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CA Lawmakers Added $2.7B for Schools. Newsom Must Sign Off.

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California’s Legislature Voted to Add $2.7B More for Schools Than Newsom Proposed

California’s Legislature passed a $356 billion state budget in June 2025 that proposes significantly more education spending than Governor Gavin Newsom asked for, but Newsom holds the pen. The final budget requires his signature, and negotiations between the governor’s office and legislative leaders were still active heading into the July 1 fiscal year deadline.

The gap between the two plans on education is not small. Newsom proposed cutting 6,800 state-supported child care slots. Legislative Democrats rejected that entirely and went the other direction, proposing to add 22,000 subsidized child care spaces over the coming years. On K-12 schools and community colleges, lawmakers put forward $2.7 billion more than Newsom’s proposal.

$2.7 billion

The amount California’s Legislature added above Newsom’s proposed education budget for TK-12 schools and community colleges, per CalMatters reporting from June 2025.

That gap matters because child care access directly affects workforce participation, especially for low-income families who depend on subsidized slots. Cutting those slots, as Newsom originally proposed, would have pushed families off waitlists and reduced available care for working parents. The legislative plan moves in the opposite direction.

State Sen. John Laird, the Santa Cruz Democrat who chairs the Senate budget committee, described the legislature’s posture plainly:

“I don’t think it’s about Gavin Newsom. It’s really about trying to stretch as far as we can in the hope that we don’t have to make those cuts.”

Sen. John Laird, Chair, Senate Budget Committee, CalMatters, June 2025

Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers and passed the budget without Republican support. But a supermajority in the legislature does not override the governor’s veto authority. Newsom can reject the plan or use his line-item veto to strip specific spending provisions, including the child care expansion and the additional school funding.

The two sides did find common ground in some areas. Both Newsom and the legislature backed $300 million to subsidize private healthcare for low-income Californians and agreed on three new tax measures. The education spending dispute represents one of the clearest dividing lines in negotiations.

Note: This brief covers budget negotiations from June 2025. The 2025-26 California budget was subsequently finalized. The core policy questions around child care funding and K-12 investment remain active in California’s ongoing 2026-27 budget cycle.

What You Can Do Now

  1. Call Governor Newsom’s office at (916) 445-2841 and tell staff you support the legislature’s proposal to add 22,000 subsidized child care slots rather than cutting 6,800. Be specific: ask the governor to preserve child care funding in the final signed budget.

  2. Contact your California state assemblymember or senator. Find them at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov. Tell them you want the $2.7 billion education increase to survive budget negotiations and not be traded away in the final deal with the governor.

  3. Submit public comment to the California Department of Finance, which coordinates executive budget decisions. Their public-facing contact page is at dof.ca.gov. Specifically reference child care slot expansion under the subsidized child care program and TK-12 per-pupil funding levels.

  4. Check the California Budget & Policy Center’s tracker at calbudgetcenter.org for analysis of how the final signed budget compares to both proposals on child care and school funding. Their breakdowns show the dollar impact per program, which you can cite when contacting your representative.

Sources

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