California is the fourth largest economy in the world, but when it comes to the percentage of a state’s Gross State Product (GSP) dedicated to our public schools, California ranks 43rd out of 50. We use less than 3 percent of the state’s GSP to fund our schools. A $4 trillion economy, the largest sub-national economy globally, should be able to provide a world-class education for all its students. And yet, our public schools face so many challenges: understaffing, high turnover, ballooning class sizes, poor infrastructures, limited arts and music programs, and many others. These challenges are even more severe for low-income, Latino, and Black students, and exacerbated in our state’s urban and rural environments. A better California education is not only possible, but necessary. 

Vermont, for example, which ranks 1st in the percentage of a state’s GSP dedicated to funding its public schools, funded 6.2% of its GSP on schools. 

When Frank is SSPI, he will:

• Push for California to match Vermont’s effort, which would more than double California’s funding for schools; and

• Fight to eliminate tax breaks for California corporations, bringing in more revenue for our schools.

By better utilizing existing tax dollars to taxing corporations and the rich,  we can absolutely fully staff schools, and ensure fair wages and working conditions for all educational staff, including paraeducators, nurses, academic workers, custodians, librarians, social workers, and more.  We can provide modern schools ensuring safe, gender inclusive, clean, and functional facilities to safely support and welcome our students and families.

This commitment extends to higher education as well. The University of California, California State University, and Community College systems were designed to provide free college for all, but tuition has spiked following decades of state disinvestment. As higher education faces attacks from the Trump administration, the State of California should double the budget for the UC, CSU and CCC systems so that we can fight Trump’s billionaire agenda and expand access to higher education.

California’s students, at all ages, deserve high quality, fully-funded schools!

The US has some of the highest childcare costs in the world. With no universal childcare, the US ranks 40th on a UNICEF ranking of 41 high-income countries’ childcare policies. In 2022, New Mexico, which has a much smaller GSP than California, made childcare free for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $124,000 for a family of four. With about half of New Mexican children qualifying, the policy lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line. New Mexico also raised wages for childcare workers so that many early childhood workers were also raised out of poverty. Recently, New Mexico announced childcare would be free for ALL families, strengthening our resolve that free childcare is entirely achievable in California.

Investing in our children is the right thing to do, but it also makes economic sense: Research shows that “every dollar spent on high-quality, birth-to-five programs for disadvantaged children can deliver a 13% per annum return on investment from better education and health outcomes for children, employment gains for parents, greater economic productivity and reduced spending on healthcare and crime.”

As other states implement smart, just policies that benefit working people, we must fight for the same here. As the fourth largest economy in the world, free childcare and universal Pre-K, along with wage increases for early childcare workers, should be a priority. 

As SSPI, Frank will take inspiration from New Mexico and push for free childcare and universal Pre-K for all!

California is the state with the most billionaires, yet we have the second worst student-to-teacher ratio in the country. We’ve known the positive impact of reducing class sizes  for decades: Holding class size to eighteen or fewer students in grades k–3 produces significant benefits in both reading and math, with the greatest impacts on Black, Latino, and students from low-income backgrounds.

And yet, because small class sizes would require funding and investment in our public schools, this solution often seems idealistic rather than a pragmatic, reasonable, research-based strategy to improve outcomes for students. Despite what the research says, the present day class size maximums established in the California Education Code only restrict class sizes in K-3 classrooms below 32 and 33. And while there are financial incentives built into the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) that encourage lower class sizes in K-3 classrooms, the issue remains. Each year, rather than reduce class sizes, districts follow the lead of state policymakers and avoid this necessary intervention, instead spending millions on consultants, experimental technology, and assessment tools for which they have limited data to support. 

District and state funds should go towards supporting our students in the researched, proven way we know how, rather than on trends and gimmicks. When Frank is SSPI, class size will be reduced to eighteen or fewer k-3, 20 or fewer for grades 4-8, and 25 or fewer for grades 9-12.

Schools must be empowered and supported to build strong and intentional community partnerships that ensure that school learning also focuses on the whole child and family development. Community schools will be able to dynamically respond to a community's unique needs, assets, and aspirations. As SSPI, Frank will support and champion the four pillars of community schools: integrated student support, family and community engagement, collaborative leadership, and extended learning time and opportunities.

Community schools should be welcoming, safe, and affirming spaces for students and families across race, gender, sexuality, ability, and all spectrums of identity. Meeting the growing needs of our students and families not only guarantees that they have access to a quality education, but also guarantees access to what is necessary to thrive in a complex world. Empowering our communities to develop the community schools they want and need will require investments in the many services our students and families interact with daily. 

As SSPI, Frank would help redefine what a school can look like when it meets the community where it’s at, and actively serves the community’s needs. He will support and push for extended learning opportunities in all subject areas, including arts, sports, and technology both during and after the school day so that students can explore and find their passions and live a balanced and healthy life. These centers of learning and innovation will be fully staffed by union workers, who will receive quality training on how to best support students outside of the traditional school day.

For over 50 years, the federal government has promised to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and that promise has never been kept. Federal funding, which is now threatened due to the dismantling of the Department of Education, has only ever covered less than 13 percent of the cost of educating students with disabilities. 

When Frank is SSPI, he will push for California to fill the gaps the federal government leaves and fully fund special education, while also pushing the federal government to fulfill its promise. Fully funding special education and making it a priority of the California Department of Education would mean access to qualified educators (who would receive specialized training through state-funded educational and career pathways), early identification of special needs, and early interventions that ensure students can reach their full potential, regardless of their identification. 

Additionally, Frank will call for fair assessments that would  end the overrepresentation of Black and Brown students in Special Education. He will address the racist practices that often qualify poor children who have experienced trauma with labels like Emotional Disturbance.

We believe all students deserve a quality educational experience; fully funding special education and addressing racial inequities is an important step towards turning that belief into reality.

Many countries across the globe have made college free for their people. but California falls short. In addition to the United States having some of the most expensive tuition in the world, attending college in California costs 11.32% more than the national average cost of attendance at a public 4-year institution. As the fourth largest economy in the world, there is no reason why California can’t make college free. Rather than making students choose between debt and a life without a college degree or technical training, we believe all students should be able to access high-quality experiences in higher education. These costs directly impact the K-12 education system as well: California has a massive teacher shortage, yet because of the outrageous costs of college and graduate school, entering the teaching profession can be prohibitively expensive.

The California Department of Education should pay special attention to teacher education programs and other educational pathways for school workers and educators, making sure that anyone who wants a career in education has access to the preparation, mentoring, and support necessary for them to thrive long-term. Regardless of socioeconomic background, anyone should be able to enter the education profession without financial barriers.

The SSPI also serves on the UC Board of Regents and CSU Board of Governors, bodies which routinely engage in union busting against the hundreds of thousands of UC and CSU workers.   As a long-time union leader, Frank will be an ally to UC and CSU workers and fight against bad faith tactics by university management. To support undocumented students, as SSPI Frank will fight to pass the Opportunity for All policy to ensure campus jobs are open to all students, regardless of immigration status.

Additionally, we know the importance of adult education programs outside of academia, and while the California Department of Education has adult schools, adult education programs, and technical-trade programming, these programs need to be better-funded and expanded to serve more Californians. 

When Frank is SSPI, he will push for free college for all, with special attention to teacher education programs and other pathways for educators. He will fight to support higher education workers, and will push for free and expanded adult education and technical-trade programming as well.

Schools are a place of learning that should be welcoming for all students. In the face of ICE raids and an increase in militarization of police forces in communities, there must be a clear separation between educators serving students and cops and federal agents monitoring them and their families. Cops and ICE have no place in schools, where hardworking educators and school site personnel dedicate themselves to building trust from families to make sure all students have access to a quality education and a safe environment.

Research indicates that school policing psychologically harms Black and Brown students, as well as students with disabilities and low-income students, and can actually interfere with safety rather than promote it. Research also shows there is a strong correlation between illiteracy rates and incarceration: people in prison are 13 to 24 percent more represented in the lowest levels of literacy than their non-incarcerated counterparts.

It is the duty of the California Department of Education to end the school to prison pipeline and commit every resource available to schools in addressing the root causes and societal factors students struggle with that prevent them from being safe and productive in school. As SSPI, Frank will push for policies that keep cops and ICE out of our schools completely!

While standardized tests are commonplace in California classrooms, there is little to no evidence that standardized testing provides effective information to assessing student’s learning. Research shows the “subjective” grades given by high school teachers, which are based on a broader understanding of students’ capacities, progress, and personalities, are a better predictor of college success than the “objective” SAT or ACT exams. Since their development, standardized tests in the U.S. have been epxensive instruments of racism and a culturally biased system.

More than $1.7 billion is spent on standardized testing in the US each year, and this taxpayer money, intended to fund students’ growth, is often funneled to corporations like Pearson, who profit from our overreliance on standardized tests. In addition to the once-a-year testing California students do to fulfill federal requirements, many districts have begun to require additional standardized testing throughout the year. Justified as “test prep” for students and “accountability” for educators, these tests can be grueling experiences for students, many as young as eight or nine years-old, that are neither culturally or developmentally appropriate, nor proven to be effective in improving academic outcomes. These standardized, computer-based benchmark assessments often use valuable district funds, as well as hours of precious instructional time. 

Rather than overtest our students with biased metrics that benefit billionaires, Frank will advocate for the  use of quality, project-based formative and cumulative assessments, developed by educators, students and community members, who will all be compensated for their involvement. Standardized testing should be limited– there is no reason to test every student multiple times per year.

California is one of the most diverse states in the US, with dozens of ethnicities and nationalities speaking many languages. Public education should not only teach the languages of local communities, such as Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Arabic, and Vietnamese, but the curriculum taught in schools should reflect the many communities’ contributions to the State of California. California, once a leader in bilingual programs like dual-immersion, now deals with growing teacher shortages, especially in specialty content areas like bilingual education. It’s not for a lack of will– there are many young multilingual people who would love to pursue a career in education and foster a sense of pride in multilingualism and multiculturalism in the next generation. It is because becoming an educator can be prohibitively expensive and there are extra barriers for bilingual education, like the BCLAD certification and extra CSETs. 

When Frank is SSPI, the California Department of Education will promote the creation and maintenance of language pathways, as well as support partnerships between school districts and universities to develop teaching pipelines for training bilingual educators. While some of these programs have been launched, they have not been maintained or prioritized. Frank would be committed to their implementation, and would make California a true leader in bilingual education!

In addition to expanding language pathways, Frank is committed to defending ethnic studies. California is the birthplace of ethnic studies, which is the study of the social, political, economic and historical perspectives of our nation’s diverse racial and ethnic groups, and our state should be proud of the contributions of that area of study and what it has done for students across the state. It is an established interdisciplinary field with programs, not only in colleges and universities across the country, but in K-12 education, as well. Studies show that students who participate in ethnic studies are more academically engaged, develop a stronger sense of self-efficacy and personal empowerment, perform better academically, and graduate at higher rates.

As is often the case when Black, Indigenous, people of color gain power– attacks on ethnic studies have plagued the field since its earliest days. Sadly, ethnic studies is under attack once again, from both Republicans AND Democrats in California. Today’s fight to maintain the integrity of California’s liberated ethnic studies curriculum is the next phase of the fight to defend ethnic studies, particularly against objections to the inclusion of content about Palestinian Americans in the Arab American Studies portion of the curriculum. These attacks have been vigorously and effectively opposed by student organizers, professional academic associations, unions and community organizations. 

As someone who understands firsthand the immense importance of ethnic studies, Frank knows that we cannot capitulate. The field of ethnic studies is not complete without the inclusion of content related to Palestine. Frank joins all those who reaffirm ethnic studies’ commitment to decolonization, internationalism, solidarity and justice, and who believe our students deserve a just and robust curriculum– not a curriculum that cherrypicks which struggles to highlight and which to leave out for fear of backlash.

When Frank is SSPI, he will defend liberated ethnic studies rooted in histories of struggle from the many peoples in California, the US and beyond. He will continue to defend educators who teach the truth about the Palestinian struggle and the other anti-imperialist fights of oppressed peoples around the world.

School privatization efforts across our state and the country have continued to defund our public schools, without any proven benefit to students. The school voucher movement, which has an incredibly racist history, is growing nationally, causing California schools to face an escalated threat of privatization. While we understand the many reasons families seek educational options outside the underfunded public school system, taking away funding from public schooling is not the solution. Our public schools are already extremely underfunded– all existing public funds need to be used to support public school students. By developing a quality, fully-funded education system, we will eliminate any reason to seek anything other than one’s quality neighborhood school. 

In order to “stop the bleeding” when it comes to privatization, the Frank for SSPI Campaign  proposes a statewide voucher ban, as well as a moratorium on charter schools and private schools. When Frank is SSPI, he will push for all existing charter schools and private schools to be unionized wall-to-wall, and for a regulatory system to be developed to match the regulations for public schools. Existing charter schools and private schools would no longer be able to discriminate against students with disabilities or kick out students who exhibit difficult behaviors—they will need to follow the same regulations that protect students in public schools from such measures.