LAO: School District Budgets Stable, But Risks on Horizon

On November 16, 2020, the Legislative Analysts Office (LAO) released an update on the fiscal condition of school district budgets and spotlighted looming cost pressures. The report lands as Governor Newsom and the State Legislature are set to begin the process of developing the 2021-22 state budget. This non-partisan report was provided to members of […]

Budget Moves Forward with Controversial Attendance Rules

While a budget agreement was announced last week, and most of the bills necessary to implement the agreement were sent to Governor Newsom by Friday, a notable exception was the main K-12 education trailer bill. That bill, SB 98 (and its duplicate Assembly Bill, AB 77), were revised last week and thus not eligible for […]

Senate Budget Plan

In a hearing of its Budget and Fiscal Review Committee this afternoon, the State Senate revealed its response to the Governor’s May Revision and its plan for the budget.  The Senate’s plan rejects many of the cuts proposed in the Governor’s May Revision, and instead proposes to use a series of budget tools that were developed […]

Analysis Of Governor’s May Revision

Governor Gavin Newsom opened his May Revision press conference with the observation that “the world has changed dramatically since I proposed my budget in January.” After a wistful review of the January budget surplus and some of the many planned investments, the Governor got down to business – a summary of the devastating impacts of the […]

Governor’s budget projections reduce Prop 98 by $18 billion

On Thursday, May 7, 2020, the Governor’s Department of Finance (DOF) provided a Fiscal Update that anticipates a drop in state revenue of $54 billion and a corresponding reduction to the Proposition 98 guarantee for schools of $18 billion. The update also acts as a preview of the Governor’s May Revision of his budget proposal, which […]

Federal Dollars Sent to States

Yesterday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced the availability of $3 billion in education relief funding for governors to allocate at their discretion to support schools and colleges. California’s portion of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund is expected to be $355 million. We are also waiting for the U.S. Department of Education to act on […]

Reassessing the CTE Facilities Funding Model

On July 24th, 2019, the Office of Public School Construction (OPSC) heard from stakeholders on how the state should distribute its remaining Career Technical Education (CTE) facilities funding to maximize equity. With $250 million left in the CTE Facilities Program—it will be administered by the OPSC in one final funding cycle—stakeholders highlighted the ramifications of […]

Budget Update – State Budget Deal Announced

On June 9, 2019, the Budget Conference Committee adopted a state budget deal that reflects an agreement between the Governor, Senate, and Assembly. K-12 Education Budget Details Our team has updated our budget tracking spreadsheet to reflect the final deal. The budget details can be found here. Major Elements of K-12 Budget The 2019-20 budget […]

Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2019-2020 May Revision Budget Proposal

Based largely on significant increases in revenue collections in the month of April, the May Revision proposes slightly higher General Fund expenditures over the three-year budget period. Following concerns with revenue figures from December through March, school officials in the process of finalizing their own budgets should be relieved that Proposition 98 spending in the May […]