State Board meeting on LCFF draws capacity crowd
Draft regulations draw comments from diverse stakeholders; final action expected in January
Published: November 13, 2013
They may not have agreed on the best strategies for helping California’s low-income students, children in foster care and English learners succeed in public schools—the goal that’s at the heart of the state’s revolutionary new Local Control Funding Formula. But there was no doubt that the school board members, teachers, school administrators, parents and students who spent five hours testifying about draft LCFF rules before the State Board of Education last week are passionately committed to making sure the new school finance system supports California’s neediest students.
During the marathon Nov. 7 meeting, the State Board heard from more than 100 speakers, many of whom traveled hundreds of miles to weigh in on the proposed regulations. LCFF represents what CSBA Senior Director of Policy and Programs Teri Burns, part of the stakeholder working group that’s advising the State Board, calls a “sea change” in the state’s school finance system. It focuses on the three targeted student groups and gives governance teams new flexibility to invest funds where they’re needed most, which eliminates many of the categorical programs that had earmarked certain funds for particular services.
CSBA got its “Governance First” message in early, both through the working group that Burns and CSBA Legislative Advocate Andrea Ball serve on and in a four-page letter submitted in advance of last week’s meeting. As part of the association’s advocacy campaign, CSBA has repeatedly stressedthat LCFF calls upon boards to engage in early and meaningful engagement with local stakeholders. The regulations must allow governance teams the flexibility to address needs of students, especially those students with greater challenges who have, in the past, been underserved.
In the words of a recent Action Alert members were to send to the State Board: “Local governance best serves students and communities. LCFF represents a historic shift in how the state funds public schools and we applaud the Brown administration for maintaining its commitment to local control and improving outcomes for students.” Local governance teams need freedom from top-down dictates, the alert said, “in order to achieve a comprehensive plan for improving student outcomes and closing the achievement gaps for currently underserved California students.”
‘Spend more … provide more … achieve more’
The State Board is not scheduled to adopt LCFF regulations until January, so last week’s discussion was an early opportunity for stakeholders to review and comment on draft rules developed by California Department of Education staff with assistance from the WestEd educational research organization. Their staff report said their draft “policy framework” would give local educational agencies three options for demonstrating they are complying with LCFF: LEAs can “spend more” on services for targeted students, “provide more or improve services” for these students or “achieve more.”
WestEd’s Janelle Kubinec, who helped design the draft rules, told the State Board the new framework is “a simple formula with quite a lot of expectation,” and she stressed that the new policies will evolve and improve over time as governance teams become more familiar with this new finance system.
State Board President Michael Kirst said last week’s meeting represented the board’s first opportunity to listen to the public or discuss the new rules as a group—although State Board members have attended various public meetings on LCFF convened by local school districts and public interest groups throughout the state in the months since LCFF became law.
“Despite what you may have read in the media,” Kirst said before public input began, the board has not endorsed any specific approach to LCFF implementation. “The board has not deliberated at all. … The board has not met on this. We’re here to hear testimony and think about this.”
Local Control and Accountability Plans
Legislation implementing LCFF also requires that each LEA and every school develop a Local Control and Accountability Plan, using a template that the State Board is scheduled to adopt in January along with the LCFF regulations. These accountability plans will need to spell out exactly how governance teams invest their state funds to increase or improve services to support students who are poor, learning English or living in foster care. Local budgets and LCAPs will need to be developed in close consultation with students, teachers and parents, and with school site councils and other parent advisory groups. In LEAs with large percentages of English learners, governance teams must ensure they’ve worked closely with parents of these students. Many of these parents attended the State Board meeting, sometimes speaking through interpreters about their hopes for their children.
Some critics of the draft LCFF proposals—including many who testified last week—urged the State Board to impose more restrictions on local governance teams to ensure the new state money is spent on the three at-risk groups.
Given the diverse views expressed at last week’s meeting, State Board member Carl Cohn, former superintendent in the San Diego and Long Beach unified school districts, urged CSBA and the Association of California School Administrators to continue their community outreach work. CSBA has convened 25 LCFF workshops to introduce the new funding formula to governance teams up and down the state; the association’s LCFF Web page is a comprehensive storehouse of additional resources.
Burns, the senior director in CSBA’s Policy and Programs Department who’s also a board member in the Natomas Unified School District, said she welcomes the work ahead and the robust debate over the best way forward.
“This is a sea change for everyone, and CSBA is eager to partner with education school board members about best practices for community engagement and services to different groups of students,” Burns said.