THE GREAT CALIFORNIA EDUCATION HEIST: HOW A "LIBERAL" GOVERNOR JUST HANDED THE KEYS TO THE BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB
Or: When Stanford Think Tanks Write Your Budget, Democracy Takes a Permanent Vacation
The Setup: A Governor, a Think Tank, and a Very Convenient Proposal
Picture this: It's January 2026, and California Governor Gavin Newsom—fresh off another State of the State address celebrating the Golden State's "booming economy"—drops a political bombshell disguised as administrative housekeeping. He wants to strip power from the elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction and hand the entire California Department of Education to a board he personally appoints.
The justification? California's education system is too "fragmented." Too many cooks in the kitchen. Too much democracy getting in the way of efficiency.
And who, pray tell, came up with this brilliant plan to centralize power in the hands of one man (who happens to be eyeing a presidential run)?
Why, it's our old friends at PACE—the Policy Analysis for California Education—a Stanford-housed think tank that has spent decades providing the intellectual cover for every billionaire-backed assault on public schools since Proposition 13 turned California's once-gold-standard education system into a national embarrassment.
The Circular Firing Squad: How the Oligarchy Plays the Long Game
Here's how the scam works, and it's so elegant you almost have to admire the craftsmanship:
Step 1: Billionaire-funded think tanks (housed at Stanford's Hoover Institution and amplified by groups like PACE and Bellwether) spend decades publishing "research" that declares public schools are "failing" and "fragmented."
Step 2: These same think tanks propose "solutions"—charter schools, vouchers, Education Savings Accounts, and governance "reforms" that just happen to concentrate power in the hands of executives who are more easily influenced by... well, billionaires.
Step 3: Governors and legislators—many of whom receive millions from the very billionaires funding these think tanks (looking at you, Reed Hastings and the Walton Family)—adopt these proposals as their own "bold vision."
Step 4: When teachers unions, parents, and the elected Superintendent object, they're dismissed as "defenders of the status quo" or "special interests."
Step 5: Rinse, repeat, and watch as California's public education system—once the envy of the nation—continues its slow-motion collapse into a two-tiered system: premium private and charter options for the wealthy, and underfunded, over-tested holding pens for everyone else.
The PACE Playbook: Libertarian Ideology in a "Nonpartisan" Wrapper
Let's be clear about who PACE is and what they represent. While they carefully brand themselves as "nonpartisan researchers," their funding sources and policy recommendations tell a different story.
PACE operates out of Stanford University, which also houses the Hoover Institution—the West Coast headquarters of conservative and libertarian thought. Hoover's roster reads like a who's who of free-market fundamentalists: Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Condoleezza Rice, Victor Davis Hanson. These are the intellectual architects of the "government is the problem" movement that has spent 40 years trying to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society.
And what does PACE recommend? A governance structure that:
- Eliminates the only statewide education official directly accountable to voters
- Concentrates power in an appointed board controlled by the Governor
- Creates a "streamlined" system that can more easily implement market-based "reforms" like charter expansion and voucher programs
Their December 2025 report—the one Newsom is using to justify his power grab—called California's current system a "remarkably crazy quilt" of authority. The solution? Give it all to the Governor.
Because nothing says "serving the public interest" like eliminating checks and balances.
The $17,000 Trojan Horse: Vouchers Are Coming
While Newsom distracts everyone with his governance shuffle, there's a bigger threat looming on the November 2026 ballot: Initiative #25-0014, also known as the "Children's Educational Opportunity Act."
This measure would:
- Give every California family $17,000 per year in an Education Savings Account to spend on private schools, religious schools, or homeschooling
- Repeal California's constitutional ban on public funding for religious schools
- Allow unused funds to roll over for college or vocational training
Who's funding this initiative? The usual suspects: wealthy individual donors like Kevin McNamee, the Silicon Valley Chinese Association, and national "school choice" organizations with ties to the DeVos family and the Bradley Foundation.
And here's where it gets delicious: While Newsom publicly opposes vouchers, his governance proposal creates the perfect infrastructure to implement them. Once the Department of Education is under executive control, a future governor who supports vouchers would have unchecked power to redirect billions in public funds to private schools.
The California Teachers Association sees this coming. That's why they're fighting both the governance takeover and the voucher initiative. They know this is a one-two punch designed to finish off public education in California.
The $5.6 Billion Shell Game: Starving Schools While Claiming Record Funding
Here's the other shoe dropping: While Newsom brags about "record per-pupil spending" of $27,418, he's simultaneously withholding $5.6 billion in constitutionally guaranteed school funding to cover the state's budget deficit.
The California Teachers Association calls this exactly what it is: a "shell game."
Proposition 98—passed by voters in 1988—requires that a minimum percentage of state revenue go to schools. It's in the Constitution. But Newsom's budget uses accounting tricks to artificially lower the "base" funding level, which means schools will receive billions less than they're legally entitled to—not just this year, but permanently, because future calculations will be based on this artificially lowered floor.
The CTA has vowed to use "every legal remedy" to stop this. The California School Boards Association is preparing lawsuits. Even the "Urban Eight"—the superintendents of California's largest districts—sent Newsom a letter in December 2025 warning that his budget would devastate urban schools.
But Newsom is betting that by the time the lawsuits work their way through the courts, the damage will be done. Districts will have already laid off teachers, cut programs, and closed schools.
The Libertarian Wolf in Liberal Clothing
This is where we need to talk about the elephant in the room: California is not a liberal state. It's a libertarian state with a liberal marketing department.
As the Big Education Ape blog brilliantly argues, California's political economy has been dominated for decades by billionaire interests who use "progressive" rhetoric to mask their fundamentally anti-government, anti-public-sector agenda.
Consider the evidence:
Proposition 13 (1978): Slashed property taxes, starving schools and local governments of revenue. Sold as "taxpayer relief," it was actually a massive wealth transfer to commercial property owners and landlords.
Charter School Explosion: California now has over 1,278 charter schools enrolling 727,000 students—12.5% of all public school students. These schools drain resources from traditional districts while operating with less oversight and accountability.
Tech Billionaire Influence: The state's wealthiest residents—from Reed Hastings (Netflix) to Laurene Powell Jobs (Emerson Collective) to the Walton family—pour millions into education "reform" that just happens to align with their libertarian ideology of choice, competition, and privatization.
Union-Busting by Another Name: While California has strong labor protections on paper, charter schools are largely non-union, and voucher programs would direct public funds to private schools where teachers have no collective bargaining rights.
This is the libertarian playbook: Defund public institutions, declare them "failing," then privatize them in the name of "innovation" and "choice."
The Stanford Connection: Where Billionaires Buy Legitimacy
Let's zoom in on Stanford for a moment, because this university is ground zero for the intellectual assault on public education.
The Hoover Institution is funded by conservative and libertarian foundations and houses scholars who explicitly advocate for:
- School vouchers (Caroline Hoxby)
- Deregulation and free markets (John Cochrane, the "Grumpy Economist")
- Limited government and strong property rights (Richard Epstein)
- "Peace through strength" militarism (Condoleezza Rice, Victor Davis Hanson)
PACE, while technically separate, operates in the same ecosystem and produces research that consistently aligns with market-based education reform.
Bellwether Education Partners—another key player in the "reform" movement—is funded by the Walton Family Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. They advocate for charter schools and Education Savings Accounts while framing it as "equity" and "flexibility."
This is how the oligarchy launders its ideology: Fund prestigious universities and think tanks, produce "research" that supports your policy preferences, then have friendly politicians cite that research as "evidence-based" justification for dismantling public institutions.
The Constitutional Crisis: Stripping Voters of Their Voice
Here's the legal bombshell that Newsom is hoping nobody notices: Article IX, Section 2 of the California Constitution explicitly requires that the State Superintendent of Public Instruction be elected by voters.
Newsom can't eliminate the office without a constitutional amendment, which would require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature and statewide voter approval. Californians have rejected this idea four times in the past.
So instead, Newsom is trying an end-run: Keep the office, but strip it of all power. Turn the elected Superintendent into an "ombudsman"—a glorified complaint department—while moving actual control of the Department of Education to the Governor's appointed board.
Legal experts and current Superintendent Tony Thurmond argue this is unconstitutional. You can't use a statute (regular legislation) to "hollow out" a constitutional office. That's not reform—it's a coup.
The California School Boards Association is preparing lawsuits. Public Advocates warns that concentrating power in the Governor's office removes a critical "check and balance" on executive authority.
And here's the kicker: Newsom is justifying this power grab by claiming California needs a "unified executive" to fight off the Trump administration's attacks on education.
Translation: "Trust me with unlimited power because the other guy is worse."
Where have we heard that before?
The Perfect Storm: Vouchers + Executive Control + Funding Cuts = Disaster
Let's game this out. If Newsom's governance proposal passes and the voucher initiative passes in November 2026, here's what happens:
- Executive Control: The Governor (whether Newsom or a successor) controls the entire Department of Education with no independent elected official to push back.
- Voucher Drain: $17,000 per student starts flowing out of the public system to private and religious schools. With 5.8 million students in California, even if just 10% opt out, that's $9.86 billion leaving public schools annually.
- Funding Collapse: Combined with Newsom's $5.6 billion accounting trick, traditional public schools—especially in urban and rural areas—face catastrophic budget shortfalls.
- Death Spiral: As public schools cut programs and increase class sizes, more families flee to private options, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of "failing" public schools.
- Two-Tiered System: Wealthy families use vouchers to supplement private school tuition. Poor families use vouchers at low-quality, unregulated private schools or religious schools that can discriminate based on religion, sexual orientation, or disability.
This is the endgame. This is what 40 years of libertarian assault on public education has been building toward.
The Resistance: Teachers, Parents, and the Fight for Public Education
The good news? People are fighting back.
The California Teachers Association has declared war on both the governance takeover and the voucher initiative. With $11 million already committed to their counter-ballot measure (Initiative #25-0016), they're mobilizing for the fight of their lives.
The "Urban Eight" superintendents—representing Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, Long Beach, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino—have united to demand full Prop 98 funding and protection for local control.
The California School Boards Association is preparing constitutional challenges and demanding "reciprocal accountability"—if the state wants to hold districts accountable, the state must be held accountable for providing adequate, stable funding.
Community groups across the state are organizing against the voucher initiative, recognizing it as a direct attack on the separation of church and state and a threat to educational equity.
The Bottom Line: Democracy vs. Oligarchy
This isn't about "streamlining governance" or "improving efficiency." This is about power.
The billionaire class that has spent decades undermining public education through think tanks, charter schools, and political donations is now making its final move: seizing direct control of the state education system while simultaneously creating a voucher escape hatch for those who can afford it.
Governor Newsom—whether through genuine belief in "reform" or political calculation—has chosen to be their instrument.
The question for Californians is simple: Do you want your schools controlled by elected officials accountable to voters, or by appointed boards accountable to governors who receive millions from billionaire "reformers"?
Do you want your tax dollars funding genuinely public schools that serve all students, or subsidizing private and religious schools that can pick and choose who gets in?
Do you want a education system designed to create informed citizens and reduce inequality, or a market-based system designed to sort winners from losers?
The fight for California's public schools is the fight for California's soul. And right now, the oligarchs are winning.
But November 2026 is coming. And voters will have their say.
For more on the libertarian assault on California's public institutions, see Big Education Ape: California - The Libertarian Wolf in Liberal Clothing