The Mess in California Schools

[Want even more content from FPM? Sign up for FPM+ to unlock exclusive series, virtual town-halls with our authors, and more—now for just $3.99/month. Click here to sign up.]

For many years, Mississippi schools were among the worst in the nation. However, in 2024, test scores in both fourth-grade math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) increased significantly, surpassing those of California’s fourth-graders.

In math, Mississippi is now ranked 16th nationally, while California is 43rd. More stunningly, Mississippi ranks 7th in reading, whereas California is 39th.

Why did historically low-performing Mississippi advance in reading?

Per-pupil spending and teacher pay are certainly not the reasons. California is 20th in the nation in per-pupil spending, while Mississippi is 44th. The average teacher salary in California for the 2023-2024 school year was the highest in the U.S. at $101,084 per year. In contrast, Mississippi’s average educator makes just $53,704, 48th in the country.

The reason for the dramatic shift is that Mississippi passed the Literacy-Based Promotion Act, a landmark education reform law, in 2013. The law ensures that all students read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. This sweeping set of reforms includes requiring schools to focus heavily on phonics-based instruction, also known as the “Science of Reading.”

Additionally, Mississippi ended the practice of promoting third graders who couldn’t read proficiently. Instead, the state invested in specialized reading coaches rather than expanding central office bureaucracies, and demanded excellence, provided targeted support, and held students, teachers, and administrators accountable.

Notably, the success wasn’t limited to one demographic. Black students in Mississippi matched the broader gains, demonstrating that when high expectations are set for Black children, they rise to meet them.

What is California doing to support student literacy?

Not much. Currently, 81% of school districts in California don’t teach the Science of Reading, according to research by the California Reading Coalition, a literacy advocacy group. A recent bill in the California state legislature to mandate the Science of Reading stalled.

The California Teachers Association, the state’s powerful teachers’ union, opposes reading instruction mandates, arguing that teachers, not legislators, are best positioned to assess the needs of individual students and require maximum flexibility in the classroom.

California has passed a slew of politically motivated education laws, however. For example, the passage of AB 800 in 2023 requires juniors and seniors to be taught about their workplace rights, the achievements of organized labor, and students’ right to join a union.

In October 2023, Assembly Bill 873 became law, stipulating that media literacy skills must now be taught in California schools. The law requires that this be done not in a stand-alone class, but rather woven into existing English language arts, science, math, and history classes.

In 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1955 into state law. This deplorable legislation bars school districts from requiring staff to notify parents if their child decides to change their gender. No other state in the country has passed such a drastic law. The “Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act” explicitly forbids schools from adopting any policies that require them to disclose “any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.”

In 2025, several education bills were signed into law, ranging from rules to protect young people from being outed against their will to regulations that require elementary schools to offer free menstruation products.

In other California education news, a recent headline blared, “Massive teacher layoffs in California are devastating, chaotic, and detrimental to student learning conditions.” The writer explains that in March, approximately 2,300 California school employees received preliminary layoff notices as the state implements a series of cost-cutting measures to balance the budget.

Most of the hysterics don’t acknowledge that many school districts are overstaffed, due in part to the expiring $190 billion federal COVID relief funds. It’s worth noting that in most of the country, where teacher union contracts are in play, layoffs are based on seniority, not teacher quality. Hence, in California, students will suffer not because of fewer teachers but rather fewer good ones.

Additionally, a significant contributor to the need for fewer teachers in California is the decline in the student population. While there were 6.3 million students enrolled in the 2006-2007 academic year, the number has since decreased to 5.8 million, and the state projects it will fall to 5.3 million by 2031.

As the Public Policy Institute of California notes, falling birth rates, reduced international migration to California, and continued outmigration to other states are the primary drivers of enrollment declines.

The major cities in California have been particularly hard-hit.

In 2002, Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district, was home to 746,831 students. However, as of January 31, the number of enrolled students has decreased to 408,083. The decline, which accelerated during the pandemic and then slowed, has since increased again.

As disclosed by The 74, nearly half of the 225 campuses of L.A.’s 456 zoned elementary schools are half-empty or worse, and 56 have seen their rosters decline by 70% or more. To preserve the quality of instruction, some of the district’s public schools may soon need to be shuttered.

It’s not only Los Angeles that’s in trouble. EdSource’s John Fensterwald reported in March that Oakland, San Francisco, and Hayward have joined four smaller districts on the “five-alarm fire list” of the state’s most financially stressed districts—those flirting with insolvency.

“They join 32 districts on a second, cautionary list where there’s smoke but no fiscal flames—yet. The second list, released last week, includes Sacramento Unified, several small rural districts where a small drop in enrollment can pose a financial threat, and two San Jose elementary districts, Alum Rock and Franklin-McKinley, which are closing multiple schools in the fall. Not on the list so far this year is West Contra Costa Unified, which is struggling to stay afloat and received a special ‘lack of going concern’ designation the past three years.”

Some school districts are offering retirement buyouts and/or laying off teachers, counselors, and other staff because salaries account for approximately 80% of overall costs.

It’s not only education in California that is in an advanced state of disrepair. The state has many other areas of self-inflicted wounds, which I will address in a future post.