As the nephew of one of the Little Rock Nine who first desegregated American public schools, Reggie knows intimately the importance of a quality education. That’s why throughout his life, Reggie has fought to defend and uplift our public schools.

But California public schools are still recovering from the last recession and decades of cuts, and now face the budget consequences of our current economic catastrophe. And inequality in education access to quality education remains rampant, and deeply racialized.

In the Assembly, Reggie has fought to ensure a high-quality public education is available to every California student by investing in the most underserved schools, fully funding public schools, ending the school to prison pipeline, and guaranteeing free public colleges and universities.

If re-elected, Reggie will fight to provide our schools with the funding necessary to navigate this unprecedented time and will continue to make our state’s education funding system more equitable so that students all throughout California can have the same resources in the classroom. Additionally, Reggie knows we need to continue making California’s world-class higher education system more accessible and affordable, so that every student in the state has an opportunity to attend one of our schools.​

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IN SACRAMENTO, REGGIE HAS ADVANCED EDUCATION JUSTICE BY:

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Enhancing K-12 and Trade School Funding

• Protected LA schools from cuts during COVID-19 crisis and provided $5.5 billion to help schools manage impact of COVID closure.

• Championed an overhaul of our K-12 education funding system to benefit underserved schools by providing additional funds to schools serving English learners, low-income students and students in foster care.

• Supported greater funding for special education, including $1.5 billion to help special needs students manage impact of COVID closure.

• Increased career technical education funding

Fighting for Free Public College

• Introduced legislation that, if passed, will create a workgroup to set California on a path towards free college.

• Championed making the first two years of community college free for full time students

• Consistently supports an increase in Cal Grants to make college more affordable.

Combatting the School to Prison Pipeline

• Authored legislation that creates the Schools Not Prisons Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund as a voluntary income tax return donation.  Funds go as grants to nonprofits for the purpose of funding academic and career readiness programs that break the school to prison pipeline.

• Authored legislation that removes references to "at-risk" or "high-risk" youth in the education and penal code, replacing them with "at-promise" to recognize the potential of each child.

• Introduced and authored legislation that encourages schools to detail the appropriate roles and responsibilities of certain school staff including police officers on campus.

• Authored legislation that would ensure that continuation school was not used as an alternative to expulsion and that no student groups is disproportionately sent to continuation schools.

Ensuring Equity in the Classroom

• Co-author of legislation that requires the development and adoption of model curriculum in ethnic studies for high schools.

• Authored legislation that restricts the ability of schools to place students in courses without any real classroom content.  This was in response to a lawsuit against seven school districts that found students of color, especially English Learners, were disproportionately placed in classes titled “home” or “work-experience” but did not have any true classroom content, robbing students of their education.

• Authored legislation that requires the Department of Education to take steps to ensure that foster students and their families are aware of their educational rights.

• Authored legislation that requires teachers at all schools, including charter schools, to be checked annually to ensure that they hold the proper credentials to teach the course to which they are assigned.

• Authored legislation that protects student victims when reporting abuses by school employees.

• Co-authored legislation that protects the health of school children by providing safeguards around vaccinations and attendance in public schools.