Tag Archives: LCFF

C.A.S.H. June Facility Planners Update

06/01/15

The May Revision and State Budget Activities
The Governor released his May Revision budget update on Thursday, May 14, 2015, and the
Legislature is currently reviewing, reconciling, and finalizing budget actions in order to
meet the constitutional deadline to pass a budget by June 15. The Governor estimates an
additional $6.7 billion in revenues above the January proposal across three fiscal years
(2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16), $5.5 billion of which are proposed to go to K-12 and
community colleges under Proposition 98. The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO)
estimates revenues approximately $3 billion above the Governor, who is known for making
very conservative estimates in order to maintain a fiscally prudent approach and minimize
new spending. Continue reading →

Opinion: School bond shaping up as big fight

February 19, 2015

following is an excerpt from an article by Dan Walters on the Sacramento Bee Website posted on February 17, 2015.  

California’s school districts have received a bonanza of new money over the last few years, reflecting the public’s priorities and a sharp uptick in revenue from an expanding economy and a temporary tax hike that Gov. Jerry Brown persuaded voters to adopt in 2012.

State and local school financing has jumped from $47.3 billion during the first budget of Brown’s second governorship (2011-12) to a projected $65.7 billion in 2015-16 – and probably will go even higher as revenue outstrips current forecasts.

Moreover, Brown is repaying billions of dollars in school appropriations that had been deferred and freeing up billions in previously restricted allocations known as “categorical aids.”

While school officials are gladly spending the extra money, they are learning that it comes with some complicating conditions.

One is the Local Control Funding Formula, adopted in 2013, that diverts much of the new money into extra grants to districts with large numbers of poor and “English learner” students.

To read more copy the following URL into your web browser -http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/dan-walters/article10560287.html

 

Governor Brown Delivers State of the State Address, Proposes New Climate Change Goals

January 5, 2015

Today Jerry Brown was sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term as Governor of California, and he gave a combined State of the State and inaugural address.  Governor Brown emphasized the need to address long-term liabilities and pre-existing commitments, stating that we must “ground ourselves and nurture all that we have started.”  While he did not explicitly address the state program for funding school facilities, he did discuss infrastructure by highlighting funding issues for transportation projects including roads, highways, and bridges.

Continue reading →

LEAs struggle to fulfill new facilities mandates

April 9, 2014

The following article appeared in the April 7 Cabinet Report and quotes Ian Padilla.

April 07, 2014

LEAs struggle to fulfill new facilities mandates

by Kimberly Beltran

(Calif.) With the upkeep of school buildings traditionally a key focus of state financing, districts across California are struggling under the new funding formula not only with finding money for needed repairs but also with meeting a maintenance standard that is not clearly defined. Continue reading →

This entry was posted in Maintenance & Operations and tagged LCAP, , Maintenance & Operations on by .

State Board of Education (SBE) Approves LCFF Regulations and LCAP Template

January 17, 2014

On January 16, 2014, the State Board of Education (SBE) met for nearly eight hours, heard testimony from more than 300 speakers including 30 civil rights and community organizations, and in the end unanimously approved the proposed Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) emergency spending regulations and Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP) template.  Continue reading →

This entry was posted in State Agency and tagged LCAP, , State Board of Education on by .

SBE Meeting – Nov. 7, 2013 – LCFF Spending Regulations & LCAP Template

November 7, 2013

 

Today the State Board of Education (SBE) held a lengthy hearing to discuss development of the LCFF spending regulations and Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) template, which must be adopted by January 31, 2014, and March 31, 2014, respectively. Christine Swenson (CDE) and Janelle Kubinec (WestEd, the contractor who is organizing stakeholder input) provided background material on the agenda item, which included draft emergency spending regulations and the LCAP conceptual framework.  Janelle indicated that the intent is to present the LCAP template for adoption in January along with the spending regulations.  The draft regulations propose an options-based policy framework, which provides three options to meet requirements to “increase or improve services for unduplicated pupils in proportion to the increase in funds,” per LCFF statute: Continue reading →

This entry was posted in State Agency and tagged LCAP, , State Board of Education on by .

Guest Article: Achieving the Goals and Vision Behind California’s New Local Control Funding Formula

October 23, 2013

The following article was originally posted by School Services of California, Inc. on October 22 in The Fiscal Report and is reprinted here with their permission.

[Editor’s Note: Periodically, we publish guest articles that we think inform readers on topics of interest. With local educational agencies (LEAs) continuing to work to understand the fiscal implications of the newly enacted Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), we thought that additional attention should also be paid to the programmatic and fiscal implications of this new model. The guest article below by Jay Chambers, Mahala Archer, and Jesse Levin of American Institute for Research (AIR) addresses the new opportunities presented to school boards, local education leaders, and community members to shape educational programs to meet local priorities. Necessarily, the views and opinions of the authors are their own, but we think the article below is interesting and informative.]

What the New Funding Formula Means for LEAs?

As California moves toward a more equitable, rational, and efficient approach to allocating resources to school districts, this is an important time for LEAs to consider how well they are doing in achieving equitable allocations of resources and improving outcomes for all students. LEA leaders need to think seriously about how they can achieve a more equitable distribution of resources across schools and to determine what they can do to facilitate better ways for the central office and school sites to connect resources to goals, elevate accountability for performance, and improve transparency by engaging a wide range of stakeholders in the process. Continue reading →

This entry was posted in Finance and tagged , school finance on by .