Staff
- Jackie Barocio
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(916) 319-8333
Child Care, Expanded Learning, School Facilities, and Teachers - Sara Cortez
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(916) 319-8348
Special Education, Preschool, and Child Nutrition - Kenneth Kapphahn
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(916) 319-8339
Proposition 98, School District Budgets, School Transportation - Lisa Qing
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(916) 319-8306
California State University, Student Financial Aid - Paul Steenhausen
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(916) 319-8303
California Community Colleges - Ian Klein
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(916) 319-8336
University of California; College of the Law, San Francisco; California State Library - Michael Alferes
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(916) 319-8338
Local Control Funding Formula, Charter Schools, Alternative Schools, High School Career Technical Education - Edgar Cabral
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(916) 319-8343
Deputy Legislative Analyst: K-12 Education - Jennifer Pacella
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(916) 319-8332
Deputy Legislative Analyst: Higher Education
Publications
Education
To browse all LAO publications, visit our Publications page.
Williams Legislation: Facilities Emergency Repair Program
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April 18, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No.2 On Education Finance.
Migrant Education Program
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April 18, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
Funding Enrollment Growth at UC and CSU
March 28, 2006 - Year-to-year changes in the state’s higher education costs are greatly influenced by changes in student enrollment levels. Each year as part of the annual budget process, the Legislature must determine (1) how many additional students will enroll at the University of California and the California State University and (2) how much it will cost to serve those additional students. This report reviews factors that influence enrollment growth and the current methodology of calculating the “marginal cost” of serving additional students. Specifically, for 2006-07, we recommend, first, funding 2 percent enrollment growth at UC and CSU and second, revising the current methodology for calculating the marginal cost of enrolling an additional student, in order to more accurately budget for these expenses.
Overview of the Governor's 2006-07 Budget Proposal
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March 15, 2006 - Presented to Mervyn Dymally, Chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
Proposition 82 Overview
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March 14, 2006 - Presented to the Senate Education Committee, Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, Assembly Education Committee, and Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.
Revenue Limit Overview
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March 14, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Committee Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
Review of the 2006-07 Budget
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March 14, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Committee Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
K-12 Mandates
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March 14, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Committee Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
Proposition 98 Overview
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March 14, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
Reforming the Governance Structure of the California Student Aid Commission and EdFund.
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March 9, 2006 - Presented to the Joint Assembly and Senate Education Committee.
K-12 Education Issues In the 2006-07 Budget
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February 23, 2006 - We highlight the major K-12 recommendations in our Analysis of the 2006-07 Budget Bill.
K-12 Facilities Emergency Repair Program
February 23, 2006 - The current structure of the Emergency Repair Program (ERP) makes it difficult for districts to apply for funds and provides incentives for districts to avoid addressing facility problems until they become real emergencies. We recommend the Legislature enact legislation to grant the ERP funds directly to districts with low performing schools to address facility needs identified by their facilities needs assessments, and maintain $50 million at the state level to provide districts with loans for pressing emergency repair needs.
After School Programs and Proposition 49
February 23, 2006 - As approved by voters in 2002, Proposition 49 requires the state to increase funding for the After School Education and Safety (ASES) program beginning in 2006-07. We continue to recommend the Legislature enact legislation placing before the voters a repeal of Proposition 49 because (1) it triggers an autopilot augmentation even though the state is facing a structural budget gap of billions of dollars, (2) the additional spending on after school programs is a lower budget priority than protecting districts’ base education program, and (3) existing state and federal after school funds are going unused.
K-12 and Community College Mandates
February 23, 2006 - The Governor’s budget proposes $133.6 million from the General Fund to pay for the costs of state-mandated local programs in K-12 education and community colleges in 2006-07. We find that the amount proposed in the budget bill for mandates falls short of fully funding ongoing mandate costs; the mandates claims process could be streamlined and simplified by reimbursing districts on a per-pupil basis for all K-12 mandates; recent action by the Commission on State Mandates (CSM) on the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) mandate raises issues about how the state should address local implementation costs of this program; and funding for state truancy mandates could be used more effectively by transforming these programs into a categorical program aimed at reducing truancy and dropouts.
School District Financial Condition
February 23, 2006 - In our Analysis of the 2005-06 Budget Bill, we discussed the range of fiscal issues facing school districts. These included low general purpose reserves, internal borrowing from self-insurance funds, and falling state revenues due to declining enrollment. We also discussed the long-term challenge created by new accounting requirements on retiree health benefits. The financial health of districts has not improved significantly, and may have even worsened somewhat, over the past year. Here we deepen our discussion of the impact of the new accounting requirements on K-12 school districts and reiterate our recommendations for ensuring that districts address retiree health liabilities. We also provide the Legislature with an option to help improve district financial conditions through a fiscal solvency block grant, which would give districts flexible funds to address the broad range of fiscal problems encountered locally.