PRESS STATEMENT
November 5, 2019
Contact:
Duc Luu, Communications Manager, 857-373-9118, dluu@publicadvocates.org
John Affeldt, Managing Attorney, 415-595-9563, jaffeldt@publicadvocates.org
Statement on State Audit of California Education Spending by John Affeldt, Public Advocates Managing Attorney
The report released today by the State Auditor confirms what students, parents and advocates have been saying for years. The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) can empower millions of students that have historically been left behind, but the state must play a more forceful role in ensuring districts use funding as the law intends. The Auditor also confirms the immense challenges districts face in distributing funding at a time when the State continues to woefully underfund public education.
The report identifies glaring lapses which the state must address to strengthen LCFF:
- The State has thus far refused to require Local Education Agencies to separately track spending of the extra supplemental and concentration dollars intended to serve high need pupils.
- Districts are being allowed to treat unspent supplemental and concentration funds in a given year as base funds the following year, thereby permitting their use for general purposes instead of principally serving high need students as intended.
- Districts do not always include clear information in their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) regarding their specific uses of supplemental and concentration funds.
- The districts often did not effectively analyze in their LCAPs whether the services they provided had been successful–which makes it difficult for stakeholders to hold them accountable for continuing to fund effective services and eliminating ineffective services.
- The State’s failure to fully fund districts’ base program encourages the obfuscation and cannibalization of districts’ supplemental and concentration spending.
I am encouraged that several of the school districts examined for this report have improved their LCAPs and spending explanations. I am also pleased that county offices of education are strengthening their LCAP review process. But it’s not enough.
Governor Newsom, the Legislature and the State Board of Education must act this year to close these loopholes. They now have the recommendations needed to ensure precious education dollars are equitably spent to close our state’s opportunity and achievement gaps. LCFF promises no less.
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Public Advocates Inc. is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity, and climate justice. www.publicadvocates.org
