The 2026-27 Budget: Community College Facilities

Mar 17, 2026 - Share of Funding Allocated Toward Modernization Projects Is Likely Too Low. Though we think the scoring system is generally reasonable, it has a few shortcomings. One of these shortcomings is that it weights modernization and growth projects in a way that does not align tightly with identified project needs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5159

Assessment of CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025

Dec 10, 2025 - The new framework goes beyond the GI 2025 objectives of increasing graduation rates and closing equity gaps by adding new objectives and several new metrics. One  notable new objective is ensuring all students are able to graduate with a first career job or pathway to graduate education.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5099

UC Merced at 20: Campus Developments and Key State-Level Takeaways

Nov 7, 2024 - Building space or hiring staff before students enroll means added costs without as much underlying revenue, yet not having space and staff in place means students have no programs in which to enter. Until a campus reaches a certain level —with a certain number of students, type of students, and revenue streams —nearly all aspects of campus development not only are more daunting logistically, but they cost more per student.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4937

The 2023-24 Budget: Higher Education Overview

Jan 31, 2023 - The proposed approach, however, is questionable, as it disconnects funding from specific project activities —likely providing too much project funding too soon and then delaying funding even when projects could be shovel ready.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4664

The 2026-27 Budget: California Student Aid Commission

Feb 17, 2026 - For Cal Grant recipients (who already have their tuition, and, in some cases, a portion of their nontuition costs covered), MCS provides ad ditional aid for nontuition costs. Though less notable given relative magnitude, the revamped program also expanded eligibility to CCC students in bachelor ’s degree programs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5127

The 2025-26 Budget: Higher Education Overview

Feb 6, 2025 - Given the non‑Proposition 98 side of the budget is much more constrained at this time than the Proposition 98 side of the budget, supporting CSU and UC enrollment growth is much more challenging than supporting CCC enrollment growth.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4957

The 2025-26 Budget: California Student Aid Commission

Feb 28, 2025 - When the state has added new authorized positions, it has added associated funding. For example, in 2023‑24, the state augmented CSAC’s state operations budget $1.1 million for the additional positions, along with a few hundreds of thousands of dollars for other things (new high school toolkits and additional Cash for College efforts).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4994

The 2023-24 Budget: Student Housing

Mar 9, 2023 - Though the CCC housing projects had not yet been submitted at the time of this writing, we suspect they too are in early planning phases. Even the projects the state funded as part of the first round generally remain in early planning phases.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4733

Addressing Capital Renewal at UC and CSU

Jan 5, 2023 - Systemwide data is not available on how much UC  and CSU campuses are spending annually from their base budgets on capital renewal projects. Based on conversations with both segments, the amounts vary from campus to campus and tend to be much smaller than their emerging capital renewal needs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4657

The 2023-24 Budget: University of California

Feb 15, 2023 - (UC  San Diego expects to enroll the next largest group of new transfer students, approximately 2,700.) Even more importantly, UCLA has the lowest ratio of freshmen to transfer students. The UCLA ratio is 1. 53 —much better than the systemwide target rate of two freshmen to one transfer student, as well as notably lower than any other campus.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4684