistently failed to meet its funding obligations, leaving California and other states alone to close critical gaps and leaving too many students with disabilities without the support they deserve,” Patel, a San Diego Democrat who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, said. “This historic $2.4 billion investment in special education will better serve students with disabilities and the educators who support them.”

Newsom’s budget is also being praised for including 14 weeks of paid pregnancy leave for teachers. This would be a major change from the current system, in which leave for pregnant teachers or those who recently gave birth is subtracted from sick leave days, with any additional leave subject to “differential pay,” in which the cost of a substitute is deducted from the teacher’s pay.

Past attempts to implement 14 weeks of paid pregnancy leave were vetoed by Newsom in 2019 and didn’t make it past the state Senate in 2024. Advocates therefore credit sustained activism by the California Teachers Association for the change.

“Thousands of CTA members shared their story, signed petitions, showed up to the Capitol to fight for pregnancy leave,” said CTA Secretary-Treasurer Erika Jones.

The new budget also includes $6.4 billion in discretionary funding for school districts and a larger-than-expected cost-of-living increase for schools.

Conservatives and liberals criticize gaps in Newsom’s education budget

While these boosts to spending for students with disabilities, pregnant teachers and more are being praised, Newsom’s budget is also coming under criticism from multiple organizations.

Advocacy groups are criticizing Newsom’s budget for making cuts to child care and preschool, as well as what some see as inadequate funding for English and bilingual education.

Meanwhile, the conservative California Policy Center is criticizing Newsom for failing to tap into a Trump administration program that provides states with “school choice” tax credits.

“That would bring billions of dollars into our school system, whether it is private, public or charter,” California Policy Center head Lance Christensen argued.

Additionally, critics of the new budget argue that Newsom is improperly holding back billions of dollars in education funding guaranteed under Proposition 98, a 1988 amendment to the California Constitution that requires 40% of the state’s general fund to go to various education programs.

The mix of spending increases and cuts in Newsom’s education proposal highlights several, sometimes competing, factors and motivations behind the budget.

Despite the overall size of the spending proposal, Newsom’s revision balances California’s budget in the short term and cuts spending deficits in half in the long term. The size of the budget reflects greater-than-expected revenue for the state, partially fueled by taxes from the current AI boom.

The fiscal caution, however, comes from broader political uncertainty tied to Trump administration policies that could negatively impact California, such as endangering health insurance for millions of the state’s residents, as well as uncertainty surrounding events such as the war with Iran.

The budget may set up clashes with the state’s Democratic legislators, many of whom favor more spending for education as well as other policy areas such as healthcare.

Members of Newsom’s own party may be pushing for more spending, even as conservatives want him to tap into a key program backed by his political rival, President Donald Trump. Nevertheless, advocates for special education, pregnant teachers and more have reasons to be excited about the governor’s new budget, even as critics worry it does not go far enough in some areas.