FUSD faces state-wide elimination of the CA COMPASS Program

By Staff Writers Leina Ikeda & Valentina Tsui

For nearly a decade, the California Online Media Program for Access and Student Success (COMPASS) has provided CA students with free access to vetted online resources. On June 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the CA 2026-27 budget, no longer allocating an annual $5.5 million to research databases provided by COMPASS, set to go into effect on July 1, 2027. Despite FUSD’s alternative database, Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO), the elimination of COMPASS threatens to reduce the variety of platforms students can access for research.

In 2018, the state Department of Education estimated that nearly half of the school districts in CA did not provide students with library databases. As a result, COMPASS was launched to provide statewide access to supplemental resources to K-12 students at no cost to public schools. The program is funded by the Riverside County Office of Education in partnership with the CA State Library, the central research library for state government and legislature. COMPASS provides students and educators with materials that have been checked for accuracy by teachers and credentialed school librarians. These resources include articles, research papers, and multimedia content such as digital books and streaming videos from Britannica, ProQuest, and TeachingBooks. Since 2018, Californians have accessed COMPASS platforms more than 700 million times.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has not explicitly stated the reasons behind the budget cut towards the program. The $5.5 million among the $352 billion budget that would have been directed towards COMPASS is now allocated to CA’s new dyslexia screener and an online educator’s program called California Educators Together. In June, California Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said during an interview with CalMatters that Newsom did not propose this program elimination. According to the CA State Library, individual schools subscribing to COMPASS’s databases independently will cost schools more than $216 million annually, compared to the current $5.5 million state funding.

On the other hand, EBSCO provides access to resources like Explora and EBSCO eBooks. However, unlike COMPASS’s ProQuest which is currently funded and provided by the state, school districts have to individually fund EBSCO resources. FUSD’s subscription to EBSCO costs $30,000-35,000 per year. “Small school districts just can’t afford it,” MSJ Teacher Librarian Julie Boyer said. “So having COMPASS gives access to all kids in our state.” 

FUSD’s shared IP address further complicates the district’s ability to accurately gauge student COMPASS database usage. The district requested a file from the state last spring, but has yet to receive it, as of October 16. The district has no current plans to replace COMPASS resources. “I think [EBSCO] is going to be sufficient, [but] it’s not going to be perfect,” FUSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Corey Brown said. “It was nice when we had both and covered a wider range. This will just be a little bit more focused.” 

The elimination of this program causes FUSD students to shift away from resources they previously relied on. “I didn’t realize that the databases [were] always just … something that the library has always had … I just never thought that they could be taken away,” Irvington High School Senior Sophie Luo said. Irvington requires students to complete three research benchmark projects: Change in freshman year, World Issues Project in sophomore year, and QUEST in senior year. All three projects require source checks. “[In] freshman year for your sources, you’re able to just use regular articles … But [in] senior year … the requirements for [the article standards] have expanded,” Luo said. “[M]ore of them have to be scholarly or academic journal sourced articles. … They have to fit specific parameters, like they have to be about the US, [and have been] published in the last five years or so.” 

Students who have used research platforms highlighted the difference between what EBSCO and COMPASS provide. “EBSCO is one portal … So all your research and everything you get is from this one app. But I feel like the COMPASS program made it much more easy to get diverse research [with] these sources,” SURFBoardE MSJ Student Representative Junior Sai Aditya Koorapati said. “I think [the] COMPASS program is better, but EBSCO could be a good placeholder for now if we’re able to get the COMPASS program [back] in the future.”

Sophomore Yash Karlekar finds COMPASS platforms helpful for his extracurricular research. “With the advancement of AI, … people have been using [COMPASS] resources less,” he said. “[B]ut they definitely still are a great tool for someone … who actually wants information, [or] wants to read, and they’re great sources of information which are highly trusted.” Karlekar has found Britannica particularly useful as a source for his Model United Nations background guides and position papers.

MSJ staff familiar with student research projects note that they are an effective way to practice and prepare for postsecondary education. “Colleges expect students to come to college already knowing how to use the [research] databases,” Boyer said. “So for college readiness, [providing free access to databases] is very important.”