WeBudget
Catalyst California launched WeBudget , a first-of-its-kind website to better inform parents, students, and community members about the LAUSD budget and its impact on equity. Our schools are fundamental to creating a more equitable future, and the investments administrators and principals make help determine whether all students have what they need to thrive. As COVID-19 forces local governments to make difficult budget decisions, it’s even more imperative that parents, students, and advocates know what resources LAUSD has and how it uses them. Unfortunately, community-unfriendly budget processes, inaccessible jargon, or lack of clarity about who’s in charge of what funding can shut them out of the decision-making process. WeBudget changes that by making budgeting information easier to understand, user-friendly, and transparent.
Students succeed when dollars are invested equitably in their local schools.
WeBudget is an easy-to-use tool that helps parents, caregivers, students and advocates understand how Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is investing dollars to improve student outcomes.
Among the platform’s key features:
A budget basics section that walks users through California’s school finance system and highlights opportunities for parents and others to have their voices heard in district-wide and school-specific budget processes;
A comparison table where users can see how each school stacks up to understand how resources and spending vary across the district’s schools;
Easy to understand revenue and spending visualizations and comparisons for the district as a whole, as well as for individual elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, state preschools, and early education centers.
WeBudget is accessible to both English and Spanish speakers, with the full contents available in both languages.
Catalyst California developed this tool because we believe that with an easily accessible budget, academic, school climate, and community health information, parents, caregivers, students, and advocates can have more informed and productive conversations with LAUSD staff that will lead to better student outcomes.
Join us and learn more about the LAUSD budgeting process. And let’s discuss what resources are needed for our highest-need schools. Because we know it’s our kids, students of color, who are under-resourced. It’s our time to push equity forward.