Featured Item
To browse all LAO publications, visit our Publications page.
February 7, 2007 - Between 10 percent to 15 percent of high school students enroll in one of the state’s four alternative programs each year. These programs serve many of the state’s at-risk students. We recommend fixing the state and federal accountability programs so that schools and districts are held responsible for the success of students in alternative programs. We also recommend funding reforms that reinforce the district’s responsibility for creating effective options for students.
January 11, 2007 - Each campus and medical center of the University of California (UC) periodically develops a long range development plan (LRDP) that guides its physical development--based on academic goals and projected student enrollment levels--for an established time horizon. This report reviews the process used by UC to prepare LRDPs and analyzes whether it adequately addresses the impacts that campus growth has on surrounding communities. We generally found a lack of accountability, standardization, and clarity in the current process, and recommend steps to make the process more transparent and effective (such as ensuring greater legislative oversight and public involvement in the development of an LRDP).
January 4, 2007 - Although the state licenses about 58,000 child care facilities serving up to 1.2 million children, there is little information readily available to parents about the safety and quality of this care. This report describes options to improve the availability of such information. We recommend that the availability of existing information be improved and that ratings be established based on a provider’s safety history.
September 29, 2006 - Presented to the Joint Hearing of Senate and Assembly Education committees and Revenue and Taxation Committees.
August 7, 2006 - Presented to Senate Select Committee on California's Master Plan for Education, Informational Hearing on Charter Schools.
June 1, 2006 - Handouts related to Proposition 98, prepared for the Budget Conference Committee.
May 17, 2006 - Twelve handouts related to the K-12 Education proposals in the Governor's May Revision.
May 16, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
May 2, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
April 27, 2006 - State law establishes the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) and entrusts it with accrediting teacher preparation programs, credentialing teachers, and monitoring teacher conduct. In this report, we describe each of these three teacher-quality functions, identify related shortcomings, and propose various recommendations for overcoming them. The recommendations seek to simplify existing teacher-quality processes, reduce redundancies, strengthen accountability, and foster greater coherence among education reforms. Taken as a package, these recommendations would improve how the state ensures teacher quality and eliminate CTC.
April 18, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No.2 On Education Finance.
April 18, 2006 - Presented to the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
March 28, 2006 - Year-to-year changes in the state’s higher education costs are greatly influenced by changes in student enrollment levels. Each year as part of the annual budget process, the Legislature must determine (1) how many additional students will enroll at the University of California and the California State University and (2) how much it will cost to serve those additional students. This report reviews factors that influence enrollment growth and the current methodology of calculating the “marginal cost” of serving additional students. Specifically, for 2006-07, we recommend, first, funding 2 percent enrollment growth at UC and CSU and second, revising the current methodology for calculating the marginal cost of enrolling an additional student, in order to more accurately budget for these expenses.
March 15, 2006 - Presented to Mervyn Dymally, Chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance.
March 14, 2006 - Presented to the Senate Education Committee, Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, Assembly Education Committee, and Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.