Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a budget plan for 2026-27 that would provide an increase in discretionary funding for the state’s community colleges as well as boost the budget for deferred maintenance and K-12 student dual enrollment, according to California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian.

Speaking on a student media teleconference call on Feb. 3, Christian said the governor’s proposal included a $100 million one-time additional block grant that would act as a discretionary fund accessible to all California Community Colleges in order to cover costs initially unapparent.

“The student block grant funding is a way to mitigate issues that we don’t currently anticipate… so students stay whole through the process, and they have the services they planned for at the beginning of the budget year,” said Christian.

The grant would simultaneously fill a deficit caused by the termination of federal funding for minority-serving institution (MSI) grants, according to Christian.

In September 2025, the Department of Education under the Trump administration announced it would no longer fund Hispanic-serving institutions (HSI) and other MSI programs, claiming that HSIs apply racial quotas that are unconstitutional — and subsequently reallocated an estimated $350 million previously allotted to MSI programs nationwide.

Christian, the 11th chancellor of the California Community Colleges system overseeing 116 state-funded schools, said the $100 million block grant in Newsom’s proposal was a direct response to the steep federal cuts in HSI and MSI block grants.

“Our colleges wanted to continue with the commitment to student success strategies that those grants had included in them,” said Christian.

The governor’s budget increase also reflected a full ‘bounce-back’ in enrollments as California community colleges are currently seeing their highest enrollment numbers since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

The proposal would also allocate $120 million for deferred maintenance needs such as repairs and renovations, as well as $100 million to help fund K-12 students, primarily high schoolers, who seek to simultaneously enroll in community college classes.

A $36 million one-time grant, and a $5 million ongoing allocation is also proposed to be set aside to develop a common cloud platform for student data across the state’s 72 college districts and 116 campuses, easing the process of accessing and helping the upkeep of schools’ data and online infrastructure, Christian said.

Another $35 million one-time allocation, and an additional $2 million in ongoing funding is slated for students who enrolled with prior learning or work experience, such as veterans and apprentices, to provide opportunities and help to reduce debt during schooling.

The chancellor said the governor’s budget plan could go into effect with funds distributed in 2027 if it is approved by the legislature.