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

Feb 4, 2026 - The proposal effectively shifts that cost from this year to future budgets —helping address the current budget problem on a one ‑time basis, but adding to the large budget deficits the state is projecting over the next several years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5110

The 2025-26 Budget: California State University

Feb 25, 2025 - Though the number of students shifted from self‑ to state‑supported courses is smaller in 2024‑25 compared to 2023‑24 (745 FTE students shifted in summer 2024 compared to 4,705 FTE students shifted the previous summer), the effect is still not adding new students but adding new state costs from shifting students formerly in self‑supported courses into state‑supported ones.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4989

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

Mar 18, 2026 - Considering Adding Legislative Appointees to the SBE. The Legislature could consider adding two legislative appointees to the SBE. These appointees could enable greater legislative oversight of the new governance system and ensure the SBE ’s policies are consistent with legislative intent.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5165

The 2024-25 Budget: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education

Feb 15, 2024 - We find the proposed training funds to be premature since the approved list of screening tools has not been finalized and funds are being added to the block grant earlier than needed under the traditional claims ‑based process.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4839

The 2025-26 Budget: School Nutrition

Mar 4, 2025 - All other meals are reimbursed at the “paid ” rate. In 2024 ‑25, the federal government reimburses schools up to $4.54 for lunches served at the free rate and up to 53 cents for lunches served at the paid rate.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5001

Volatility of the Personal Income Tax Base

Feb 8, 2017 - A measure of the year ‑to ‑year volatility of income and taxes: “average deviation ” (AD). The AD of major elements of California ’s PIT base, such as wages and capital gains. This will help illustrate what drives the volatility of the tax base.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3548

The 2022-23 Budget: California College Guidance Initiative

Feb 22, 2022 - The proposed augmentation brings total ongoing CCGI funding to $16.6  million, with 294 districts that still need to be added to the platform. CCGI initially estimated the cost of fully scaling operations between $18  million and $20  million, but given the large number of districts that have yet to be added to the platform, we remain uncertain about the long ‑term costs for fully scaling CCGI.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4553

Update on School District Retiree Health Benefits

Sep 25, 2017 - This added cost pressure comes at a time when districts are facing other pressures —most notably, rising pension costs and expectations to enhance services for low-income students and English learners.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3704

The 2019-20 Budget: Special Education Teaching Performance Assessment

Apr 30, 2019 - During the early 1990s, the Legislature became concerned with the coherence of the teacher credentialing system, as the state had added credential requirements incrementally over the years without comprehensive evaluation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4022

The 2023-24 Budget: Equity Multiplier and Accountability Proposals

Feb 23, 2023 - High ‑poverty schools are more likely to have less experienced, lower ‑paid staff, which often offsets the additional targeted spending that districts provide to these schools. Additional Funding Is Not the Key Issue, Recommend Rejecting Funding Increase.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4700