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

Mar 18, 2026 - Most notably, it establishes the SPI and the SBE, makes the SPI a statewide elected position, requires the SBE to adopt textbooks for grades one through eight, and requires the SBE to approve the SPI ’s senior deputies.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5165

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/852

How Have Past Stock Market Downturns Affected Income Tax Revenue? [EconTax Blog]

Mar 9, 2026 - By most measures, the global financial crisis was more severe than the dot-com crash. The state 's unemployment rate, for example, peaked at 7 percent following the dot-com crash but reached nearly double that during the financial crisis and remained elevated for much longer.
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/article/Detail/852

California’s Strong Revenue Trends Mask Looming Budget Risk

Jan 23, 2026 - After the dot-com bust and the Great Recession, it took four and five years, respectively, for revenues to recover. Incorporating revenue risk into the budget now, therefore, reflects prudence, not pessimism.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5104

Oversight of certain public benefit artificial intelligence (AI) companies. [Ballot]

Jan 20, 2026 - The measure would have the following major fiscal effects: Increased state costs that would likely be in the tens of millions of dollars annually to establish and operate a new regulatory commission overseeing certain public benefit AI com panies.
https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2025-033

Assessing a Shift to Enrollment-Based School Funding

Jan 6, 2026 - Although the state collects and publishes chronic absenteeism data for all students, the chronic absenteeism rates reported on the dashboard only include data for students in grades TK  through  8. Dashboard Assigns Performance Levels for Statewide Indicators.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5100

Artificial intelligence (AI) and child safety. [Ballot]

Dec 12, 2025 - The IQC develops curriculum frameworks aligned with the state ’s academic content standards and reviews and recommends instructional materials for kindergarten through eighth grade to the State Board of Education.
https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Initiative/2025-025

The 2026-27 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook

Nov 19, 2025 - For California, the dot ‑com era —when stocks rose and then fell precipitously in response to widespread adoption of the internet —offers the most salient example. The internet has proven to be a transformative technology and, yet, the stock market ’s initial reaction was clearly overly exuberant.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5091

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Higher Education

Nov 14, 2025 - Chapter  622 of 2024 (AB  2508, McCarty) authorizes accounts for all foster youth in first through twelfth grade, whereas accounts previously were authorized only for foster youth in first grade. Deposits for foster youth remain set at $1,000.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5089

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Proposition 98 and K-12 Education

Nov 10, 2025 - Funds will be allocated to LEAs based on the number of full-time equivalent certificated teachers in grades TK-5. Trailer legislation requires the State Board of Education (SBE) to approve a list of professional development programs for English language arts (ELA) and English language development (E LD) training by September 30, 2026.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5087