ACSA is supporting a new legislative solution that aims to address funding inequities in school districts.

Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA 5) offers a thoughtful, long-term approach to addressing one of California’s most persistent education funding challenges — that districts serving similar students often receive dramatically different levels of funding simply because of where the district is located.

Earlier this month, ACSA Legislative Policy Committee Chair Cheryl Jordan, superintendent of Milpitas Unified School District, testified in support of the proposal before the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee.

Drawing on her district’s experience, Jordan highlighted how neighboring districts with comparable demographics, student needs, and educational responsibilities can receive significantly different amounts of funding due to historical funding formulas and local property wealth. These inequities have existed for decades and continue to impact the resources available to students and schools.

“Over the last 40-plus years, California’s school finance structure has allowed these per-pupil funding disparities to persist and grow, even as the state has adopted reforms intended to make school funding more equitable,” said Sen. David Cortese, author of SCA 5, in a statement to the committee. “A student’s access to opportunity should not depend on where they live.”

The proposal would establish an Equalization Reserve Account that grows in years when the state can make deposits into the Proposition 98 Rainy Day Fund. The interest earned on those funds would then be used to gradually increase funding for lower-funded districts, helping narrow funding gaps over time. Importantly, SCA 5 does not reduce funding for any district. Instead, it establishes a dedicated mechanism to advance funding equity while preserving existing resources for local educational agencies.

The bill will next be heard by the full Senate for a floor vote before it moves to the Assembly. Because it is a proposed constitutional amendment, upon passage by the Legislature, it would be placed before voters at the next statewide election, potentially as soon as November 2026.