Senate Budget Panel Reviews Governor's Literacy Package: $500 million for Coaches, $25 million for Statewide Network

Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 1 on Education members heard detailed presentations on the governor's literacy proposals, which combine a statewide coordination effort, expanded coaching programs, screening tools for early grades and supplemental guidance for English language arts and English language development materials. The administration told the panel it expects the measures to align existing initiatives and improve early reading outcomes.

The nut of the governor's package, as laid out by Hugo Solis Galiana of the Department of Finance, includes a $25,000,000 one-time Proposition 98 General Fund appropriation to the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) to convene a statewide literacy network, plus $500,000,000 one-time Proposition 98 General Fund to expand the literacy coaches and reading specialists program and to establish a new math coaches program. Solis Galiana said the network would "convene literacy leads to support statewide implementation of evidence based practices aligned to the English language arts slash English language development framework, the English learner roadmap, the literacy roadmap, and the use of data to support effective instruction." He also described a $40,000,000 one-time Proposition 98 General Fund proposal to support locally administered K–2 literacy screeners.

The Department of Finance outlined the coaches funding as a roughly $235,000,000 allocation for expanded literacy coaches and…