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In January, 2012 the Governor's initial budget proposed eliminating many of the mandates and eventually moving to a "weighted student formula" (WSF). The major cornerstone of the budget was to rely passage of a $7 billion tax increase scheduled for the November, 2012 election. If the initiative failed, the K-14 education would see "trigger cuts" of close to $5 billion start in January, 2013.
The initial analysis of the impact of the WSF on school districts was released in February, 2012. Since school districts felt there were "winners" and "losers" the Governor revised WSF to address their concerns in May. The analysis of the revised WSF's impact on school districts was released in May, 2012. Ultimately, with the uncertainity of the passage of Prop 30, the Legislature passed a budget without WSF being included. In November, 2012 California voters approved Prop30 thus providing the Governor with an opportunity to implement WSF.
In January, 2013 the Governor's initial budget proposed a new and improved WSF repackaged as Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) issued a 42 page review of LCFF in March, 2013. Also in March, the Department of Finance issued an analysis of the impact of implementing LCFF versus maintaining the current funding formula. Interestingly, most school districts would have received more monies under the current funding formula. In the end, the Governor and Legislature were able to agree to legislation that would implement LCFF for 2013/14 school year. However, the implementation details were left to the State Board of Education (SBE).
After initial regulations were released in October and following a public hearing at a November SBE meeting it became clear that no one was happy. The primary concern raised by Edvoice, civil rights groups, and the Legislature was that the regulations ( specifically the November Local Control Accountability Plan template) did not specify enough accountability to ensure all subgroups of students would achieve more. The SBE acknowledged the need to revise its regulations in this summary. At the January 16th SBE meeting, new regulations and LCAP template were approved. In addition, recap of the response to the feedback to the November SBE meeting was created. Finally, a Local Control Funding Formula Sample was published. Overall, the temporary regulations strike a good balance between flexibility and accountability. Here is an example on how to calculate the LCFF 2013/14 base grant for Alameda Unified.
Families In Schools (FIS) has developed a graphic and a guide for Reimagining Parent Engagement in California in response to the need for measuring parental involvement in the LCAP. Here is a graphic that compares parent involvement versus parent engagement.
In a seminar, this handout was presented to describe the impact of LCFF on charter schools.
In 2015, the State Legislature received a presentation on what the CCEE should focus on in monitoring LCAPs.
Disclaimer: This website is the sole responsibility of Mike McMahon. It does not represent any official opinions, statement of facts or positions of the Alameda Unified School District. Its sole purpose is to disseminate information to interested individuals in the Alameda community. FAIR USE NOTICE
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January, 2014
The origins of the Local Control Funding Formula date back to a 2007 unpublished research paper authored by Alan Bersin, Michael Kirst and Gordon Liu. The title of paper was Getting Beyond the Facts: Reforming California School Finance. The reference to "getting beyond the facts" was a 2006 Stanford research project called: "Getting Down to Facts: A Research Project to Inform Solutions to California's Education Problems". 2008 was supposed to be the "Year of Education" but the collapse of housing market and ensuing credit market collapse led to a decrease in public education funding from 2008 to 2013.