State budget heads to Gov. Brown: How education fared

State Sen. Jeff Stone, R-La Quinta, discusses a spending item during the review of the state budget on Wednesday.
Source: California Channel webcast.
(Updated June 20 with clarification on per student funding under the Local Control Funding Formula.) 

Facing a midnight deadline, the Legislature Wednesday passed a $171 billion state budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that steers an extra $2 billion that Gov. Jerry Brown demanded into a rainy day reserve and commits an additional half-billion dollars for early childhood education over the next four years. Brown is expected to sign the budget, which his staff negotiated.

Education will fare well. The 4 percent overall  increase in revenue for K-12 districts in 2016-17, while it pales compared with the unusual 11 percent increase last year, is large by historical standards. Forecasts of revenue in coming years are cloudy and will depend on whether a recession happens, as Brown predicts, and whether voters in November re-up Proposition 30, extending an income tax increase on the state’s wealthiest residents.

 Here are some of the big numbers for education in the budget for 2016-17:

Including the 2016-17 state budget, revenue for K-12 schools and community colleges from Proposition 98 has grown $24.6 billion or 52 percent since 2011-12, the low point of funding following the recession.

Credit: Justin Allen / EdSource

Including the 2016-17 state budget, revenue for K-12 schools and community colleges from Proposition 98 has grown $24.6 billion or 52 percent since 2011-12, the low point of funding following the recession.

 Proposition 98

  • $71.9 billion: The Proposition 98 guarantee, the main source of money for K-12 and community colleges. That’s $2.8 billion more than the revised total for 2015-16, and $3.5 billion more than the Legislature appropriated a year ago for the current year.
  • $10,657: Per-student funding, up 4.3 percent from $10,217 in 2015-16, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
  • $63.5 billion: Portion of Prop. 98 to K-12.
  • $8.3 billion: Portion of Prop. 98 to community colleges.

Local Control Funding Formula

  • $2.94 billion: Increase in funding for the Local Control Funding Formula, the primary source of general funding for school districts, bringing total LCFF funding to $55.8 billion.
  • 96 percent: With 2016-17 increase, progress toward reaching full LCFF implementation. That’s the point at which school districts will be restored to pre-recession levels, plus cost-of-living adjustments. For districts with high proportions of English learners, low-income students and foster youths, who receive extra money under the formula, funding levels are already substantially higher.
  • $506: Per-student LCFF funding increase for an average district in which 63 percent of students draw extra dollars as high-needs students. That breaks down to $84 in supplemental and concentration dollars for high-needs students and $422 in base dollars. (*See clarification below.) Automatic longevity raises for teachers and mandated costs – primarily higher costs of employee pensions and special education – could consume $300 or more per student next year, according to several projections.
  •  Zero: No cost-of-living adjustment, based on a federal formula, for non-LCFF programs, including special education and child nutrition.

One-time K-12 revenue

  • $1.28 billion: Discretionary district funding, which also counts toward paying down previously mandated costs the state had not reimbursed.
  • $200 million: K-12 college readiness grants to low-income students to add Advanced Placement courses and the 15 courses, known as A to G, that California State University and the University of California require for admission.
  • $18 million: Grants for dropout and truancy prevention programs.

Teacher shortage remedies

  • $20 million: Grants for teacher’s aides and other school employees to pursue a teaching credential;
  • $10 million: Grants for colleges and universities to establish an integrated or blended teacher preparation program providing a bachelor’s degree and teaching credential in four years;
  • $5 million: Re-funding the California Center on Teaching Careers or Cal Teach, a marketing and recruitment effort for teachers that was last funded in 2002.
  • Zero: No money to establish teacher residencies and re-establish a loan forgiveness program for teachers, the Assumption Program of Loans for Education (APLE).

Early childhood education

  • 8,877: Additional full-day state preschool slots by 2019-20, starting with 2,959 in March 2017, at an additional cost in four years of $100 million.
  • 88.4 percent: The projected percentage of California’s eligible 209,668 4-year-olds who will be able to enroll in preschool, once additional slots are phased in; for the combination of 420,000 eligible 3- and 4-year-olds, 61.7 percent will be served, according to the American Institutes for Research.

Note: The final budget does not include Gov. Brown’s proposed $1.6 billion block grant, which would combine funding for the state’s preschool and transitional kindergarten, giving districts discretion over which programs to support.

Community Colleges

  • $3.6 million:  Increase for part-time faculty office hours;
  • $2.4 million: increase for student success programs (PUENTE, MESA);
  • $15 million*: Increase for California Promise programs, which expand financial aid and fee waiver programs, and provide other support to students in districts partnering with community colleges. Pending legislation could provide $15 million more;
  • $25 million: Funding for Innovation Awards to address equity issues and encourage the use of technology;
  • $30 million: “Transformation grants” to campuses for programs helping students progress from remedial math and English courses to college-level instruction.

CSU and UC

  • 4 percent: Increase in general revenue ($125 million for the University of California, $161 million for California State University System) as part of a multi-year agreement to extend a tuition freeze for in-state students;
  • $18.5 million: Additional ongoing money for UC by next May if it enrolls 2,500 more California residents by the 2017-18 school year, and regents agree to cap non-residents’ enrollment;
  • $20 million: One-time money to UC for outreach and support services for low-income and underrepresented minority students;
  • $35 million: One-time money for CSU to improve the four-year graduation rates with special emphasis on underrepresented and low-income students.

Staff writer Larry Gordon contributed to this report.

*Correction: An earlier version stated the amount was $75 million

*Clarification June 20: The calculation of $422 in base dollars and $84 in supplemental/concentration dollars applies the 5:1 ratio at full funding of the formula, expected to be in 2021-22, for an average district in which 63 percent of students are low-income children, English learners and foster and homeless youths. However, in  the transition to full funding, a different set off variables apply; for next year, additional base and supplemental/concentration dollars would nearly evenly split, about $253 each for that district, according to School Services of California, which provided the information. 

EdSource in your inbox!

Stay ahead of the latest developments on education in California and nationally from early childhood to college and beyond. Sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email.

Subscribe