09 Jan ‘California’s Success Is Not By Chance’: Newsom Addresses Education, Housing, Trump in Final State of the State

Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered the State of the State address Thursday at the Capitol, his first in person since 2020 and his last before he terms out. Next to Newsom is Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas. An American Sign Language interpreter is in the picture-in-picture. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

Gov. Gavin Newsom touted progress made on homelessness and hopeful changes to the education system while taking aim at President Donald Trump in his last State of the State address.

The two-term governor gave the address in person for the first time since 2020, delivering it Thursday at the state Capitol, where he also brought news of a more than $42 billion windfall for the upcoming budget.

“We know the truth,” said Newsom. “California’s success is not by chance. It’s by design. We’ve
created the conditions where dreamers and doers and misfits and marvels with grit and ingenuity come to build the impossible.”

That truth Newsom pointed to includes a 9% decline in unsheltered homelessness statewide, with Contra Costa County coming down by 34.8% for 2025. For the state that is home to the nation’s largest number of homeless individuals, it’s “not enough,” he said.

Under Newsom, the state has created the sometimes disappointing CARE Court, which provides services to those with certain substance use and mental health illnesses, and the passing of Prop. 1 to build $6.38 billion in mental health facilities.

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And Newsom was clear on what that meant for counties going forward: “No more excuses. It’s time to bring people off the streets and out of encampments and into housing and treatment.”

Trump and Republicans have for years said the state struggles with homelessness and crime, which Newsom countered with stats that show declines in violent crime — and overall — for this past year. Trump used claims of high crime to launch a later abandoned attempt to send around 100 federal immigration agents to the Bay Area.

Newsom’s address came on the heels of the fatal shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis of Renee Nicole Good, who was a U.S. citizen. Coming amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, it was at least the second death involving an ICE agent since September.

>>>Read: Vigils, Raids and a Deadly Fall: ICE Crackdown Rocks California<<<

“The federal government, respectfully, it’s unrecognizable. Protecting the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. Their credo seems to be about fear: fear of the future, fear of the stranger, fear of change,” said Newsom about Trump’s policy changes.

However, one of Newsom’s proposals on Thursday was one on common ground with Trump. The governor said he wants to target investors “snatching up” homes and forcing rents up “too damn high.”

Trump made that proposal ahead of Newsom’s announcement.

>>>Read: For Many in the Bay Area, Affordable Housing Is Not Affordable<<<

On the education front, Newsom said that today’s budget will have some of the “most significant” investments in the state’s history. That includes $27,418 in spending per pupil, he added.

One education-related proposal did catch state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond off guard, according to CalMatters. Newsom is proposing that the state Department of Education be overseen by the state Board of Education instead of the superintendent.

“Unfortunately, on this particular issue, they are not aligned,” said Liz Sanders, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, according to CalMatters.