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 2026-27 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool

Mar 19, 2026 - For example, the 2025‑26 budget provided $30 million to support the transition to paying providers prospectively. (Currently, the state pays providers after they have submitted timesheets demonstrating they have provided care.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168

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

Nov 20, 2024 - Outside of government and health care, the state has added no jobs over the past 18 months. Similarly, the number of Californians who are unemployed is 25  percent higher than during the strong labor markets of 2019 and 2022.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4940

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

Nov 19, 2025 - The 2025 ‑26 adopted budget used $1.7  billion in one ‑time funds to pay for ongoing school and community college programs. Most of these one ‑time funds came from (1)  increases in the Proposition  98 guarantee in previous years and (2)  savings related to deferring payments.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5093

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

Feb 13, 2025 - New Requirements Added in 2024 ‑25 Following a Legal Settlement. In late 2020, the families of several students living in Oakland and Los Angeles filed a lawsuit alleging the state had failed to ensure that schools provided adequate instruction during the pandemic ( Cayla  J.  
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4963

A Review of the CalSTRS Funding Plan: Recent Policy Change Increases District Rates

Feb 2, 2016 - Because the funding plan ’s key calculation makes the district share relatively insensitive to changes in assets, the bulk of added unfunded liabilities under this scenario would instead be assigned to the state.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3338

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 2018-19 Budget: Charter School Facility Grant Program

Apr 23, 2018 - Background Charter School Facility Funding Has an Ad Hoc Past. The 1992 legislation authorizing the creation of charter schools in California contained no provisions relating to facilities. Since that time, state policies relating to charter school facilities have developed in an ad hoc way (see Figure  1).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3812