The Brief

Come March, California voters will get the chance to weigh in on sweeping changes proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the state’s mental health funding system — including a $4.68 billion bond measure to add treatment beds — but critics say the proposal pits children’s mental health services against the state’s ballooning homelessness crisis.

Newsom announced his intent in March to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money — roughly $1 billion — to housing homeless individuals with severe mental illness or drug addiction.

“We have to address and come to grips with the reality of mental health in this state and our nation,” Newsom said at the time.

The announcement was met with praise from legislative leaders and alarm by children’s mental health advocates who fear cuts to their services. Today Newsom’s office released long-awaited details.

Key changes to the Act include:

• Allocating 30% of the state’s Mental Health Services Act budget to housing those with severe mental illness or substance use disorders. Half of that money would be reserved for chronically homeless people;
• Directing 35% of the money to full-service partnerships, which provide 24/7 wraparound services like case management, clinical treatment and social supports;
• Earmarking 15% of money for early intervention programs and 5% for prevention programs. Eliminating the 5% innovation fund, which has historically been used to jumpstart programs for communities of color and LGBTQ folks;
• Making people with substance use disorders eligible for services;
• Adding 10,000 treatment beds if the bond measure passes;
• Adding $36 million to shore up workforce development.

About one-third of the county mental health infrastructure in the state is supported by the Mental Health Services Act, which was approved by voters in 2004 as a ballot initiative that levied a 1% tax on the state’s millionaires. Substantial changes to the act, like the ones proposed, are subject to further voter approval. Last year the tax generated about $3.8 billion.

Democratic legislators Sen. Susan Talamantes-Eggman, from Stockton, and Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, from Thousand Oaks, authored the bills detailing the proposed changes.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said updates to the act are long overdue. Steinberg co-authored the original measure when he was an Assemblymember.

“I am 1,000% behind this modernization,” Steinberg said during today’s news conference.

The original intent of the act was to prioritize services for people “whose lives are most at risk,” Steinberg said, criticizing counties that currently “do their best to use nearly $4 billion annually on people who need help, but without any clear state and societal priorities driving their investments.”

When Newsom announced his proposal in March, county behavioral health leaders countered that this money is the only funding source that gives them broad flexibility to focus on local priorities and any changes will result in program cuts. The money is “braided into the fabric of all things in our safety net,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, at the time.

Children’s mental health advocates also said the new proposal details fail to address their earlier concerns about cuts to youth services, which include local at-risk youth centers, LGBTQ+ programs, school-based suicide prevention programs, and infant and early childhood mental health consultations.

“They don’t seem to have done any analysis on what they’re giving up to have this $1 billion for housing,” said Lishaun Francis, senior director of behavioral health at Children Now. “It’s an interesting time to make a change that seemingly shifts resources away from young people.”

Data on youth

Mental health among youth worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, with one survey showing 63% of middle and high school students reported having had an emotional meltdown, 43% reported panic or anxiety attacks, and 19% described suicidal thoughts between April 2020 and March 2021.

In 2021, Newsom and the Legislature allocated $4.4 billion to a Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, but people who provide services to young folks say that was a one-time investment — it doesn’t replace ongoing money they currently get from the Mental Health Services Act.

But Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Mark Ghaly said the proposed changes cannot be considered alone. In addition to the one-time $4.4 billion investment, the state has added money outside of the Mental Health Services Act to mental health and substance use prevention programs, which include youth programs.

“Compared to 20 years ago, not only do we have a number of new programs, we have a number of new opportunities to bring funding to those programs,” Ghaly said. “It is our belief that even though we are today really helping focus on some of the Californians with the most severe conditions, we also are in a much different better place to promote and support the prevention programs.”

The measure creates an early intervention program that earmarks funds to reduce suicide, incarceration and school failure as well as establishing early-psychosis interventions. Steinberg said it invests the same amount of prevention funds as the current Mental Health Services Act in a “more focused and targeted way.”

But children’s mental health advocates say that’s not what they were asking for. The current funding system carves out money specifically for prevention and early intervention programs among youth. This version creates a “catch-all” fund that isn’t set aside for young people, said Adrienne Shilton, senior policy advocate for the California Alliance of Children and Family Services.

“In the current structure, there’s a requirement that 51% of prevention and early intervention funds are spent on children and youth. We’ve lost all of that,” Shilton said.

The situation at hand

Addressing homelessness has been a key priority for Newsom, who made it part of his 2018 gubernatorial campaign. Since that time homelessness has increased in California by nearly 32%, with about 170,000 people living on the streets.

A new report from the UCSF Benioff Center paints a bleak picture of California’s homeless population, with two-thirds of those surveyed reporting mental illness and one-third reporting substance use. The report, which offers new insights into the state’s most visible crisis, states that loss of income was the No. 1 cause of homelessness, not mental illness or addiction.

Francis said it will be difficult come March to convince voters that funding for youth should not be sacrificed to address homelessness. She believes the state has enough resources to address both problems.

“We want to support our unhoused population but we don’t want to do that at the expense of our youth. The legislature needs to figure out how to do both, but this isn’t it,” Francis said.

California State University is betting that artificial intelligence will transform the workplace — and that its 470,000 students need to learn how to use it before they graduate.

Last year, CSU became the nation’s first public university system to pay for students’ access to ChatGPT Edu. It has awarded over $3 million in grants for faculty to experiment with how to use AI in classrooms. Several campuses now train students in how to responsibly use the technology.

Those measures are all pieces of CSU’s strategy to prepare students for a future labor market reshaped by AI. But the investment in AI has come under criticism from some CSU faculty, and some students remain skeptical of the value of knowing how to use AI even as most are concerned the developing technology will threaten their chances of landing a job and keeping it.

The success of CSU’s AI strategy will depend on the extent to which AI affects the workforce that today’s college students will soon enter.

Hiring is frozen in many sectors right now as employers wait to see the true extent artificial intelligence will change the labor market, said Eric Bettinger, a leading education economist with Stanford Graduate School of Education. But it’s not clear if the slowdown in the labor market can be attributed to AI.

As with previous emerging technologies, AI is forcing employers to decide whether they should replace workers with the technology, or hire more employees who can leverage AI to be more productive, Bettinger said.

New graduates are facing a difficult labor market, considering the unemployment rate for this population has steadily risen since 2022, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“The reality is that the world outside of school isn’t slowing down, and we need to prepare our students for that reality,” James Frazee, San Diego State University’s vice president for information technology, told EdSource.

Students worry AI is taking their future jobs

Ismaeel Malik, a San Jose State University justice studies student, said he worries about AI taking over jobs in his desired field.

“Entry-level jobs are work that people don’t want to do,” Malik, who will graduate next spring, told EdSource. Malik said he doesn’t think AI proficiency will make it easier to win a position out of college.

Other San Jose State students who spoke with EdSource say they think some majors will be more affected than others. San Jose State prenursing student Jade Goodewin said the “hands-on” part of her preferred future career seems fairly AI-proof. But second-year student Vien Tang, who is studying advertising, said that AI could replace some of the work of entry-level jobs in the advertising industry.

“It’s definitely a possibility, because I think a lot of companies try to cut costs,” Tang said. “There’s a likelihood of that happening.”

Given SJSU’s proximity to Silicon Valley and many companies whose technologies are reshaping the workforce, the university hopes to be a leader in AI adoption, said Sandra Hirsh, special assistant to the university’s provost for AI initiatives.

“We need to be preparing students with whatever the latest opportunities are, but also prepare students for the fact that change and evolution are going to continue to happen,” she said.

Hirsh said companies want graduates to have a basic understanding of AI and how to use it in their work. Despite the nebulous changes happening in the job market, companies that hire SJSU graduates have told university leaders that students also need skills in leadership, inventiveness and ethics.

The CSU system is paying $13 million a year to provide ChatGPT Edu to all 470,000 CSU students.

Artur Gafurov, president of the California State Student Association and a fourth-year student at San Jose State, said many students appreciate access to AI tools like ChatGPT Edu, but don’t necessarily know how to use them responsibly and effectively.

“I know a lot of students who are taking it upon themselves to learn a bit more about the tool and restrict themselves with how they use it,” Gafurov said.

Some question the value of AI initiatives 

Other private and public universities have signed agreements with companies such as OpenAI to give students access to large language models, including ChatGPT Edu. Large public university systems, such as State University of New York, have also developed systemwide AI policies, and some colleges, such as Northwestern University, have launched AI majors.

But not everyone at CSU has embraced the growing use of AI on campuses. Some professors pushed back on the OpenAI deal after CSU signed it in early 2025. Martha Lincoln, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, said CSU administrators did not clearly explain how AI would be used on campuses and in classrooms by students.

“What will students be doing with AI that’s so valuable? If it’s so valuable to them professionally, educationally, where is that value and what does it look like?” Lincoln said.

Martha Kenney, a professor in the SFSU Department of Women and Gender Studies, said CSU’s claims that AI is helping prepare students for the changing labor market are dubious because the university has not clearly identified skills young people should develop for their future careers.

“It’s possible it has no use for our students in this way,” Kenney said.

According to an OpenAI spokesperson, ChatGPT Edu provides students with access to the company’s latest large language model, and includes plug-ins that students and faculty can use to personalize their accounts for teaching and learning.

University officials say providing access to tools like ChatGPT is essential to prevent a digital divide for CSU students who may not be able to afford subscriptions to these technologies.

“We believe we’re doing the right thing to serve our mission to prepare our students for the future workforce,” said Ed Clark, CSU’s chief information officer.

The future workforce

Erika McEntarfer, the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, said some experts in recent years have forecast that AI would wipe out white-collar workers’ jobs. There’s little evidence that has happened, she said.

It’s difficult for universities to predict which skills will be in demand in the future, she said, but colleges should prepare their students for disruptions to their careers. She noted that roughly 60% of today’s jobs didn’t exist in 1940.

Universities need to prepare students for a tough labor market, and not just because of AI, McEntarfer said. The recent rise in the unemployment rate among new graduates started before ChatGPT was introduced in 2022, she said.

McEntarfer’s advice to recent or soon-to-be graduates is to develop skills that make you a good “human” worker, such as small talk, showing up to work on time and meeting the needs of company leaders.

“With AI you need to make sure you’re using it as a personal trainer, not a human forklift,” McEntarfer advised future college graduates. “Hopefully that’s what colleges are doing.”

Mariana Sanchez is a fourth-year journalism major at San Jose State University and a member of the EdSource California Student Journalism Corps.

This story was originally published by EdSource.

Comedian Christopher Titus brings his 11th stand-up special Doomed to Repeat to Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank on Saturday, Oct. 10.

 Titus is one of the most prolific stand-ups of his generation. Over the past 25 years, his 10 comedy specials have touched on everything from his dysfunctional upbringing in the San Fernando Valley to issues of love, marriage and parenting, and even life under the Trump administration. All summer, he's been touring his 11th special, Doomed to Repeat, which he said is about what's going on in our country right now.

"Do you remember the bicentennial? I was around for the bicentennial. Don't do the math on that," Titus said. "I remember really being proud of my country. I was a little kid and was watching the sailing ships in New York and the fireworks behind the Statue of Liberty. I was proud to be an American. And then we had our 250th birthday, and it was thrown by our drunk, abusive stepfather. It was the weirdest, worst thing I've ever seen."

Titus said he goes after President Donald Trump "pretty hard" in Doomed to Repeat, but he does it "sideways."

"I did it in Texas, and I didn't get killed," Titus said. "So, it's good."

The signature bit of Doomed to Repeat centers on immigration, a topic Titus said he has a unique perspective on, pointing out that his ancestors have been in America for 400 years.

" I thought, what an interesting perspective with all that's going on with our country right now and all the hatred and demonization of immigrants, to talk about it from a place where my family's been here before there was a country," he said.

Titus said the routine is so pointed that it's caused people who disagree with him on the issue to walk out.

"You paid. We got your drink money. We got your ticket money, and now you're leaving?" Titus said. "The bit really nails why anybody who hates immigrants is not just a hypocrite, but like a mentally ill hypocrite."

Titus said that whether it's personal or political, no topic is too messy to bring to the stand-up stage.

"If talking about my mom's mental illness and being in bars when I was four and being kidnapped ... by my dad, I mean, I don't think so," Titus said. "Pryor taught us that. Richard was raised in a brothel. I think the whole point is to drag the audience through the horror that you went through, because we're all the same machine, right?"

Although Titus is currently touring his 11th comedy special, he's already thinking about No. 12.

" I'm at 990 minutes of stand-up comedy that I've written and produced," Titus said. " Carlin's my favorite guy, him and Robin [Williams].  George did 16 specials. I'm going for 17, hopefully before I crank out."

Titus headlines Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank on Saturday, Oct.10.

Newport Beach voters might get two separate ballots for the November election, which will determine whether they vote on one local ballot measure, or four.

In one of the weirdest cases to join Orange County’s substantial history of election oddities, Newport Beach is scrambling to comply with a court order by trying to stage its own election in conjunction with the regular, general election. This is highly unusual — the vast majority of cities in Orange County, and across California, rely on the county registrar of voters to administer their elections.

Lena Shumway, Newport Beach’s city clerk, has been tasked with pulling off the flash election, including putting together voter rolls, getting ballots and election guides printed and mailed (there will be no in-person voting), and, if the election happens, counting ballots and verifying voter signatures. She told LAist she’s running into multiple roadblocks, some of them seemingly insurmountable.

And yet, she said, “We’re going to hold the election because we have to comply.”

How we got here

Newport Beach is in this bind because it challenged the validity of three ballot measures in court and, in the meantime, missed the deadline to have the Orange County Registrar of Voters place them on the general election ballot. The three measures would:

• Limit City Council members to serving a total of eight years — currently, council members are barred from serving more than eight years consecutively, but can run again as long as they take a break.
• Establish by-district voting where residents in each of the city’s seven districts vote only for their district representative on council — currently, all residents vote for representatives of each district.
• Add a “sunshine provision” to the city’s charters that would, among other things, require the city to make advisory committee meetings accessible to the public, and establish a “Sunshine Task Force” to watchdog public records requests.   
  

The measures are sponsored by the Southern California Opportunity Group, a company owned by local real estate developer Ken Picerne and his Picerne Group.

According to campaign filings, Picerne has sunk more than $1 million into these and a fourth initiative, Measure H, which will be on the regular, general election ballot. Measure H would essentially redo the city’s state-approved housing development plan and substantially decrease the number of units that could be developed.

How did Measure H make it on the general election ballot while the other three did not?

Measure H actually qualified last year, and the city promptly asked the O.C. Registrar of Voters to put it on the November 2026 general election ballot.

That didn’t stop the city from trying to block Measure H in court this year, but the effort was unsuccessful.

What’s so hard about putting on an election?

Historically, many cities did put on their own separate elections for city leaders and city-specific ballot initiatives, said Fredric Woocher, a Southern California-based election attorney. Some cities held local elections in a totally different month and day than state and federal elections. And some held them on the same day, with separate ballots.

“It was always very confusing to voters,” Woocher said. Plus, turnout for municipal elections was often dismal, leading the state to pass a law in 2015 requiring most cities to align their local elections with the statewide dates.

These days, there aren’t many companies around that offer the kinds of services Newport Beach needs, Woocher said. The city is already on its second ballot printing company, after the first company bowed out because the time frame was too tight, according to Shumway.

To help coordinate the election, Newport Beach hired a fledgling consulting firm, Stellara Group, which opened for business last year, according to its filings with the Secretary of State.

Under the contract, the city could pay up to $495,000 to Stellara and subcontractors if the election actually happens. That is still unclear.

Is Newport Beach’s parallel election really going to happen?

Shumway said there are several major hurdles that could make it impossible to successfully put on the city’s special municipal election.

For one thing, the O.C. Registrar of Voters has said it can’t provide the complete files for Newport Beach voters. This includes the signatures on file, which are used to verify mail-in voters’ identity, and confidential voter files.

Without this information, Shumway said, carrying out the election is essentially impossible “because we’re disenfranchising people … and we can’t verify signatures,” she said.

Bob Page, the O.C. Registrar, said he “felt bad” for the city during a recent media call. “I just can't put the general statewide election at risk by dropping what we should be doing to create ways to help them when their request has come way too late,” he said.

Another major hurdle for Newport Beach — the California Secretary of State has thus far refused to provide the city with the required watermark and special ballot tint. Without those two things, the printing contractor says it won’t print the ballots for the city’s parallel election.

The company has given the city until Oct. 7 to get everything in place, or else look for a new, third printing company. “At this point, it’s a waiting game,” Shumway said.