Strengthening LCFF for All Students: Going Beyond LCFF’s Targeted Student Groups

By Day Son, Senior Manager of K-12 Policy

As California enters its 10-year anniversary of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), the state has seen various efforts to strengthen the policy in order to best serve students. Recently, state leaders have introduced proposals seeking to further improve upon LCFF to build on its past progress and address its challenges, covered in our last blog post. Given the current landscape, Catalyst California convened Black education leaders and K-12 equity champions across the Water Cooler Network in March 2023 to understand their insights on these proposals and what policy solutions are needed to best support students and families in California, including Black students who have faced some of the biggest disparities in our public education system. Here are some of the policies and takeaways they discussed below:

• Strengthening Accountability - One focus of the Governor’s proposals during the Water Cooler discussion involved strengthening accountability through the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). This proposal includes a mandate that would require Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to develop focus goals in the LCAP for schools and student groups who receive the lowest level on a state indicator. Many leaders felt like this was a step in the right direction; at the same time, they also discussed their concern for the gaps that persist for greater coherence, coordination, and accountability between County Offices of Education (COEs), LEAs, and school sites. Much of what leaders shared aligned with the joint report authored by Public Advocates and ACLU of Southern California, which found that COEs often face challenges holding districts accountable to LCAP requirements. Findings in the report revealed that funds are not always spent on the students that generated them, which can limit their impact. Further, districts and school sites often need additional guidance regarding the types of programs and intervention supports LCFF funds can resource. Water Cooler partners offered recommendations on strengthening accountability: 
• Bridge family engagement with community outreach: Education leaders shared that a key step toward addressing these concerns centers on fostering authentic, extensive family engagement paired with targeted community outreach. This vision reflected shared power and decision-making with families and students rooted in transparent, accessible data sharing, linguistically and culturally inclusive opportunities for input during all parts of the policy process, and authority to hold the district accountable. Community-based organizations and other community members can also play a key role in supporting districts in this type of deep engagement. Moreover, creating a comprehensive list of evidence-based practices that cover both academic and non-academic areas (e.g., mental health, school climate) that impact a child’s educational success can provide LEAs and school sites with a valuable tool to offer holistic support for students. District and school staff, together with community members, families, and students, can collaborate to curate the list and ensure that it meets the diverse needs of their student population. 
  
• Equity Multiplier - Another proposal from the Governor’s office that Water Cooler leaders discussed is the Equity Multiplier. This policy allocates $300 million to school sites statewide based on the enrollment of students qualifying for free meals (90% or more for elementary and middle schools, 85% or more for high schools). The Equity Multiplier seeks to provide targeted resources for students with greatest need beyond the targeted student groups identified by LCFF. Water Cooler partners shared that as the state refines the proposal, it should use a methodology that better achieves this aim. Additionally, leaders want to engage in a discussion around how California can fully realize the vision of racial equity and address the root challenges of the educational disparities that LCFF aims to address.  
• Beyond LCFF’s Targeted Student Groups: Presently, some of the students furthest from opportunity outside of LCFF’s targeted student groups include Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students, as they are amongst the lowest performing student groups in the state. Hence, it is critical that the impact of the Equity Multiplier reaches these populations and other groups who are experiencing some of the greatest needs across California. However, the current iteration of the proposal and its use of a poverty threshold results in an allocation where the majority of Black students across the state would not be impacted by the Equity Multiplier. 
• Approaches to Reach Black Students: Given Catalyst California’s focus on racial equity, we were interested in understanding how the Equity Multiplier reached Black students and therefore developed a tool that compares various metrics and subsequent funding allocations to Black students. The scenarios in the analysis demonstrate how—depending on the indicator used—the Equity Multiplier can result in anywhere between 7.4-71.1% of Black students accessing this specific funding through their school. As the state hones the policy’s approach, Water Cooler attendees also emphasized that adequate accountability measures are needed to ensure funds are spent fully and appropriately to fully support Black students and other student groups that need greater support.  

Black education leaders and K-12 equity champions in the Water Cooler Network unequivocally acknowledge the LCFF was a landmark policy step to advance equity in public education AND that there is more work we need to do together for California’s public education system to truly meet the needs of all children. The proposals on strengthening accountability and reaching students beyond the LCFF target student groups has helped deepen the conversation on realizing the goals of LCFF to advance equity. These voices in the Water Cooler Network call for California to: honor students’ and families’ humanity, resilience, and aspirations; sharpen our approaches to better reach students of color and those with greatest need, particularly Black students; apply the spirit of the Equity Multiplier to the larger discussion on strengthening LCFF implementation and accountability; and foster collaboration to develop solutions that ensure we are working collectively to support students to learn and flourish.  

Stay tuned for the next blog post that spotlights what our partners shared about how California can support Black students and families to thrive.