SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday unveiled a sweeping proposal to overtake how California’s schooling system is ruled, calling for structural modifications that he stated would shift oversight of the Division of Training and redefine the function of the state’s elected faculties chief.
The proposal, which is a part of Newsom’s state price range plan that shall be launched Friday, would unify the policymaking State Board of Training with the division, which is answerable for finishing up these insurance policies. The governor stated the change would higher align schooling efforts from early childhood by faculty.
“California can now not postpone reforms which were really useful frequently for a century,” Newsom stated in a press release. “These crucial reforms will convey higher accountability, readability, and coherence to how we serve our college students and faculties.”
Few particulars had been offered about how the function of the state superintendent of public instruction would change, past a higher give attention to fostering coordination and aligning schooling coverage.
The modifications would require approval from state lawmakers, who shall be within the state Capitol on Thursday for Newsom’s final State of the State speech in his remaining yr as governor.
The proposal would implement suggestions from a 2002 report by the state Legislature, titled “California’s Grasp Plan for Training,” which described the state’s Okay-12 governance as fragmented and “with overlapping roles that generally function in battle with each other, to the detriment of the academic providers provided to college students.” Newsom’s workplace stated comparable considerations have been raised repeatedly since 1920 and had been echoed once more in a December 2025 report by analysis heart Coverage Evaluation for California Training.
“The sobering actuality of California’s schooling system is that too few faculties can now present the situations by which the State can pretty ask college students to study to the very best requirements, not to mention put together themselves to fulfill their future studying wants,” the Legislature’s 2002 report said. These most harmed are sometimes low-income college students and college students of coloration, the report added.
“California’s schooling governance system is advanced and too typically creates challenges for varsity leaders,” Edgar Zazueta, govt director of the Assn. of California College Directors, stated in a press release offered by Newsom’s workplace. “As duties and calls for on faculties proceed to extend, educators want governance methods which might be designed to raised assist optimistic pupil outcomes.”
The present price range allotted $137.6 billion for schooling from transitional kindergarten by the twelfth grade — the very best per-pupil funding degree in state historical past — and Newsom’s workplace stated his proposal is meant to make sure these investments translate into extra constant assist and improved outcomes statewide.
“For many years the fragmented and inefficient construction overseeing our public schooling system has hindered our college students’ means to succeed and thrive,” Ted Lempert, president of advocacy group Kids Now, stated in a press release offered by the governor’s workplace. “Main reform is important, and we’re thrilled that the Governor is tackling this difficulty to enhance our youngsters’ schooling.”
