The 2026-27 Budget: Re-Envisioning State Education Governance

Mar 18, 2026 - A Few Core Principles Could Guide Changes to the SPI ’s Role. The Governor ’s proposal is an opportunity for the Legislature to consider many changes to the SPI ’s role and duties. The previous governance studies and the state ’s experience with its current governance structure contain several lessons that could guide a redesign of the position.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5165

The 2026-27 Budget: Computer Science Supplementary Authorization

Mar 6, 2026 - Governor ’s Proposal Governor ’s Budget Extends Encumbrance Deadline, Increases Grant Size, and Reduces Match Requirement. The Governor ’s budget proposes to extend the encumbrance deadline for the program to June 30, 2030 and increase the maximum grant size to $6,000 per teacher.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5153

The 2026-27 Budget: K-12 Proposals

Feb 19, 2026 - The Governor ’s proposal uses clear objective criteria to determine eligibility (a school ’s EL/LI percentage). However, the Governor ’s proposal allows recipients of one ‑time community schools funding to be eligible for ongoing funding, even if they do not meet the other eligibility criteria.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5131

The 2026-27 Budget: Proposition 98 Guarantee and K-12 Spending Plan

Feb 4, 2026 - The rest of this section analyzes how the Governo r ’s proposal affects these three challenges. The State ’s Short ‑Term Forecasting Risk Is Considerable. The state ’s reliance on tax revenue associated with the stock market poses an acute risk to its revenue forecast.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5110

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool

Mar 19, 2026 - The 2026-27 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool Summary In this brief, we analyze the Governor ’s child care and State Preschool budget proposals and provide associated recommendations. Below, we provide a summary of our major recommendations.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168

Assessing a Shift to Enrollment-Based School Funding

Jan 6, 2026 - As part of the state ’s accountability system, districts report various student outcomes, referred to as statewide indicators, which are then displayed on a public website known as the school dashboard.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5100

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education

Nov 10, 2025 - The grant size is based on a school ’s TK-3 enrollment, with a minimum grant of $450,000. The remaining $15  million will be awarded to a COE to provide training to literacy coaches throughout the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5087

The 2026-27 Budget: Fiscal Outlook for Schools and Community Colleges

Nov 19, 2025 - The Proposition  98 Reserve generally requires withdrawals when the guarantee is less than the previous year ’s guarantee, adjusted for inflation. For  2026 ‑27, we estimate the guarantee is $5.5  billion below this threshold.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5093

The 2025-26 Budget: Department of Developmental Services

Mar 5, 2025 - DDS has completed the first two stages in the California Department of Technology ’s (CDT ’s) PAL process (the state ’s IT project approval process): the Stage 1 Business Analysis and Stage 2 Alternatives Analysis.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5008

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

Jan 13, 2025 - Governor ’s Budget Includes Some Smaller Proposals. The Governor ’s budget includes three categories of discretionary proposals. First, some proposals provide short ‑term budget savings that create more budget capacity.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951