RSS feed of recent K-12 education budget and policy publications from the Legislative Analyst's Office.https://lao.ca.gov/K-12 EducationThe Commission on State Mandates (the Commission) recently found two new requirements to be reimbursable state mandates: (1) offering menstrual products in public school restrooms and (2) confirming that public high school students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or California Dream Act Application. In this post, we provide background on school mandates, then describe our assessment and recommendations for each of the new mandates. This post fulfills a requirement for our office to analyze new mandates, as specified in Section 17562 of the Government Code. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5179https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5179Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationIn February 2026, CDE certified P-1 data for 2025-26 and annual data for 2024-25. In addition to preliminary ADA, the P-1 data also includes preliminary estimates of total LCFF costs and other associated data. In this post, we describe our findings from the updated data and the fiscal implications of this data on the Governor’s January budget LCFF estimates for 2025-26 and 2026-27. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5178https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5178Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationIn this brief, we assess the Governor’s 2026-27 proposals for child care and State Preschool and provide associated recommendations. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5168https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5168Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationIn this brief, we examine the Governor’s proposal to restructure state governance. The first section explains how the current system evolved and describes the main entities and their responsibilities. The second section reviews previous governance studies and explains how governance works in other contexts. The third section describes the Governor’s proposal, including its core feature: transferring management of the California Department of Education from the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) to a new education commissioner. The fourth section assesses the merits of this proposal and outlines some principles for re-envisioning the SPI's role. The fifth section provides our recommendations. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5165https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5165Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationThis post analyzes the Governor’s budget proposal to increase the size of grants and extend the Computer Science Supplementary Authorization Incentive program. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5153https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5153Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationIn this brief, we provide our analysis of several K-12 proposals included in the Governor's 2026-27 budget. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5131https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5131Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationAssembly Committee on Education and Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourismhttps://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5109https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5109Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationThis brief examines the estimates of the Proposition 98 guarantee in the Governor’s budget and assesses the overall structure of the Governor’s school spending plan. It also examines a few of the larger spending proposals and the proposal to delay a $5.6 billion settle-up payment.https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5110https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5110Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationChapter 442 of 2024 (SB 98, Portantino) requires our office to report on the effects of changing the student count methodology of the Local Control Funding Formula and other K-12 education programs from average daily attendance to student enrollment. In this report, we provide our assessment of such a shift, describe a few policy alternatives that maintain the attendance-based system, and identify key issues for the Legislature to consider if switching to enrollment-based funding. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5100https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5100Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTK-12 EducationWe forecast that increases to the Proposition 98 guarantee in 2024-25 and 2025-26, coupled with a preexisting payment obligation, require the state to provide nearly $7.4 billion in one-time funds for schools and community colleges. For 2026-27, we estimate the guarantee is $117.8 billion, an increase of $3.2 billion (2.8 percent) from the previously enacted level. This growth—combined with a required reserve withdrawal—would be just enough to fund a 2.51 percent statutory cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The state could use the one-time funds to build budget resiliency, which seems especially important given the risks of a stock market downturn. https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5093https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5093Wed, 19 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT