By Flor Blanco
John Stossel’s recent X post about a growing interest in socialism among youth misses the mark on the strong influence of socialism among regions of our nation today—especially in California.
Instead of pointing to a lack of understanding of the historical impacts of socialism among youth, look no further than the once golden state of California. Fueled by a backbreaking economy, a socialistic ideology is being churned from California public schools, backed by health and public institutions.
What’s Possible for Youth in California
Labeled as the state with the highest homelessness rates in 2025, California’s housing market is still unreachable with only 15% of young adults ages 25-30 owning homes in the state according to a Berkley study. Despite affordable housing programs sprinkled throughout the state, the high costs of building due to municipal permits, labor costs and regulations have resulted in affordable housing costing more than market-priced housing per a recent study from the RAND think tank.
About 17% of young adults aged 18-24 live below the poverty line. However, about 57.1% of adults ages 18-24 live with family compared to 21% of youth ages 25-29. This may account for a lower poverty rate among youth despite economic challenges. Enrollment for social services increased along with the percentages of the population at or near poverty level, which is a whopping 31.2% based on a California Policy Institute study in early 2023. These datapoints describe a growing gap between the have and have-nots in California, with the have-nots getting younger.
A decrease in opportunities for youth limit the number of role models for others coming of age, who cannot find peers or young mentors able to live the American dream in our state. The scenario allows youth to communicate challenges facing their generation from ideological perspectives, and less on experiential ones. In a recent article about the voting trends of youth during the 2024 election, published in CalMatters a political analyst McGhee confirmed this view.
“A big part of why young people don’t vote is because they’re less rooted to their communities. They’re not homeowners by and large … They haven’t reached that stage of life where they feel quite as, kind of, connected to things.”
Institutions Funneling a Generation with a “State Knows Best” Mindset
Unfortunately, the indoctrination in California schools remains under-reported. This exists in spite of recent tweets from President Trump threatening to remove federal funds to California public schools immediately after a transgendered male won regional titles in several track and field races allowing entry into state finals in female competitions.
Things are much worse because the media perception is that the majority of California parents support these practices. In reality, the majority of parents have been silenced by run-away-boards and a state legislature prioritizing sexual freedoms and rights of minors bridging on full blown emancipation. Here is an example from a recent school board meeting in Southern California from a district with a large minority and migrant population. Note: The speaker is translating the thoughts of the person on the bottom left of the video, who shared her thoughts in Spanish.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxzGg_gvUC262gygGPzUQTTnQ6mXbqQUnW?si=DdYDmJ3_0r7eDvrP
Another truth under reported is that the state represents among the highest percentage of multi-racial families in the nation, a figure that is sometimes hidden by the mandate to identify as ethnically Hispanic or Latino. Although the state has full access to such data, California passed AB 101 in 2021 mandating Ethnic Studies as a required course for graduation, which brought lesson plans such as the following.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHqQtYvRTjz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D
Ethnics studies are expanded to include areas with little relation to ancestry or biological lineage, such as gender theory, as in the below example.
The following clip is old. It is an example of a stellar student from a rather affluent school district in California, and one of classic conditioning. He is a student representative of a board speaking about his views on parental notification.
A more recent example occurred during a mandatory high school assembly in January of this year. The leadership presentation promoted DEI thought while condemning specific derogatory speech, in particular to non-conforming views that were labeled as mean.
Legislative bills override parental intervention of such ideologies, making it expensive and challenging for Californians to overturn. These bills include AB665 in 2023, which enabled youth ages 12 and over to receive mental health treatment through that state’s Medi-CAL insurance without parental notification, and AB 2273 in 2022, which prohibited health insurance companies from disclosing certain procedures given to minors covered under private parent polices to name a few. Such bills exalt the conscience of the state above its citizenry and extend beyond school boundaries establishing support for non-parental decisions among welfare and medical institutions.
Such factors make California a ripe environment for conditioning youth to rely on the government for sustenance and ideological thought. The laws of the state are so powerful that they are causing legal issues with parents living outside of California as described in a recent Rumble video on Judicial Corruption in California.
Is There Hope?
Yes, there is hope. The hope lies in reigning in the state government to conform to overarching federal laws, which remind the California government to operate as part of a union of states that uphold liberties inherent in natural law and the rights secured by federal statutes. This is the delicate balance of federal and state powers described in Article VI section 2 of the US constitution and the Ninth Amendment.