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Data Hit

CalFresh is a Key Support for K-12 Students from Multilingual Homes

April 2024 | By Jonathan Kaplan and Monica Saucedo

Daycare children are seen sitting around a table eating their lunch. They are dressed casually and have healthy eating choices on the table in front of them as they talk amongst themselves.

who are k-12 students from multilingual homes?

Students from multilingual homes are 5 to 18 years of age who attend a public K-12 school and speak a language other than English at home.

Millions of California students come to school with an invaluable asset: living in homes where a language other than English is spoken. Ensuring these students can leverage their linguistic assets and succeed at school requires meeting their basic needs, including sufficient access to food.

Access to affordable food is essential for everyone, especially for school-aged children. The CalFresh program helps Californians put food on the table by providing monthly benefits for people with low incomes, including K-12 students and their families.

More than 1 out of every 4 California K-12 public school students (27.6%) who live in homes where a language other than English is spoken participate in CalFresh, providing vital food assistance to the households of more than 650,000 students.

CalFresh is a critical part of the social safety net that combats poverty and helps students attend and succeed in school. By providing additional resources for food, CalFresh also frees up household resources for other basic needs such as rent, utilities, or medical care. Meeting the basic needs of many students from multilingual households would be more challenging without the support CalFresh provides.

Support for this report was provided by The Sobrato Family Foundation.

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California was home to over 11 million immigrants in 2023, making up 28% of the state population — the largest percentage of immigrant residents of any state.

Immigrants are essential to California’s labor force, with a total of 6.1 million immigrants employed in California from 2021 to 2023, representing 1 in 3 workers in the state. Immigrants and children of immigrants made up over half of all California workers during this same period. In addition, nearly half (45%) of working households in California included immigrants in 2023.

Immigrants are vital in creating the vibrant, prosperous communities and strong workforce that propelled California into becoming the fifth largest economy in the world. Recognizing the invaluable cultural and economic wealth immigrants bring to the state, policymakers should continue ending immigration status exclusions from our safety net programs to ensure all Californians have access to the supports they need to thrive.

Poverty & Inequality

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The Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) program is a critical lifeline that assists over 1 million low-income individuals with disabilities and adults age 65 or older in California by covering expenses such as housing, food, and other essential living costs.

The fiscal year 2021-22 state budget included a significant SSP grant increase of 24%, which became effective on January 1, 2022. This increase has helped to reduce the disparity between grant levels and the Federal Poverty Line (FPL). However, many participants in the program still struggle to afford basic necessities like rent.

Despite the recent increase, grant levels remain insufficient due to damaging budget cuts made by the state during the Great Recession. During this period, the state eliminated the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the SSP grant. Had the COLA been preserved, grant levels would have already exceeded the FPL. Restoring the COLA can ensure that grants keep up with rising costs especially given recent inflation trends.

Safety Net

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California’s aid to low-income seniors and people with disabilities cannot compete with the high cost of housing. The Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) grants help over 1 million low-income older adults and people with disabilities pay for housing and other necessities. However, the current individual grant of $1,183 is less than the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a studio apartment in 25 counties.

Cuts during the Great Recession still impact the SSI/SSP program today. During this period, the state repealed the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the SSP grant. Had the COLA been protected, the SSP grant would be almost double what it is today.

Boosting the SSI/SSP grant levels is essential to helping low-income Californians make ends meet. Along with protecting recent improvements, state leaders can take further action by increasing the maximum grant for individuals and restoring the annual state COLA. 

Safety Net

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key takeaway

Income inequality in California widened during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the richest 1% taking home a record share of statewide income. Policymakers can address this by closing tax loopholes for the wealthy and profitable corporations.

California’s rich got richer during the pandemic. Recent data show that in 2021, when many Californians were struggling amid the COVID-19 recession, the share of statewide income going to the richest 1% spiked to a new high. The top 1% held nearly one-third (30.5%) of all income reported for state tax purposes that year — up from 23% in 2019 and their highest share on record (data before 1970 were not available). In fact, the top 1% held more income in 2021 than they did in 2000, at the peak of the dot-com boom.

Income inequality worsened in the pandemic. The average income of Californians in the top 1% rose from $2.3 million to $3.6 million between 2019 and 2021, while it declined for middle-income Californians, from $46,600 to $46,400. As a result, the top 1% had 78 times the income of middle-income Californians, on average, in 2021, up from 49 times the income just two years earlier. In fact, the average Californian in the top 1% earned in just five days what the average middle-income Californian earned in a year.

Californians want state policymakers to reduce inequality. Strong majorities of Californians know that income inequality has worsened and they want state policymakers to do more to address this problem, according to polling by PPIC. State leaders can do this by closing tax loopholes that favor the wealthy and profitable corporations in order to prioritize the significant investments needed to make housing, health care, child care, and other basic needs affordable for all Californians.

related content

Learn how California tax breaks are distributed in our Data Hit: Less Than 2% of State Tax Breaks Go to Californians with Low Incomes.

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key takeaway

California’s refundable tax credits for low-income residents make up a small fraction — less than 2% — of the state’s nearly $80 billion of tax breaks, which disproportionately benefit profitable corporations and the wealthy.

California’s three refundable tax credits — the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC), the Young Child Tax Credit, and the Foster Youth Tax Credit — are the only credits that benefit people with very low incomes.

Yet, these credits make up less than 2% of the nearly $80 billion total cost of state tax breaks for individuals and businesses. Many of these other tax breaks largely benefit high-income individuals and profitable corporations.

Everyone deserves an opportunity to achieve economic security. State leaders can make the tax system more fair by expanding credits that reach Californians with low incomes.

A donut chart showing the estimated cost of tax breaks in the fiscal year 2023-24 where tax credits for Californians with low incomes make up less than two percent of individual and business income tax breaks.
Taxes & Revenue

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California’s subsidized child care providers deserve fair and just wages for their essential work that helps children learn and grow. These early educators  — who are primarily women and disproportionately women of color — offer affordable early care and learning options for working families struggling to make ends meet.

“Payment rates for voucher-based providers have not kept pace with the rising minimum wage.”

State leaders have not consistently and adequately increased provider payment rates. For example, since 2016-17 payment rates for voucher-based providers have not kept pace with the rising minimum wage, one of the major costs of providing care. Since 2016-17, the state’s minimum wage has increased by more than 50%.

A bar chart showing the percent change from 2016-17 to 2022-23 in regional market rate ceilings for selected counties where payment rate increases for voucher-based child care providers have fallen short of increases to the minimum wage.

Recent budget actions initiated a process for long-term rate reform. However, providers and the families they serve cannot wait for fair compensation. Policymakers should significantly increase rates in 2023-24 to ensure child care providers can keep up with costs, keep their doors open, and continue to offer invaluable care to children and families.

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Corporations are contributing roughly half as much of their California profits in state taxes than four decades ago. In the early 1980s, corporations paid more than 9.5% of their profits in state corporation taxes. In contrast, corporations paid just 4.9% of their California profits in corporation taxes in 2020.

Corporations pay less of their income in taxes today than the 1980s in part due to tax rate reductions by state policymakers. Policymakers have also enacted several tax breaks that reduce the share of corporate income paid in California corporation taxes, such as the research and development tax credit.

“Did you know? California’s budget would have recevied $14.5 billion more in revenue in 2020 had corporations paid their fair share of income taxes. ”
A line chart showing corporate taxes as a percentage of income for corporations reporting net income in California where the share of corporate income paid in state taxes declined by roughly half between the early 1908s and 2020.

California’s budget would have received $14.5 billion more revenue in 2020 had corporations paid the same share of their income in taxes that year as they did in 1981 – more than the state spends on the University of California, the California State University, and student aid combined. 

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