A new analysis from The 74 found over 1,400 California K-12 schools lost more than 20% of their students since the pandemic, highlighting struggles relating to the state’s low birthrate, high outmigration, and parents pulling their students out of the public school system. Of the over 1,400 schools with a decline of 25% or more, 125 are in Los Angeles Unified School District, which is the second largest school district in the nation. LAUSD’s decline is only eclipsed by New York City Public Schools, which had 270 schools facing such a decline.

California governor Gavin Newsom proposed a $292 billion state budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, driving economists to wonder why he plans only $8.5 billion in real spending cuts against what the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office says is a projected $68 billion deficit. Newsom hit back against the LAO, claiming the state’s deficit is only $37.8 billion. Join Skillshare today: skillshare.eqcm.net/ATN

In 2024, as the possibility of a Donald Trump/Joe Biden presidential rematch looks more and more possible, the University of California system will take on a prominent role in national politics, not for cutting edge political science research, legal theories or technology, but as a cash cow. In the 2016 presidential cycle, according to federal records compiled by OpenSecrets.org, University of California staffers gave nearly $5 million to Democrats, nearly 97% of their total political giving. In the 2020 election cycle, giving to Democrats nearly quadrupled to $19.8 million, this time, more than 97% of total giving. If University of California donations continue on that trajectory, Democrats could receive an unprecedented – and publicly funded – windfall of nearly $80 million dollars.

After national outrage over California providing billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants, one state legislator introduced a bill to “revoke all taxpayer funding for health care for illegal immigrants in the California State Budget.” According to State Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R–Woodcrest, California provision of taxpayer-financed healthcare to illegal immigrants will cost $4 billion as the state faces a $68 billion budget deficit for the 2024-2025 fiscal year. 

Los Angeles Police Department’s oversight committee approved new guidelines allowing illegal immigrant police officers to be armed at all times. In 2022, California passed a law allowing those authorized to work under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order for those who entered the country illegally as minors to become police officers. LAPD graduated its first DACA recipient earlier this year, and is set to graduate a class of nine DACA recipients in spring of 2024, thus making the question of whether or not DACA recipients should be able to carry their firearms off duty a matter of serious debate. 

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against California’s wide-ranging ban on concealed carry users bringing their weapons to a number of public and private places ranging from public transit to parks, stadiums and banks. SB 2, passed in 2023, bans concealed carry permit holders in California from bringing their firearms to 26 places, including, hospitals, public transportation, places that sell liquor for on-site consumption, playgrounds, parks, casinos, stadiums, libraries, amusement parks, zoos, places of worship, and banks. In California, concealed carry applicants must undergo thorough background checks that include interviews, fingerprinting, reviews through multiple government databases, and pass a state-certified full-day handgun training program designed for concealed carry permit holders.

In response so the state’s looming $68 billion deficit, California Senate Republicans urged governor Gavin Newsom to make immediate changes to the ongoing year’s budget beyond the already-initiated budget freeze, claiming “Failing to act now will lead to increased instability in future budgets and impact the functions and services the state provides.” After the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office announced the state entered a recession in March 2023 and would experience a $26 billion revenue shortfall in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, it also estimated that, absent any changes to spending, the state is likely to face a $68 billion budget deficit for the upcoming 2024-2025 fiscal year currently being planned for. 

California Republican legislators are urging the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission to analyze retail theft and how Proposition 47, which largely decriminalized drug use and reduces theft under $950, even for serial offenders, to a misdemeanor, impacts retail theft, and recommend policy solutions. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, reported shoplifting increased 61% from 2019 through 2023 in Los Angeles.  While the LHC is already holding hearings on retail theft, the Republican letter demands that Prop 47 and what they claim are decreases in reporting of theft due to lack of consequences for criminals be considered in the commission’s analysis.

A “professional tenant” in Los Angeles with four evictions over 12 years who was finally evicted from her apartment after accumulating over $100,000 in unpaid rent and driving the landlord to engage in 9 months of litigation, highlighting the current balance of tenant-owner relations in California. When one roommate in a three-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica 10 blocks from the beach departed, the remaining tenants took to Craigslist to find a third roommate without having the individual vetted and approved by their landlord. This new tenant paid for the first month’s rent and security deposit, then never paid another penny, driving out the other two tenants with her “very rude” behavior, leaving her as the only occupant as she accumulated over $100,000 in unpaid rent, filling up the entire apartment with her possessions, from high-end groceries to heaps of clothes.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates the state will have a $26 billion revenue shortfall for the 2022-2023 fiscal year and announced the state entered into a recession in March of 2023. State Republicans blame Newsom and California Democrats for nearly doubling the state’s budget over the last six years and called for reductions in government programs to protect critical government functions from severe budget cuts. The LAO estimates that if spending remains unchanged, the state is likely to have a $26 billion shortfall for 2022-2023, $19.1 billion for 2023-2024, and $13.3 billion for 2024-2025, totaling a $58 billion shortfall over the next three years.