Steve Hilton, Republican candidate for governor, recently decried the state of education in California. “Two out of every three Black students in California do not meet basic English standards,” he wrote.
In reality, the problem is much worse.
Consider this. In July, the Associated Press reported that California’s reading scores “have been inching upwards,” even if they hadn’t yet caught up to the “Mississippi Miracle” in education.
The AP noted that in 2013, California ranked 47th nationally in fourth-grade reading skills, with only 40% of students reading at grade level. In 2025, that rose to 46% of students reading at grade level.
That is just a 6% increase in 13 years for fourth-graders.
As for the Mississippi miracle, in roughly the same time frame, fourth-graders showed the highest growth in the nation in reading and math. They also moved from the bottom of the rankings to above the national average for the first time.
So, what’s wrong with California?
First, California waited years to get behind the push for phonics, the old-fashioned approach to reading that was at the core of Mississippi’s improvement.
Second, Mississippi holds back third-grade students if they don’t pass their reading requirements. They want results. Nobody passes for social reasons or to make schools look better than they are. There is real accountability.
California doesn’t do that, which is significant because fourth grade is a “key benchmark” for educational achievement. If kids can’t read by fourth grade, they fall behind in other subjects as well, and the shortfall becomes much more difficult to address.
Fourth grade is the magic moment, and California is missing it.
Beyond those problems, there are California’s self-destructive “sanctuary state” policies.
It is no secret that California has very liberal policies toward illegal immigrants. The state provides huge benefits to people who are here illegally.
Those policies impact the schools as well.
According to the California Department of Education, “In the 2022-23 school year, there were approximately 1.113 million English learners in California public schools,” which represents “19.01% of the total enrollment in California public schools.”
It stands to reason that if nearly 20% of your public school students need to learn English, it is likely they are not able to read at grade level. That dynamic also holds back other students, since teachers need to devote more attention to the students that are falling behind.
According to retiring Antioch High School teacher Pamela Swicegood, “As an educator and a teacher of an 11th-grade College Preparatory Course, I want my students to learn. However, in any given year I have had five or six students who do not speak or read English. That not only places them in a difficult environment but limits my ability to help students who need that course for college.”
California is the richest state in the nation. It has a budget greater than $350 billion. And under Proposition 98, 40% of the general fund must go to schools. But the state hasn’t sufficiently prioritized the basics in education.
Instead, California finds itself spending time and money on other priorities, such as controversies over whether teachers or students should have the final say on whether parents can find out if their children are trying to change their genders at school.
It also has to spend more on teaching children whose families arrived illegally.
The irony is that a black child in Mississippi may have a better shot at a good education than a black child in California.
Don’t look for any of that to change if voters don’t make a change this fall in who runs the state.
Thomas Del Beccaro is the chairman of Californians for Election Fairness.
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