California decision-makers haven’t kept their promise to keep it cool in schools.

Despite a 2020 program, CalSHAPE, that provided utility ratepayer funding to let state schools evaluate their air conditioning and then use the funds to pay for upgrades, many of the schools never got them.

The California Energy Commission cut the program short by 2 years in 2024, leaving just 172 of more than 4,500 schools that needed upgrades to their heating and cooling systems with funding to improve their systems.

Schools are upset that lawmakers aren’t making it a priority to prevent students from sweating in the California heat.

“There are periods of the school year where it’s pretty much baking all day long, and some of the older units can’t keep up,” Greg Page, energy management specialist for the Temecula Valley Unified School District, told CalMatters. “Our team is working by emergency pretty much nonstop during those hot times.”

The district received $4.6 million in funds during phase 1 of the energy commission’s program, the evaluation stage, and managed to survey 30 schools in the district for upgrades. Temecula Valley managed to even apply some upgrades early with the money, fixing some HVAC systems and replacing some air filters and thermostats.

But the district wasn’t able to replace around a third of its aging heating and cooling systems across the district because they were unable to apply for phase 2 funds.

Another district, Torrance Unified School District, wasn’t able to replace critical cooling systems after identifying 300 air conditioning units beyond use. They also missed the window to apply.

“This was money that was pulled back unjustifiably,” Keith Butler, deputy superintendent of Torrance Unified School District, told CalMatters. “This is a good use of funds that has been set aside already – we just wanted it to go back out to finish the work.”

“We’ve been band-aiding what we have,” Butler added, “but there will be a point where they are not working in the not too distant future.”

Why pull the funds? The commission attributed it to budget constraints, but an audit provided more context.

A 2025 audit from the California Public Utilities Commission found the energy commission’s complicated funding process halted it from accepting more applications. The process left school districts at risk of missing deadlines connected to a complex legal process that requires the commission to return any unspent funds to utilities once the program ends. 

It ultimately recommended that the state energy commission find a way to spend all the money or let the state legislature pass a law to let ratepayers have the money back.

“The CalSHAPE funding was initially collected by the utilities from ratepayers,” Elaine Kahan, a spokesperson for the commission, told CalMatters. “It is assumed that when the funds are returned to the utilities that they could be returned to ratepayers or offset the collection of additional funds from ratepayers.”   

The money returned to ratepayers would likely only be between $2 and $24, according to CalMatters.

PG&E, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric told the outlet they plan to return funds to customers through either bill relief or use them to offset rising bills.

Lawmakers are now weighing whether to spend $70 million in interest on the funds towards a virtual power plant energy program. 

But advocates say that turns a blind eye to sweating schoolchildren.

“We’re going to kneecap this program out of some philosophical argument about how programs should be funded?” JuNelle Harris, founder of Clean Air Allies, a nonprofit that advocates for healthy air in schools, told CalMatters.

“That just seems to me like bad government. If the money is there and the program is working, why would we not use that money and try to make the program as successful as possible?” she added.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order last year directing the energy commission to examine ratepayer-funded programs “whose funding might more appropriately come from a source other than ratepayers.”

CalShape’s fate will go down to Newsom and state lawmakers. Staff in the state Senate have recommended that the program be extended.

Negotiations between the governor’s office and the legislature are expected to continue through August, the state’s hottest month.

The California Post reached out to the governor’s office for comment.

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