• Support educators by giving them a competitive wage and benefits; investing in teacher mentoring, leadership and professional learning; student loan assistance for teachers.
• Invest in resources for schools by tripling funding for Title I and requiring districts to use these funds to offer educators competitive salaries and make other critical investments prior to directing the funds to other purposes; doubling the number of psychologists, counselors, nurses, social workers and other health professionals; expand the community school model; and investing in upgrading school facilities.
• Ensure that no child’s future is determined by their zip code, parents’ income, race or disability by eliminating the funding gap between white and non-white districts, and rich and poor districts; improving teacher diversity through more innovative approaches; building new schools in low-income communities; reinstating the Obama-Biden Administration’s actions to diversify schools; and fully fund the federal portion of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act within 10 years.
• Provide every middle and high school student a path to a successful career by investing in vocational training and partnerships between high schools, community colleges and employers; and creating more opportunities for high school students to take practical classes that lead to credentials.
• Start investing in our children at birth by providing high-quality, universal pre-kindergarten for all three- and four-year-olds; provide early childhood development support to families at the pediatrician’s office; and expand home visiting under which health and child development specialists make consistent, scheduled visits to help parents through the critical early stage of parenting.

Proposition 15: Schools & Communities First initiative. When voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978, they dramatically shrank the funding base for public schools and community colleges in California by allowing landowners to pay taxes based on a property’s original purchase price instead of its market value. Prop. 15 would have expanded that base again by assessing commercial property tax based on market value for businesses that own California property worth more than $3 million, while allowing homeowners to keep their tax breaks. The tax change could have generated up to $4.6 billion in new funding for K-12 schools (89 percent) and community colleges (11 percent), according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates. Proposition 15 failed with 51.8 percent ‘no’ votes.

Prop. 16: Affirmative Action. Prop. 16 would once again have allowed public colleges to consider race, gender, ethnicity and national origin in admissions and hiring decisions, reversing a constitutional amendment banning the practice in 1996 when voters passed Prop. 209. Since that time, enrollment of Black, Latino and Native American students dropped by an average of 12 percent across the University of California system, according to the university, and while numbers have rebounded somewhat since, those groups are still underrepresented at UC compared with their share of California’s population. Prop. 16 failed with 56.5 percent ‘no’ votes.

Prop. 18: 17-year-old voters. Prop. 18 would allow 17-year-olds who will be 18 at the time of the general election to vote in the state primary and special elections. Supporters argue that this will allow young people to vote on important matters that directly affect them. Some studies have shown that people who vote from a young age are more likely to continue voting and that 17-year-olds score as well on civic knowledge as voters in their early 20s. Eighteen states have similar measures in place, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Prop. 18 failed with 55.5 percent ‘no’ votes.