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

Nov 16, 2022 - The Education Budget in Context Tighter Outlook Follows Two Years of Extraordinary Growth. Although our outlook estimates a drop in the guarantee in 2022 ‑23 and slow growth in 2023 ‑24, these changes build upon two previous years of historic growth.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4648

The 2025‑26 Budget: Fiscal Outlook for Schools and Community Colleges

Nov 20, 2024 - Finally, we compare the funding available under the guarantee with the cost of existing education programs and identify some issues for the Legislature to consider in the coming year. ( The2025‑26 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook contains our outlook for the overall state budget.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4940

California Community Colleges—Managing Cash in a Time of State Payment Deferrals

Dec 18, 2020 - In our recently released reports,   The 2021‑22 Budget: California’s Fiscal Outlook and The 2021‑22 Budget: The Fiscal Outlook for Schools and Community Colleges , we show that the budget situation has improved considerably compared with June 2020 estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4307

The 2023-24 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2023 - Comparison to LAO November Outlook. In  our Fiscal Outlook released in November 2022, we anticipated the state would face a $24 billion budget problem, somewhat higher than the $18 billion budget problem we estimate the Governor addressed.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4662

The 2026-27 Budget: California Student Aid Commission

Feb 17, 2026 - Given the state ’s fiscal outlook, the Legislature likely will need to consider not only this MCS proposal but many other budget ‑balancing proposals over the next couple of years. Given the MCS program has significant overlap with the Cal Grant program, is less targeted to lower ‑income students, and is more complex to convey and administer than other financial aid programs, reducing MCS award coverage could be among the least disruptive choices the Legislature  faces.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5127

Update on Community College Reserves

Jan 27, 2021 - Outlook Has Improved but Monitoring Colleges ’ Fiscal Health Remains Important. Systemwide, community college reserves grew somewhat from June 2019 through June 2020. Since June 2020, the state ’s fiscal outlook, as well as the Proposition  98 outlook for school and community college funding, has improved.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4323

The 2026-27 Budget: University of California

Feb 26, 2026 - Given this context, if the Legislature wishes to continue providing base increases to UC despite the challenging budget outlook, it could consider approving smaller increases that are more closely aligned with current inflationary benchmarks —such as the 2.41  percent base increase proposed for community colleges.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5143

The 2020-21 Budget: Cal Grant Cost Estimates

Nov 21, 2019 - In this post, we provide background on Cal Grants, describe the key factors driving recent spending increases, provide our spending estimates for 2020 ‑21, and discuss the spending outlook through 2023 ‑24.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4114

The 2020-21 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2020 - The administration ’s revenue assumptions are very close to our November 2019 Fiscal Outlook revenue estimates in the near term. Across 2018‑19 to 2020‑21, the administration’s estimates of revenue from the state’s three largest taxes are $34 million (less than 0.01 percent of total collections) above our Fiscal Outlook estimates.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4135

The 2023-24 Budget: Higher Education Overview

Jan 31, 2023 - The method the state selects for financing projects could depend in part upon its relative near ‑term and long ‑term fiscal outlook, with borrowing more preferable if the near ‑term situation is poor but the long ‑term outlook is strong.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4664