ACSA executive director discusses LCFF at hearing
October 28, 2024
ACSA Executive Director Edgar Zazueta gave remarks to California legislators Oct. 17 as part of a panel on the fiscal design and outcome goals of the Local Control Funding Formula.
The Assembly Education Committee and Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance held a joint oversight hearing on LCFF to hear from educators, labor representatives and other groups on LCFF’s fiscal makeup. Other panels covered the LCFF base formula and designs of supplemental and concentration grants.
Zazueta specifically spoke to the impact LCFF has had on California’s public education system and on lower-income students.
“It fundamentally has changed the way we do business,” he said. “This conversation goes beyond distribution of dollars. Like many studies have pointed out, there’s clear evidence that money has mattered, which has translated to closing the achievement gap between higher-need students and their peers.”
He said the emphasis of LCFF on local control has also benefited schools.
“The move to put decision-making in the hands of those closest to students was again a very critical one,” he said.
Zazueta added that the education community and other stakeholders still need to discuss the adequacy of the LCFF base grant so that school districts can maintain essential services, and highlighted funding for special education.
In his closing comments, he mentioned Local Control and Accountability Plans and the initial ideas for the LCAP to be a three- to four-page document.
“We look forward to conversations about how to streamline those requirements,” he said.
The other participants on the panel were Brooks Allen, State Board of Education; Katie Hardeman, California Teachers Association; Ted Lempert, Children Now; Rucker Johnson, University of California at Berkeley; and Mike Kirst, Stanford University.
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