The boldest education reform agenda in California this year
California’s students only get one chance at school. Yet, despite decades of piecemeal reforms, more than 1 million students fail to reach proficiency every year. The problem is not a lack of effort at the local level or an absence of programs imposed by the state. The problem is that California has too many disconnected initiatives and no coherent strategy.
That’s why CSBA’s 2026 Gold Star bills recognize some of the most significant and forward-looking public education legislation introduced this session.
Unlike bills that are “Rotten Apples” that burden schools with mandates, litigation risk and bureaucracy that interfere with operations and local efforts to boost student achievement, CSBA’s Gold Star bills focus on what schools and students actually need:
- Better outcomes
- Shared accountability between the state and local levels
- Stronger local governance
- Transparent public reporting
- Smarter state support
- Coherent statewide strategy
The SOS for Student Achievement legislative package: Closing California’s state accountability gap
At the center of CSBA’s 2026 Gold Star roster is the SOS for Student Achievement campaign, an ambitious effort to close California’s “state accountability gap” by aligning state policy, budgeting and support systems around one mission: helping local schools improve student outcomes and close persistent achievement gaps.
Assembly Bill 2225 (Patel)
State Plan to Close the Achievement Gap
AB 2225 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it attacks one of the most persistent obstacles to improving student outcomes in California: the absence of a coherent statewide strategy for closing achievement gaps. For decades, California has layered program upon program onto public education, yet more than one million students still fail to reach proficiency each year and achievement gaps remain stubbornly entrenched.
AB 2225 would convene educators, researchers, policymakers and stakeholders to develop the state's first comprehensive operations and support plan focused on what state government can do to help school districts and county offices of education (COEs) accelerate student performance and close persistent achievement gaps. The plan would establish clear goals, measurable benchmarks and a framework for evaluating whether state agencies, programs and investments are actually helping students succeed, making it one of the most significant education reform measures before the Legislature in 2026.
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Replaces fragmented initiatives with a coherent strategy for improving student performance and closing achievement gaps
- Shifts the conversation from inputs to outputs: elevating student outcomes over activity
- Establishes reciprocal accountability
- Sets clear goals and benchmarks for state support without new dictates or mandates
- Focuses state system on supporting student success
AB 2149 (Garcia)
Annual Report on State Plan Progress and Alignment
AB 2149 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it calls for something Sacramento rarely does: hold itself accountable. While school districts and COEs are constantly measured, audited and evaluated on student outcomes, the state has never been required to systematically examine whether its own policies, budgets, mandates and programs are actually helping local schools close achievement gaps.
AB 2149 changes that by requiring the Legislative Analyst’s Office to annually evaluate the state's progress, assess whether education spending aligns with California’s achievement gap strategy, review whether state mandates help or hinder local success, and identify barriers standing in the way of student achievement.
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Creates independent oversight and accountability
- Connects spending to measurable student outcomes
- Helps eliminate fragmented and ineffective investments
- Allows for better alignment investments and evidence-based decision-making
- Improves return on taxpayer dollars
AB 2514 (Ransom)
State of the Achievement Gap Dashboard
AB 2514 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it brings something California’s education system desperately needs: transparency, accountability and a clear way for the public to determine whether state leaders are making progress in closing achievement gaps.
AB 2514 changes that by creating a State of the Achievement Gap Dashboard that would provide Californians with a clear, accessible and publicly visible measure of the state's progress in implementing its plan to support LEAs in closing achievement gaps. Under the CSBA rubric, this is smart governance at its best — a bill that promotes transparency without creating new mandates for schools, strengthens public accountability, focuses attention on measurable outcomes and helps ensure taxpayer investments are producing results for students.
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Gives Californians transparent public reporting
- Tracks whether state systems are helping students succeed
- Creates measurable benchmarks and accountability
- Focuses policymakers on outcomes instead of headlines
AB 2202 (Muratsuchi)
Embedding Achievement Accountability into State Governance
AB 2202 establishes a Closing the Achievement Gap Commission under the State Board of Education to monitor state programs and improve coordination across California’s education system.
California students cannot afford another generation of disconnected policymaking focused on inputs instead of outcomes. AB 2202 helps organize state government around results.
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Embeds accountability into state governance
- Strengthens statewide coordination and coherence
- Helps identify effective support strategies for schools
- Focuses state agencies on measurable student improvement
The reporting and transparency package
Strong public education systems require transparency, accurate data and regular evaluations to determine successful policies and identify effective ones. The Gold Star bills related to reporting and transparency reduce bureaucracy and red tape and develop clearer accountability mechanisms that help governance teams, policymakers, families and communities better evaluate educational systems and outcomes.
AB 2008 (Patel)
AB 2008 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it tackles one of the biggest hidden burdens facing California schools: the endless accumulation of state reporting mandates that consume staff time, drain resources and distract educators from serving students.
The bill would require future state-imposed reporting requirements on LEAs to automatically sunset after four years unless lawmakers choose to renew them. In doing so, AB 2008 promotes smarter governance, reduces bureaucratic overload and reinforces a core CSBA principle: state accountability should support LEAs — not bury them under outdated compliance requirements with no clear end point.
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Helps align investments with effective policies
- Reduces bureaucracy and red tape
- Allows for smarter resources allocation
AB 2496 (Solache)
AB 2496 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it modernizes California’s outdated and duplicative school accountability reporting system so administrators spend less time generating redundant paperwork and more time focusing on students. The bill streamlines accountability by transitioning from the decades-old School Accountability Report Card (SARC) to the far more comprehensive and publicly accessible California School Dashboard, while preserving transparency through archived data.
AB 2496 would also reduce unnecessary reporting burdens on LEAs by eliminating duplicative requirements that no longer align with California’s modern accountability framework.
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Improves clarity and consistency in reporting
- Supports evidence-based decision-making
- Strengthens accountability systems
- Focuses attention on student outcomes instead of outdated compliance systems
House Resolution 87 (Muratsuchi)
HR 87 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it directly confronts one of the most frustrating and wasteful realities facing California schools: the explosion of duplicative or pointless state reporting mandates that consume educator time, drain local resources and pull school leaders away from students. The resolution recognizes that while transparency and accountability matter, California has layered so many disconnected reporting requirements onto school districts and county offices of education that the system has become fragmented, excessive and counterproductive.
The resolution recognizes that schools have been inundated with fragmented and excessive reporting mandates that often duplicate information the state already possesses and divert resources from classrooms. It urges lawmakers and state agencies to apply a common-sense test before imposing new requirements: What is the purpose? Who will use the information? Is it valuable? Is it feasible? Is it duplicative? How long should it remain in effect?
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Protects LEAs from unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that divert time, staffing and funding away from classrooms and student achievement
- Reduces red tape
- Increases operational efficiency
- Forces policymakers to focus on efficacy of reports over volume, creating a more meaningful reporting system
AB 1821 (Pacheco)
AB 1821 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it represents smart governance reform: promoting openness and accountability to the public while helping LEAs operate more efficiently and predictably within a clear legal framework. It would modernize requirements governing how public agencies, including LEAs, respond to records requests by clarifying timelines, communication standards and processes under the California Public Records Act (PRA).
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Provides missing clarity about requirements under the California PRA
- Sets standards for communications, process timelines for responding to public records act requests
- Streamlines response to PRA requests and frees resources through reduced administrative burden
Senate Bill 1159 (Cabaldon)
SB 1159 earns a CSBA Gold Star because it protects the integrity of public governance and ensures that LEAs and other public agencies can focus on serving real people instead of managing waves of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated spam and automated comments. The bill clarifies that AI systems, bots and other nonhuman entities are not considered “persons” or “members of the public” under laws governing public records requests, open meetings, regulatory participation and other government processes
Why it’s Gold Star material
- Separates authentic public engagement from AI-fueled bot campaigns
- Preserves public resources for responding to real people with actual concerns
- Frees up staff time and resources for students and communities
CSBA’s 2026 Gold Star bills offer one of the clearest, boldest and most consequential education reform agendas in Sacramento this year — a roadmap for stronger governance, smarter support systems and better outcomes for every California student.