Staff
- Jackie Barocio
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(916) 319-8333
Child Care, Expanded Learning, School Facilities, and Teachers - Sara Cortez
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(916) 319-8348
Special Education, Preschool, and Child Nutrition - Kenneth Kapphahn
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(916) 319-8339
Proposition 98, School District Budgets, School Transportation - Lisa Qing
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(916) 319-8306
California State University, Student Financial Aid - Paul Steenhausen
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(916) 319-8303
California Community Colleges - Ian Klein
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(916) 319-8336
University of California; College of the Law, San Francisco; California State Library - Michael Alferes
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(916) 319-8338
Local Control Funding Formula, Charter Schools, Alternative Schools, High School Career Technical Education - Edgar Cabral
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(916) 319-8343
Deputy Legislative Analyst: K-12 Education - Jennifer Pacella
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(916) 319-8332
Deputy Legislative Analyst: Higher Education
Publications
Education
To browse all LAO publications, visit our Publications page.
A Fiscal Perspective on Meeting Federal Teacher Quality Requirements
- Format:
March 17, 2004 - Presented to Assembly Education Committee on March 17, 2004.
Proposition 98 Overview
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March 15, 2004 - Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on March 15, 2004.
School District Revenue Limits
- Format:
March 15, 2004 - Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on March 15, 2004.
Proposition 98 Mandates
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March 15, 2004 - Presented to Assembly Special Committee on State Mandates on March 15, 2004.
Proposition 98 Pupil Discipline Mandates
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March 12, 2004 - Presented to the Assembly Committee on State Mandates on March 8, 2004.
Education Budget Overview
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March 8, 2004 - Presented to Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on March 8, 2004.
UC Research Facilities
February 18, 2004 - The University of California (UC) receives billions of dollars a year from faculty research contracts and grants (primarily with the federal government and private companies and organizations). Included in this revenue is hundreds of millions of dollars that the university charges for the use of facilities for this research. Because UC has the ability to recover these costs, we recommend the construction of new faculty research facilities be funded from this nonstate revenue.
Economic Impact Aid
February 18, 2004 - The Economic Impact Aid (EIA) program provides funding to school districts to provide compensatory education services to low-performing and English learner (EL) pupils. School districts use funding for a variety of purposes, including: (1) extra assistance to low-achieving pupils, (2) supplemental instructional services to EL students, (3) training to teachers who instruct EL students, and (4) supplementary materials. We find that the EIA funding formula is outdated and results in district allocations that appear arbitrary and unpredictable. We recommend the Legislature simplify the EIA formula so that district allocations are predictable and meet local needs for serving both poor and English learner students.
The Governor's School Safety Consolidation
February 18, 2004 - The Governor's budget proposes to consolidate five of seven existing school safety programs into a School Safety Competitive Grant, leaving two programs outside of the block grant. We recommend the Legislature expand on the Governor's proposal by creating a formula-driven School Safety Block Grant combining all seven school safety programs and 12 school safety-related state reimbursable mandates. We also recommend reversion of $1.6 million in current-year funds for competitive grant programs that the State Department of Education does not plan to administer.
Teacher Quality
February 18, 2004 - We recommend the Legislature consolidate the ten remaining teacher-related programs into a teacher quality block grant. This would allow the state to retain its focus on teacher quality while simultaneously allowing school districts to pool their existing resources and use them more strategically. To ensure that the greater flexibility provided through a teacher quality block grant is balanced with greater accountability, we also recommend the Legislature develop a comprehensive teacher information system. Specifically, we recommend the Legislature: (1) develop clear teacher quality objectives and associated performance measures, (2) enhance data-collection efforts to ensure performance can be tracked, and (3) provide feedback and assistance to struggling school districts.
Financial Aid
February 18, 2004 - The Governor proposes significant new restrictions and reductions for the Cal Grant program. We recommend the Legislature reject these proposals and link grant levels with fee levels. We also offer an alternative way to achieve comparable General Fund savings.
Student Fees
February 18, 2004 - The Governor proposes a variety of fee increases at all three public segments. While we believe most of these increases are reasonable, we recommend slightly smaller increases for several fees. We also recommend establishing a long-term fee policy that links student fees to a fixed percentage of educational costs.
Higher Education Admissions and Enrollment
February 18, 2004 - Although the Governor proposes no new funding for enrollment growth at UC and CSU, we find that both universities have unused enrollment funding in their base budgets that would permit them to enroll more students in 2004-05 than in the current year.
K-14 Outreach Programs
February 18, 2004 - Whereas the Governor proposes to eliminate General Fund support for outreach programs at the University of California (UC) and the California State University (CSU), we propose a new College Preparation Block Grant for K-12 schools to contract for outreach services.
Proposition 98 Budget Priorities
February 18, 2004 - The Governor's budget offers a good starting point for addressing the 2004-05 budget problem. Given the structural budget situation the state faces, we believe the Governor's proposed suspension of the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee is appropriate. If suspension is approved, we recommend the Legislature balance K-14 funding priorities with other General Fund priorities without regard to the exact Proposition 98 funding level proposed in the Governor's budget.