This Web-based list provides comments by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) on budget issues being considered by the Legislature in 2010. Both budget-related findings and recommendations are included, but this is not intended to be a comprehensive tracking system of all budget items. The LAO will continue to publish various other written documents analyzing the state budget. The purpose of this list is to provide an efficient forum for our office to address more technical budget issues for which we may not have a formal write-up.
This list is designed so it can be filtered by policy area or budget item. Also, selected information from the list can be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet.
Filter by Subject Area or Budget Item
| Last Updated | Program | Issue | Finding or Recommendation | More Detail? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5/3/2010 | California Department of Education | Categorical "flex-item" allocations. | Recommend the Legislature modify the methodology used for allocating flex-item funding to base it on annual changes in districts' average daily attendance. | Detail |
| 2/23/2010 | California Department of Education | K-3 Class Size Reduction (CSR) program. | Recommend reducing the 2007-08 K-3 CSR allocation by 20 percent, consistent with other flex programs, then folding the program into the flex item. | Detail |
| 2/23/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to increase funding for the Charter School Facility Grant program by $18.4 million. Augmentation intended to convert the funding structure of the program from reimbursements to grants. | Continue to fund program on a reimbursement basis, for combined savings of $34 million in 2009-10 and 2010-11. | Detail |
| 2/23/2010 | Crosscutting | Governor's Overall Proposition 98 Funding Plan. | Legislature should consider two alternative courses of action in meeting the Proposition 98 requirements: (1) suspend the Proposition 98 requirement in 2009-10 and 2010-11 or (2) raise additional revenues by $6 billion or cut other spending by $3.2 billion to meet higher current-law funding levels. | Detail |
| 2/23/2010 | Crosscutting | LAO Alternative Proposition 98 Plan. | Recommend the Legislature adopt an alternative Proposition 98 plan that identifies additional ways to reduce state and local costs, expands flexibility for schools, includes comprehensive mandate reform, strategically aligns certain existing program efforts, and seeks opportunities to increase federal aid. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | English Language Acquisition Program (ELAP). | Merge ELAP and its associated funding into the more broad-based Economic Impact Aid program. This would grant school districts greater flexibility to spend the funds on English learner and low-income students of any grade level. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | After School Education and Safety (ASES) program. | Ask voters to repeal certain provisions of Proposition 49 and include ASES funding in K-12 flex item. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Kindergarten start date. | Change eligibility cutoff date for entering kindergarten from December 2 to September 1, effective for 2011-2012 school year. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Home-to-School (HTS) Transportation program. | Add the HTS Transportation program and its associated funding (roughly $500 million) to the K-12 flex item. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to change date of layoff notifications and eliminate layoff hearings. | Recommend giving districts until June 1 to make layoff decisions. Allow for additional layoff window if subsequent budget action results in significant mid-year reductions. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to remove requirement that school districts base teacher layoff, transfer, and assignment decisions on seniority. | Beginning in 2012, require districts to use performance evaluations in place of seniority for layoff, transfer, and assignment decisions. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to remove requirements associated with priority and pay for substitute teaching assignments. | Adopt Governor's proposal. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes allowing two additional years of observations before districts must decide to grant permanent status to teachers. | Adopt Governor's proposal. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes allowing districts to issue dismissal notices at any time. | Reject Governor's proposal. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes allowing districts to cease paying salary and benefits upon noticing a teacher of dismissal but requires districts to pay back wages should the teacher prevail in a dismissal hearing. | Recommend adopting Governor's proposal but further requiring districts to pay any interest accrued on foregone salary payments should the teacher prevail. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to remove four-year limitation on prior evidence in teacher dismissal trials. | Adopt Governor's proposal. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes removing two teacher members from the three-person panel that hears teacher dismissal cases. | Adopt Governor's proposal. | Detail |
| 2/22/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to make the ruling of the teacher dismissal panel or administrative law judge advisory. Authorizes local governing board to make final decision in teacher dismissal cases. | Reject Governor's proposal. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | The Governor's budget continues to provide $402 million in state funding for the Quality Education Investment Act school improvement program while providing no plan for spending $650 million in federal School Improvement Funds (SIF). | Recommend Legislature create a budget plan for federal SIF monies that ensures all available federal funds are used during the allotted period while also minimizing overlap among state and federal school improvement programs. Aligning state and federal efforts would save $231 million in state funding each year for the next three years. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor does not propose a plan for spending $72 million in one-time federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) funding available to help school districts improve their use of data. | Recommend allocating the EETT funds competitively for two purposes. Half of the funds would be awarded to school districts that provide early childhood education to help them collect and analyze pre-kindergarten data, with the other half awarded to districts serving high school students to help them meet new postsecondary and workforce readiness data requirements. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes suspending all but two of the roughly 50 K-14 education mandates that place requirements on school districts and community colleges. | Recommend saving the state over $350 million annually by adopting a comprehensive K-14 mandate reform package that evaluates mandates individually based on their policy merits. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes funding several career technical education (CTE) programs, of which roughly half have detailed programmatic requirements and half have had such requirements removed. | Recommend consolidating all high school CTE funding ($427 million) and eliminating programmatic requirements while monitoring certain related student outcomes. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | California Department of Education (CDE) categorical administration positions | Recommend decreasing CDE’s budget by $5.2 million (70 positions) to account for reduced administrative needs associated with certain categorical programs the state is not currently operating. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes cutting district revenue limits by $1.2 billion and imposing a new cap on noninstructional spending. | Reject proposal, preserve local decision-making power. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes cutting district revenue limits by $300 million and removing some existing restrictions on districts' ability to contract out for noninstructional services. | Approve language to remove restrictions on contracting out but without link to revenue limit reduction. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes cutting county offices of education (COE) revenue limits by $45 million and encouraging consolidation of more functions. | Implement more structured COE regionalization plan. Specifically, reduce each COE's general purpose revenue limit allocation by 10 percent ($33 million) and redirect additional 10 percent into new COE regional revenue limit. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes providing categorical funding to new schools established in 2008-09, 2009-10, or 2010-11. Specifically, the budget proposal includes $20 million in one-time funds and $29 million in ongoing funds. | Clarify eligibility and usage parameters before allocating categorical funds for new schools. | Detail |
| 2/19/2010 | California Department of Education | Economic Impact Aid (EIA) program. | Make technical reduction of $101 million to align funding with declining eligible student count (includes $63 million in one-time 2009-10 savings and $38 million in ongoing 2010-11 savings.) Additionally, free districts from certain regulatory and compliance-related requirements that CDE has developed to guide districts' EIA expenditures. | Detail |
| 2/18/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor seeks $1 billion in one-time federal funding as compensation for the federal government not covering its full share of special education costs. If funds were received, they would be used for general fiscal relief. | Recommend California request that the federal government fully fund the federal 40 percent-of-excess-cost policy and permanently increase federal special education funding for all states. Accordingly, states and school districts should be allowed to reduce their share of costs. | Detail |
| 1/24/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor's 2010-11 Proposition 98 budget proposal. | LAO initial assessment of Governor's 2010-11 Proposition 98 budget proposal. | Detail |
| 1/24/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes special session action to reduce 2009-10 Proposition 98 spending by $568 million. Of this amount $340 million is associated with savings from the K-3 Class Size Reduction program and $228 million is associated with K-12 revenue limit savings. | Given several major factors remain uncertain, Legislature may want to wait until it has better information before making midyear Proposition 98 reductions. | Detail |
| 1/24/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to make a partial 2010-11 prepayment for the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) program. Specifically, proposes to pay $250 million of K-12 program costs in June 2010. | Recommend Legislature decide this issue as part of a comprehensive Proposition 98 package. Given several major factors remain uncertain, Legislature may want to wait until it has better information to build this comprehensive package. | Detail |
| 1/24/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes to increase funding for the Charter School Facility Grant program by $18.4 million. Augmentation intended to convert the funding structure of the program from reimbursements to grants. | Additional funding for program is consistent with recently enacted legislation. Action is time-sensitive as additional funding would support 2009-10 costs. | Detail |
| 1/24/2010 | California Department of Education | Governor proposes special session action to provide $20 million in categorical funding for new schools opened in 2008-09 and 2009-10. | Providing such funding for new schools in growing districts is reasonable. Action is time-sensitive as funding intended to support prior- and current-year activities. | Detail |