July 15, 2024

With the 2024-2025 State Budget now signed by the Governor and the California Legislature on their Summer Recess until August 5th, the NextGen team has a few weeks to catch our collective breath and strategize, plan, and prepare for the final weeks of this year’s legislative session! This issue of What’s Next focuses on several recent happenings: including a couple of articles involving NextGen team members and priority areas – a Capitol Morning Report spotlight of our Executive Director Arnie Sowell’s latest blog about how his father’s journey as an Olympic athlete intersected with his policy career and a CalMatters review that takes an in-depth look at California’s broadband efforts and what experts are saying about funding and policy initiatives. In addition, this issue contains information about the upcoming California Racial Equity Commission’s public meeting and plenty more you won’t want to miss reading about!

With that overview, here’s What’s Next:

★ Read our Executive Director’s Special Edition Blog Post: With the 2024 Summer Olympics taking place in Paris in just a few weeks, we’re incredibly proud to share that The Capitol Morning Report featured NextGen’s Executive Director Arnie Sowell Jr.’s latest contribution to our Let’s Talk blog series. In his special edition blog post, Arnie writes about how his father’s track stardom in the 1950s and journey to the Olympic Games (his father finished fourth in the 800 meters at the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia), over the years, has intersected with and influenced his career in California public policy. Read Arnie’s full blog post written for our Let’s Talk series!

★ Join the Racial Equity Commission’s Next Meeting: The California Racial Equity Commission is meeting for the third time on July 17th in Riverside, California. This meeting will focus on how the state currently collects and utilizes specific types of data as well as the Commission’s recommendations for how to use this data to better address racial inequities facing California’s historically underserved and marginalized communities. There will be opportunities for public comment for you to share your perspectives of what can be done to improve policy and programs with a racial equity lens. Learn more about the Racial Equity Commission’s upcoming meeting and register to attend via Zoom.

★ Get the Facts on California’s Broadband Efforts: In a new article, CalMatters’ Khari Johnson takes a closer look at California’s latest efforts to address digital equity and provide affordable, high-speed broadband internet access to all Californians. Billions of dollars in state and federal funding to help connect California’s disconnected communities is available from various state resources and the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, but experts argue that these funds may instead be wasted due to unreliable data and other issues created by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Get the facts on the BEAD program and learn more about what’s at stake for California’s broadband efforts!

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★ Member Spotlight: This week, we’re shining a spotlight on Senator Josh Newman, who represents California’s 29th Senate District. Senator Newman serves as Chair of the Senate Committee on Education, and throughout his career, he has worked diligently to support legislation that protects and uplifts California’s students. NextGen has previously worked with Senator Newman on various policy issues, and most recently worked with him to continue full funding for the School Meals For All program, which provides California students with two healthy, free school meals! We’re thankful for Senator Newman’s continued support and look forward to working with him on future initiatives – follow along to keep up with Senator Newman’s work!

★ Legislative Deadlines and Insights: The Capitol Community is now enjoying the Legislative Summer Recess as State Legislators have returned to their districts and legislative staff, advocates, and lobbyists have a chance to regroup before the final stretch of the legislative session. With policy committee bill hearings completed and the 2024-25 State Budget largely settled, all eyes turn to the August 16th deadline for bills to make it out of their respective fiscal committees. Given the state’s troubling budget outlook, legislative proponents will be working hard to provide their best fiscal arguments as to why their bills should pass out of either the Senate or Assembly Appropriations Committees. Though the two-year legislative session is nearing its end, there are still hundreds of bills before both Appropriations Committees. Also, on the horizon is the possibility of a minor budget clean-up bill package that will make any final adjustments to the 2024-25 State Budget.