The question whether money matters in education strikes at the foundation of America's democracy - an educated electorate. Despite decades of evidence that money does matter, the question still remains unanswered among many and even answered to the contrary of the evidence. It is important to fully understand that money does matter in American…

Public schools receive funding from three different government sources: local, state, and federal. Local and state governments contribute the majority of funding to support public school systems, while the federal government provides a small fraction (only about 8% on average). Even with recent infusions of federal funding related to the COVID-19…

Policymakers and others seeking to guide and support California's school districts in the era of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) may benefit from better understanding how recent policy shifts shape the work of district leadership. This paper summarizes interview findings that convey the practical, on-the-ground perspectives of an…

Great public schools provide a foundation of opportunity for children, their families, communities and the entire state. All children, regardless of ZIP code, race or family income deserve to be educated in fully and fairly funded schools. Yet for many years Ohio lawmakers have provided neither sufficient nor fair distribution of state support.…

Unlike previous school finance policies, California's new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) has the potential to more equitably distribute funding to public schools. Having only recently been implemented, the impact of this policy is still under examination. However, emerging research points to the shortcomings of the policy, including the lack…

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on July 1, 2013, represents the first comprehensive change in California's education funding system in 40 years. The LCFF eliminates nearly all categorical funding streams, shifts control of most education dollars from the state to local school districts, and…

The goals of this article are to provide a critical policy analysis and conceptual examination of California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and Accountability (LCAP) systems in the Silicon Valley context. The goals and structure of this article are as follows: First, I situate my discussion on LCFF by providing a sociocultural and…

Beginning in 2018, the Texas Commission on Public School Finance, comprised of 13 members inside and outside of the legislature, will begin the task of studying and making recommendations to improve the school finance system. This five-part series prepares readers to engage with lawmakers and the school finance commission by providing background…

In fall 2018, the Local Control Funding Formula Research Collaborative (LCFFRC) conducted surveys of stratified random samples of California superintendents and principals. Superintendent results were published in June 2018 in "Superintendents Speak: Implementing the Local Control Funding Formula." This report, "Principals'…

This report is the third in a series by the Local Control Funding Formula Research Collaborative (LCFFRC). This research seeks to help policymakers and others better understand ways in which the LCFF is changing fundamental aspects of resource allocation and governance and how these changes might lead to improved student outcomes. The work is…

Adopted in 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) provides all districts with base funding plus supplemental and concentration grants for low-income students, English learners, and foster youth. The law eliminated most categorical programs, giving local school systems resource allocation authority and requiring Local Control and…

The landscape of K-12 education funding in the United States is exceptionally complex. When it comes to funding an equitable, high-quality education for English Learners (ELs), discussions often focus on federal funds under Title III of the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA)--an important source of funding for many aspects of ELs'…

The vast majority of U.S. school districts are considered independent and have taxing authority; the remaining districts rely on revenue and budgetary approval from their local government. In the latter case, localities often use some form of negotiated process to determine the amount of revenue their school districts will receive. Typically, a…

Fiscal federalism deals with the sharing of resources in a federated nation. Over the years problems about local government finance have become an important aspect of intergovernmental relations. Constitutionally, local government is the third tier of government which exists as an independent entity, possessing some degree of autonomy and…

In the education world, the existence of funding inequities has long been a known fact, but the sources of these inequities have not always been obvious. Typically, local property tax variation has been blamed as the sole, or at least primary, cause of inequalities and called for greater state funding as the solution. In practice, however, it is…