State budget: More money, local control
CSBA prepares to help LEAs implement new funding formula
Published: June 26, 2013
California’s new state budget marks the beginning of a new era in K-12 public education under Gov. Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula, and CSBA’s leadership immediately launched into strategic conversations about the implications for school districts and county offices of education. Resources are under development at CSBA to support local governance leaders in understanding and implementing the new formula.
“We appreciate the hard work of the governor and Legislature to design a budget that reflects the priorities of the voters,” CSBA President Cindy Marks said. “The public wants fair funding for its schools and supports local control,” a hallmark of the association’s Governance First campaign.
Marks also praised the $4.3 billion the Legislature allocated through the 2013-14 fiscal year to pay down the deferred school funding of recent years. The new funds will reduce the backlog owed to local educational agencies by nearly half. “Governance teams can now better manage their budgets. Fewer districts will be facing the prospect of insolvency,” said Marks.
However, she added, over the longer term CSBA remains committed to securing full payment of the deferred funding, to ensuring that every district is restored to its 2007-08 funding level, and to making California’s per-student funding more competitive with other states.
The new budget provides a small, partial restoration of early childhood education; a grant program to expand career pathway partnerships; and an allocation plan for energy efficiency and new green energy projects through Proposition 39, the energy efficiency measure voters approved last November.
Another highlight: The budget allocates $1.25 billion to support local implementation of the Common Core State Standards in English-language arts and math, and the computer-aided assessments associated with them due a year after that. However, Marks noted, the California Department of Education puts the cost of full implementation at $3.1 billion.
“We need a sustained investment in our schools. CSBA is committed to working with the governor and Legislature on long-term funding solutions to enable full implementation of both the Common Core State Standards and the Smarter Balanced assessment system,” Marks said. “CSBA will also continue its commitment to ensure our schools receive adequate long-term funding to support a 21st century educational system.”
LCFF
The Local Control Funding Formula is the centerpiece of the state budget’s education provisions. It continues to base LEAs’ allocations on average daily attendance paid out by the state, as has been the case since Proposition 13 upended local school revenues in 1978. However, LCFF also introduces some fundamental changes, providing supplemental and concentration grants based on student demographics in a bid to close the gap in achievement that separates targeted groups from higher-performing student groups:
- Every LEA will receive a base grant per ADA, with the target level of funding based on the statewide average revenue limit and a commitment to get virtually all districts back to their pre-recession levels—$6,845 for grades K-3, $6,947 for 4-6, $7,154 for 7-8, and $8,289 for 9-12. The formula provides a 10.4 percent add-on for K-3 to fund a class-size reduction target of no more than 24 students per teacher, which must be reached by full implementation of LCFF, and a 2.6 percent add-on for grades 9-12. “Economic Recovery Targets” will be provided to those districts that don’t reach their 2007-08 funding under the formula. Full implementation of LCFF is expected to take eight years—until the 2020-21 school year, approached through incremental phase-ins annually.
- Supplemental grants will add 20 percent to the base grant for each English learner, student who is eligible for free or reduced-price meals, or student in foster care; students can only be counted in one category.
- Concentration grants will add 50 percent to the base grant in LEAs where students qualifying for the supplemental grants comprise 55 percent or more of total enrollment.
Together, the LCFF grants replace a number of categorical programs, extending greater flexibility to local governance teams.
Accountability under LCFF
Legislators differed on how to hold LEAs accountable for expenditures of the supplemental and concentration grant funds they will receive under LCFF and for making progress in a number of student outcome measures listed in the statute. They left it to the State Board of Education to adopt emergency regulations on the supplemental and concentration funds by next January, following up with a template for local control accountability by the end of March. Local districts and county offices will need to adopt a Local Control Accountability Plan using the template by July 2014, and to update their plans annually thereafter. The State Board will adopt an evaluation rubric for the local plans before October 2015.
“Local boards need to start thinking now about how they will help targeted student groups,” CSBA Legislative Advocate Andrea Ball stressed in an internal strategy session after the budget passed. “It’s incumbent on boards to spend the additional money on services that benefit those [targeted] students.”
CSBA is already preparing to assist in the task. Watch for informational briefs, trainings, webcasts and more—and in the meantime, stay informed through the CSBA Legislative News portal www.csba.org/LegislativeNews, where you can already find: