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

Nov 19, 2025 - Although our outlook treats the cost of enrollment changes as a baseline adjustment, the Legislature has discretion over how much growth to fund each year. June Budget Covered Ongoing Program Costs With One ‑Time Funds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5093

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

Feb 15, 2024 - Teacher preparation programs have reported that while the domains are effective in developing exam questions, they are too narrow, too specific, and overall a less effective reference point when determining whether coursework satisfies the subject matter competency requirement.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4839

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

Nov 20, 2024 - Next, we explain how our estimates of the guarantee in 2023 ‑24 and 2024 ‑25 differ from the state ’s previous estimates. Third, we estimate the guarantee over the 2025 ‑26 through 2028 ‑29 period under our economic forecast.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4940

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Care and State Preschool

Mar 19, 2026 - As we discuss in The 2026‑27 Budget: Overview of the Governor’s Budget , both our office and the administration project multiyear budget shortfalls beginning in 2027‑28, which will require the Legislature to make difficult spending decisions next year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5168

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Governor's Budget

Jan 13, 2025 - We suggest the Legislature take heed of these risks and avoid putting too much stock in the recent revenue rebound until it is accompanied by clear improvements in California ’s broader economy. Governor ’s Use of Reserves Remains Reasonable.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4951

The 2022-23 Budget: Local Control Funding Formula

Jan 28, 2022 - For example, a district would need to identify the students currently attending charter schools and determine how much attendance those students had generated for the district in each of the three prior years.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4505

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

Nov 16, 2022 - Although district energy costs are likely up too, these costs typically account for a small share of district budgets. The Legislature could consider funding a COLA that is below the statutory rate but still large enough to allow schools and community colleges to address their cost pressures and local priorities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4648