On June 29th, 2025 Governor Gavin Newsom signed the 2025 – 26 California State Budget. After months of negotiations and nonstop advocacy from members of the California Faculty Association (CFA) and fellow union allies, state legislative leaders and the governor agreed to eliminate the proposed cuts to the CSU.
In a statement, CFA President Margarita Berta-Ávila urged the Governor and state legislative leaders to reallocate prison funding to higher education. “While we are grateful that the Governor’s final budget proposal included a total elimination of the initial proposed cuts, we are disappointed that the Governor even considered cutting funding from the CSU, The People’s University. We understand that it was a difficult budget year and that there may be future budget years ahead. However, in order to mitigate future budget deficits, state leaders must rethink how to invest our taxpayer dollars in a way that is more aligned with the values of this state – and that is through the reallocation of prison funding toward higher education.”
The California Faculty Association (CFA), the union representing nearly 29,000 CSU faculty and staff, is demanding that future cuts be made to the bloated prison budget and empty prison capacity instead of higher education. These demands come just a year after the nonpartisan and widely respected Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) recommended the closure of five California prisons in response to the rapidly declining prison population. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimates that the prison population will continue falling from the current 93,000 to under 84.000 over the next 5 years.1
The LAO estimates that the closure of five prisons will yield over $1 billion in savings to the state, allowing for reinvestment in higher education to 1970s levels to lower tuition costs and expand access to all Californians.2
