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Policy & Finance

California, under Gov. Jerry Brown, has shifted control over budgeting and decision-making from the state to local districts. But Sacramento – through the State Board of Education and the Legislature – and Washington, D.C., still retain authority over setting broad education and school finance policies. EdSource Today is tracking the development of the Local Control Funding Formula, California’s new school finance system, and how districts are implementing this reform.

June 21, 2017

Reed Hastings backs school board candidates, but opposes elected school boards

The Netflix co-founder who has donated some of the biggest sums to charter school causes in California since 2011 thinks elected school boards are holding back education progress in the United States.

Louis Freedberg and Mikhail Zinshteyn

June 20, 2017

Oakland charters more likely to enroll higher-performing students than district schools

About 30 percent of Oakland students attend charter schools – one of the highest concentrations of charter students in the state.

Mikhail Zinshteyn

June 20, 2017

How the 2017-18 funding increase for California education will be spent

Use EdSource's interactive budget map to see where new education funds are being allocated in California's 2017-18 budget.

Justin Allen, Daniel J. Willis, and John Fensterwald

June 18, 2017

New LA school board member says strengthening district schools her first priority

Kelly Gonez was backed by charter school advocates, but says expanding the number of charters is not what she is interested in doing.

Mikhail Zinshteyn

June 18, 2017

California to raise income limits to allow more children to qualify for subsidized child care

California has not increased its income eligibility limit for subsidized child care since the 2007-08 fiscal year.

Ashley Hopkinson

June 14, 2017

The multiple benefits of learning two languages

California has taken important steps to support dual language learners.

Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio

June 14, 2017

Gov. Brown, Democrats to require school districts to give greater access to unions

Unions fearing a loss of mandatory fees will get access to recruit new workers.

John Fensterwald

June 13, 2017

DeVos says some charter school 'reformers' have become 'just another breed of bureaucrats'

The U.S. education secretary says the movement has departed from its founding principles of creativity and innovation.

Louis Freedberg

June 13, 2017

In a city of charters, the LA school district runs many of them

Unlike independent charters, affiliated charters’ student discipline policies match the district’s. They operate out of district buildings that they don’t have to pay for and the district covers their administrative expenses. Affiliated or dependent charters are “really connected to the mother ship,” said José Cole-Gutiérrez, director of the L.A. Unified’s charter school division, the body that oversees both groups of charters.

Mikhail Zinshteyn

June 13, 2017

California middle class families may still get scholarship help

The Legislature wants to maintain financial aid for UC and CSU students from families earning between $80,000 and $150,000 a year. But that conflicts with Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to phase out the program.