The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted California students’ and families’ lives — affecting learning, upending social and emotional support systems, and creating a caregiving crisis. Students have also missed out on expanded learning opportunities, such as before and after school, summer, and intersession programs. Expanded learning programs offer academic enrichment for over 900,000 students throughout the year.
Ensuring every student has the chance to succeed across California’s schools is the key to broadening opportunity as well as to providing our state with the skilled, productive workforce necessary to drive long-term economic growth. By analyzing state spending and other policies related to K-12 schools, community colleges, and the CSU and UC systems, the Budget Center highlights how California can strengthen its most basic investment in the state’s future and improve outcomes for all students, especially first-generation college students and those who have not been provided equitable opportunities.
Featured Resources
Press Release
New Report: Opportunity Gap Grows for California’s K-12 Students
SACRAMENTO – The Budget Center released a new report — Distance Learning & the Digital Divide — highlighting the racial and economic inequities blocking millions of K-12 students’ ability to log on and learn from their homes.
Fact Sheet
Distance Learning & the Digital Divide
As California students of all ages cannot fully return to classrooms due to the COVID-19 pandemic, learning from home and the technology needed exposes the state’s digital divide. Distance learning requires computers, tablets, or other devices as well as a reliable, high-speed internet connection, but inequitable access to this technology creates a persistent digital divide that disproportionately affects low-income, Black, and Latinx students. This digital divide was affecting students’ academic achievement before the pandemic, and distance learning has likely exacerbated these existing disparities.
Data Hit
California’s Latinx, Black, Native American, and Pacific Islander Students Disproportionately Experience Homelessness
Nearly 270,000 of California’s public K-12 students experienced homelessness in 2018-19. This includes children temporarily staying with other families due to economic hardship, and children living in motels, shelters, vehicles, public spaces, or substandard housing.
Report
Dollars, Democracy, and K-12 Education
Building off of the California Budget & Policy Center’s Dollars and Democracy: A Guide to the State Budget Process, this presentation focuses on the K-12 experience and explains why the state budget matters for California’s K-12 students and families, teachers, and schools. The goal is to help the many people who come into contact with their K-12 schools understand the state budget process and recognize opportunities for community engagement as decisions about dollars for students and schools are decided by state policymakers.