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

Nov 10, 2025 - Trailer legislation specifies that EL counts in TK will be calculated by applying a fact or to TK enrollment equal to the share of ELs enrolled in kindergarten who are not eligible for free or reduced-price meals and not a foster youth.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5087

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

Feb 15, 2024 - We find the proposed training funds to be premature since the approved list of screening tools has not been finalized and funds are being added to the block grant earlier than needed under the traditional claims ‑based process.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4839

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: School Nutrition

Mar 4, 2025 - For paid and reduced ‑priced meals, the state provides funds to match the combined state and federal rate for free meals. As   Figure  1 shows, free, reduced, and paid meals generate the same total reimbursement for LEAs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5001

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

Nov 19, 2025 - The state has an uncodified list of programs that it excludes from this calculation. (The state subtracts the cost of these programs from the guarantee before applying the percentages to the remaining amount.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5093

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

Feb 13, 2025 - The state calculates the COLA rate using a price index published by the federal government. This index accounts for changes in the cost of goods and services purchased by state and local governments across the country during the preceding year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4963

The 2022-23 Budget: Local Control Funding Formula

Jan 28, 2022 - The  COLA rate is based on a price index published by the federal government. This index reflects changes in the cost of goods and services purchased by state and local governments across the country.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4505