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Policy Brief

Policy Brief: COVID-19 Emergency Funding and California’s Higher Education Systems

By Jacob Jackson, Kevin Cook, Darriya Starr, Chansonette Buck

Just before the pandemic hit, state funding for higher education was high and increasing, student outcomes were improving, and programs for students in need were robust. COVID-19 sent shocking changes through these educational institutions’ means and methods of operating.

Report

Funding California Schools When Budgets Fall Short

By Julien Lafortune, Radhika Mehlotra, Jennifer Paluch

Even as districts prioritize safety amid COVID-19, they face hard choices as they try to maintain services and balance budgets. By examining district reserves and spending, this report aims to understand how the Great Recession affected K–12 funding and how prepared districts are now to manage future cuts.

event

Examining the Reach of Targeted School Funding

Under California’s ten-year-old funding formula, districts with higher shares of high-need students receive added dollars on top of base funding. Join PPIC research fellow Julien Lafortune for a presentation on a new report that looks at how these added dollars impact student outcomes, how districts spend these funds, and whether dollars are fully directed to the students and schools that generate them.

Report

District Spending of One-Time Funds for Educational Recovery

By Julien Lafortune, Laura Hill, Niu Gao, Joseph Herrera ...

To address COVID-19 disruptions to education, federal and state programs directed billions in stimulus aid to K–12 schools. These programs allocated greater funding to lower-income and high-need districts—and California districts applied their early funds to health, safety, and technology. More recently, spending has prioritized learning recovery.

blog post

A Long-term View of Higher Education Funding

By Kevin Cook

Public higher education is a major component of California's General Fund allocations, along with K–12 education, health and human services, and corrections. How has this spending changed over time?

Report

School Finance

By Margaret Weston

There is broad consensus that California's school finance system is inequitable, inadequate, and overly complex. In response to these critiques, this year Governor Jerry Brown proposed an overhaul of our school finance system. Also, two initiatives on the November ballot asked voters to increase education funding through tax increases: voters approved Proposition 30, which was integral to the governor's budget plan, and rejected Proposition 38, a citizens' initiative.

Despite the passage of Proposition 30, California faces many school finance challenges. This report provides an overview of the state's school finance system and outlines some longstanding school finance issues that may be in play next year.

Policy Brief

Policy Brief: Targeted K–12 Funding and Student Outcomes

By Julien Lafortune, Stephanie Barton

Under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), more money now reaches high-need districts, and these districts spend most of that money on schools with greater need. Students are seeing some benefits from the LCFF, as seen in higher test scores, though disparities by student income, race, and language status remain large.

Fact Sheet

Law Enforcement Staffing in California

By Brandon Martin, Magnus Lofstrom, Andrew Skelton

Law enforcement is funded largely at the local level, and almost half of California’s law enforcement officers work for municipal police departments. Staffing levels continued to drop in 2022, though losses vary across agencies.

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