December 3, 2017 – John Fensterwald of EdSource shares 24 ideas for improving Governor Brown’s landmark education funding law. The article includes the perspective of Liz Guillen, Public Advocates’ Director of Legislative and Community Affairs. She says:
“The promise of equity through supplemental and concentration grants will never be realized until the base grant is adequate to cover a base educational program. This includes delivering on the eight state priorities, including Common Core and CalSTRS obligations. Only then will districts be free of pressures to siphon supplemental and concentration funds to support CalSTRS and other base services.
Meanwhile, districts have missed the opportunity to use the Local Control Funding Formula’s transparency to demonstrate the inadequacy problem. If base and supplemental and concentration spending were accurately revealed, policymakers would be confronted by the need to increase funding to deliver on LCFF’s promises.
Also, district personnel need the skill and will to engage community stakeholders in the cyclical work of continuous improvement — from LCAP development to Dashboard review to the courageous analyses and local energy needed to fuel systemic change and gap-closing. This is not yet happening. LCFF’s theory of change demands that school districts engage communities fully.”
Click here to read the article.
