State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh speaks with News Channel 3 on school spending, test scores and bringing back the SAT

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh spoke with News Channel 3 on Tuesday about where California's education money is going, why test scores remain low, and her push to bring back the SAT and ACT at the University of California and California State University.

Ochoa Bogh represents the 19th Senate District, which includes parts of the Coachella Valley and the high desert.

She is vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, a member of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education and a member of the Senate Rules Committee. She is a former elementary school teacher of English learners and served on the Yucaipa-Calimesa school board.

The interview followed an op-ed she published last week titled "California is spending record billions on education. Where is the money going?"

Where the money is going

News Channel 3 asked the senator what is going wrong in California classrooms.

"The state right now is investing about 48%, when we count all of education, lower and higher ed, 48% of the budget," she said. "We still have health care, public safety, government functions, infrastructure to fund. So if 48% of the pie is not enough, then what is?"

The state is allocating more than $27,000 per pupil in the 2026-27 budget, Ochoa Bogh said. The state's enacted budget summary puts total K-12 spending this year at $151.4 billion from state, federal and local sources.

Ochoa Bogh sits on the three-member budget subcommittee that reviews the state's education spending. Asked for her own answer to where the money is going, she said schools have been asking for more money for low-income students and foster youth even though the state has provided extra funding for those students since 2013.

"We have to evaluate the programs that we currently have in place," she said, "and if they're not producing the results, ensure that we're actually letting go of those programs and bringing in new programs that actually are working as intended."

She wants parents asking those questions at school site councils and school board meetings.

In 2024, Ochoa Bogh introduced SB 1129, a bill to develop alternative templates for the accountability plans school districts are required to publish. According to the bill's legislative history, its first hearing was canceled at the request of the author, and the bill did not move forward.

News Channel 3 asked if she plans to reintroduce it.

"It's the question of accountability doesn't always equate to legislation," she said. "It doesn't have to be legislative necessarily, but it does, I think, benefit us more when we have an informed public where we can then ask the questions."

She compared school spending to the state's spending on homelessness, saying an audit she helped request found no accountability measures were required when that money was allocated. The state auditor's April 2024 report found California allocated about $24 billion to homelessness and housing programs over five years and had not consistently tracked the results.

"We can't make the same mistake," Ochoa Bogh said.

Test scores

The state releases new test scores Oct. 15. In the most recent results, from spring 2025, 48.8% of California students met the standard in English and 37.3% met it in math. In Desert Sands Unified, 41% met the standard in English and 27% in math. In Palm Springs Unified, 36% and 22%.

News Channel 3 asked what parents in the valley should be asking their school boards, and what number would tell her the money is working. She did not offer a specific number. Without standardized tests, she said, there is no way to know whether students are getting the services and curriculum they need.

"We need to ask the questions when they're younger, as they're growing up, so that we, at the very end, are not graduating students that cannot do basic math or have the ability to read," Ochoa Bogh said. "If we don't have those standardized testing, there's no way to learn. We're just graduating, navigating students through the process and living in smoke and mirrors."

The SAT and ACT

In August, Ochoa Bogh and state Sen. Roger Niello sent a letter to UC leaders calling on UC and CSU to reinstate SAT and ACT requirements for all applicants, not only students in science, technology, engineering and math majors. Her office says she plans to introduce legislation on the issue.

News Channel 3 asked whether a test requirement would help a student from Coachella Valley schools get into UC Riverside, or lock them out.

"It allows for that student to be placed in the school that actually they will be successful in," Ochoa Bogh said. She pointed to California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education, which she said intended for students who were not ready for a university to start at a community college and transfer.

The senator said she has questioned nominees to the UC Board of Regents in the Rules Committee about the SAT, and has pointed them to incoming UC San Diego freshmen testing at a middle school math level. Her office's August announcement cites a UC San Diego report that found the number of first-year students with math skills below high school level rose nearly thirtyfold over five years.

"These are students who are graduating with a 4.0 average or above, entering the UC system, testing at middle school math," she said. "How do we explain that? When we don't have standardized testing, then we have grade inflation that we then have to address."

"Shame on the system that basically, literally navigates them through a smoke and mirrors system where they graduate thinking they're at the top of their class, and then realize through these incoming assessments that, wait a minute, we're not prepared," she said. "That is unfair."

Asked how she separates the effect of dropping the tests from the effect of the pandemic, she said the tests are given nationwide.

"We're comparing ourselves with the rest of the nation, who also went through the pandemic," Ochoa Bogh said. "So you're telling me that California is unique in the sense that they are the only ones impacted by the pandemic?"

UC regents voted in 2020 to phase out the tests in admissions. CSU trustees voted in 2022 to permanently drop them. UC's Academic Senate is now reviewing standardized testing, with a report due Feb. 12, 2027, and a recommendation to the regents by June 2027. Applicants for fall 2027 will not be required to submit scores.

News Channel 3 will report the new test scores for every valley school district when the state releases them Oct. 15.