Staff
- Sara Cortez
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(916) 319-8348
Special Education, Preschool, Child Nutrition, and Facilities - 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 Community Colleges - Michael Alferes
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(916) 319-8338
Local Control Funding Formula, Charter Schools, Alternative Schools, High School Career Technical Education - Natalie Gonzalez
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(916) 319-8320
California State University, Student Financial Aid - Dylan Hawksworth-Lutzow
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(916) 319-8308
Child Care, Expanded Learning, Teachers, and Education Technology - 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 - Florence Bouvet
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(916) 319-8310
University of California; College of the Law, San Francisco; California State Library
Publications
Education
To browse all LAO publications, visit our Publications page.
The 2026-27 Budget: K-12 Mandates
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May 1, 2026 - The Commission on State Mandates (the Commission) recently found two new requirements to be reimbursable state mandates: (1) offering menstrual products in public school restrooms and (2) confirming that public high school students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application. In this post, we provide background on school mandates, then describe our assessment and recommendations for each of the new mandates. This post fulfills a requirement for our office to analyze new mandates, as specified in Section 17562 of the Government Code.
The 2026-27 Budget: Update on Local Control Funding Formula Costs
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May 1, 2026 - In February 2026, CDE certified P-1 data for 2025-26 and annual data for 2024-25. In addition to preliminary ADA, the P-1 data also includes preliminary estimates of total LCFF costs and other associated data. In this post, we describe our findings from the updated data and the fiscal implications of this data on the Governor’s January budget LCFF estimates for 2025-26 and 2026-27.
The 2026-27 Budget: Re-Envisioning State Education Governance
March 18, 2026 - In this brief, we examine the Governor’s proposal to restructure state governance. The first section explains how the current system evolved and describes the main entities and their responsibilities. The second section reviews previous governance studies and explains how governance works in other contexts. The third section describes the Governor’s proposal, including its core feature: transferring management of the California Department of Education from the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to a new education commissioner. The fourth section assesses the merits of this proposal and outlines some principles for re-envisioning the SPI's role. The fifth section provides our recommendations.
The 2026-27 Budget: Computer Science Supplementary Authorization
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March 6, 2026 - This post analyzes the Governor’s budget proposal to increase the size of grants and extend the Computer Science Supplementary Authorization Incentive program.
Overview of Proposition 28 Arts Funding for Schools
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February 12, 2026 - Assembly Committee on Education and Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism
The 2026-27 Budget: Proposition 98 Guarantee and K-12 Spending Plan
February 4, 2026 - This brief examines the estimates of the Proposition 98 guarantee in the Governor’s budget and assesses the overall structure of the Governor’s school spending plan. It also examines a few of the larger spending proposals and the proposal to delay a $5.6 billion settle-up payment.
Assessing a Shift to Enrollment-Based School Funding
January 6, 2026 - Chapter 442 of 2024 (SB 98, Portantino) requires our office to report on the effects of changing the student count methodology of the Local Control Funding Formula and other K-12 education programs from average daily attendance to student enrollment. In this report, we provide our assessment of such a shift, describe a few policy alternatives that maintain the attendance-based system, and identify key issues for the Legislature to consider if switching to enrollment-based funding.
The 2026-27 Budget: Fiscal Outlook for Schools and Community Colleges
November 19, 2025 - We forecast that increases to the Proposition 98 guarantee in 2024-25 and 2025-26, coupled with a preexisting payment obligation, require the state to provide nearly $7.4 billion in one-time funds for schools and community colleges. For 2026-27, we estimate the guarantee is $117.8 billion, an increase of $3.2 billion (2.8 percent) from the previously enacted level. This growth—combined with a required reserve withdrawal—would be just enough to fund a 2.51 percent statutory cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The state could use the one-time funds to build budget resiliency, which seems especially important given the risks of a stock market downturn.
The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education
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November 10, 2025 - This post summarizes Proposition 98 funding and K-12 education spending in the 2025-26 budget package.
The 2025-26 Budget: Analysis of the School and Community College Funding Split
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May 20, 2025 - The 2025-26 Budget: Analysis of the School and Community College Funding Split
The 2025-26 Budget: Analysis of the May Revision K-14 Education Plan
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May 20, 2025 - The 2025-26 Budget: Analysis of the May Revision K-14 Education Plan
Child Care Funding Rates and Transition to an Alternative Methodology
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April 3, 2025 - Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 3 On Health and Human Services
Overview of K-12 Career Technical Education
March 25, 2025 - This brief is intended to give policymakers a high-level overview of the state’s role in supporting K-12 career technical education programs. We also raise key issues for the Legislature as it considers policy and budget decisions related to career technical education.