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The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 98 Guarantee and K-12 Spending Plan


Handout

[PDF] The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 98 Guarantee and K-12 Spending Plan

February 27, 2025 - Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education

Handout

[PDF] The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 98 Guarantee and K-12 Spending Plan

March 5, 2025 - Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance

Brief

The 2025-26 Budget: Transitional Kindergarten

February 18, 2025 - This brief provides an overview and analysis of the Governor’s proposals for transitional kindergarten.

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The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education

September 16, 2024 - This post summarizes Proposition 98 funding and K-12 education spending in the 2024-25 budget package.

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The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education

November 28, 2023 - This post summarizes overall Proposition 98 funding and K-12 education spending in the 2023-24 budget package. It is part of our Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.

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The 2025-26 Budget: Transitional Kindergarten Multilingual Learner Screeners

February 26, 2025 - In this post, we provide background on the state’s English learner identification process, describe and assess the Governor’s proposal to provide $10 million for a multilingual learner screener in transitional kindergarten, and provide our recommendations to the Legislature.

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The 2024-25 Budget: Overview of the Spending Plan

September 6, 2024 - Each year, our office publishes the California Spending Plan to summarize the annual state budget. This publication provides an overview of the 2024‑25 Budget Act, gives a brief description of how the budget process unfolded, and then highlights major features of the budget approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. All figures in this publication reflect actions taken through early July 2024, but we have updated the narrative to reflect actions taken later in the legislative session.

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[PDF] The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

January 13, 2025 - Update (1/16/25): A set of tables detailing various solutions and proposals has been appended to the online version of this report. They are available using the HTML link above.

On January 10, 2025, Governor Newsom’s administration presented its proposed state budget to the California Legislature. In this report, we provide a brief summary of the Governor’s budget based on our initial review as of January 12. In the coming weeks, we will analyze the plan in more detail and release many additional issue-specific budget analyses. For those additional analyses, please see our budget page.

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[PDF] The 2025-26 Budget: Higher Education Overview

February 6, 2025 - In this brief, we provide an overview and initial analysis of the Governor’s higher education budget plan.

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The 2023-24 Budget: Fiscal Outlook for Schools and Community Colleges

November 16, 2022 - Each year, the state calculates a “minimum guarantee” for school and community college funding based upon a set of formulas established by Proposition 98 (1988). Based upon recent signs of weakness in the economy, we estimate the guarantee in 2023‑24 is $2.2 billion (2 percent) below the 2022‑23 enacted budget level. Despite this drop, $7.6 billion would be available to provide increases for school and community college programs. In 2023‑24, the available funding could cover a cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) of up to 8.38 percent, which is slightly below our estimate of the statutory rate (8.73 percent). Over the next several years, growth in the guarantee and required reserve withdrawals would be just enough to cover the statutory COLA. Given this relatively precarious balance, we outline a few ways the Legislature could create a larger cushion to protect against revenue declines in the future.

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[PDF] The 2025-26 Budget: Expanded Learning Opportunities Program

February 20, 2025 - In this brief, we assess the Governor’s 2025-26 proposal for the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and provide associated recommendations.

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The 2022-23 California Spending Plan: Proposition 98

October 24, 2022 - This post summarizes overall Proposition 98 funding and K-12 education spending in the 2022-23 budget package. It is part of our Spending Plan series, which contains posts focused on each major sector of the state budget.

Brief

The 2023-24 Budget: Transitional Kindergarten and State Preschool Proposals

February 14, 2023 - This brief provides an overview and analysis of the Governor’s proposals for transitional kindergarten and State Preschool.

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[PDF] The 2012-13 Budget: Proposition 98 Education Analysis

February 6, 2012 - This report analyzes the Governor's Proposition 98 budget package, including his basic budget plan and back-up plan as well as his multiyear plan to retire the "Wall of Debt" as it pertains to outstanding education obligations. The report makes a number of recommendations, including designating new revenues for paying down existing K-14 payment deferrals; replacing the education mandate system with a discretionary block grant; adopting some version of the Governor’s K-12 funding restructuring proposal, with general spending requirements that districts dedicate additional resources to their disadvantaged students; expanding community college categorical flexibility; canceling initiation of the transitional kindergarten program scheduled to begin in 2012-13; and prioritizing access to subsidized preschool for affected low-income children.