Prop. 13

Responsible for 50 years of chronic underfunding

Because of Proposition 13, corporations have robbed our public schools and communities of more than 200 BILLION dollars.

How Did This Happen?

47 years ago, a small number of California voters passed Proposition 13. Prop. 13 froze property taxes at 1% of the property purchase price, and was intended to benefit older homeowners.

What many voters then didn’t realize, and many still don’t, is that this property tax cap also applies to corporations. The authors of Prop. 13 sold it as a way to help everyday homeowners, but gave those same tax benefits to huge corporations like Chevron and Disney.

The year after Prop. 13, property tax revenue dropped by a whopping 60 percent.

Those big corporations are still paying 1970s level property taxes. All in, they’re robbing our schools and communities of $17 BILLION every single year.

Reforming Prop. 13 will restore $17 BILLION to our public schools and communities every single year.

San Francisco alone stands to gain $1 BILLION annually.

Proposition 13 has contributed to the systemic state level disinvestment from our California public schools. Once Prop. 13 was passed, California dropped from in the top 10 states for public school funding to 44th in the nation. Other impacts of Proposition 13 include:

  • Severe classroom overcrowding

  • Low per-pupil funding

  • Limited access to after school programs

  • Very low librarian to student and counselor to student ratios

  • Chronic teacher shortages

  • Increased high school drop out rates

Proposition 13 is hindering the growth and success of our students. It is essential that we restore that $17 billion a year to our public schools, so that we can once again be top of the nation in education.

Get Involved with Prop. 13 Reform

Sign the petition to Governor Newsom to insist he vocally support reform in 2026.