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

Mar 18, 2026 - The state, however, was far less involved in the public school system than it is today. For example, elementary education did not become compulsory until 1874, and the state did not begin funding high schools until 1904.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5165

The 2026-27 Budget: K-12 Proposals

Feb 19, 2026 - Frees Up Current Funding for Extension Grants. Trailer legislation proposes to free up the $485  million allocated in prior budgets that is set aside for the two ‑year extension grants. Current community schools grantees would no longer be required to submit requests for extensions.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5131

Assessing a Shift to Enrollment-Based School Funding

Jan 6, 2026 - Each statewide indicator is linked to one of eight state priority areas. Outcomes from standardized tests, for example, are part of the student achievement priority area, while chronic absenteeism is one of two indicators (along with the high school graduation rate) used to measure student engagement.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5100

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool

Mar 19, 2026 - In 2021, the state increased rates and shifted most providers to the RMR, then began the process of developing a new child care reimbursement rate structure for all child care and State Preschool providers.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168

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

Feb 4, 2026 - Overall Structure Contains Nearly $9.7   Billion in New School Spending Proposals. Of the new spending, the Governor proposes to allocate more than $5.9  billion for one ‑time activities and $3.7  billion for ongoing augmentations ( Figure  7 ).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5110

The 2026-27 Budget: Re-Envisioning State Education Governance [Publication Details]

Mar 18, 2026 - In this brief, we examine the Governor’s proposal to restructure state governance. The first section explains how the current system evolved and describes the main entities and their responsibilities. The second section reviews previous governance studies and explains how governance works in other contexts.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5165