Governor’s Budget Proposal Includes Increases to Education                                                                                                                                          
Governor Jerry Brown released his budget on January 10, 2018 and has proposed an increase of $3.8 billion for K-12 schools with the largest part, $3 billion, going toward fully funding the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).
Five years ago, when the LCFF was created, Brown estimated that it would take eight years until 2020-2021 to fully fund LCFF, therefore the funding increases this year is a welcome surprise. Educators have cautioned, full funding is not adequate funding. California still ranks 46th in the nation in per pupil spending. 
Brown was cautiously optimistic about the state’s economy but warned of a looming economic recession and reserved much of the tax increase revenues for the rainy-day fund.
Brown addressed funding by providing full LCFF funding to districts, funding for County Offices to assist school districts, increase funding for early learning (State preschools/childcare), funding for California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, one-time funding to recruit and train special education teachers, funding for SELPAs and ongoing money to extend career technical education programs.
Moving forward, it was recommended that districts be cautious in predicting education funding in the years to come, now that LCFF will be fully funded. Going forward, districts may only see COLA increases which will not be adequate to fund pension liabilities and step and column increases. 
The budget will go before the legislature for further negotiations. A final budget is predicted to be passed on time in June.

Krystal Lomanto
San Benito County Superintendent