State rushes first of Local Control money out to schools
By Tom Chorneau
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
A total of $26.7 billion is going out from the controller’s office by July 31, which represents the first regular installment for the fiscal year as well as about $2.1 billion for LCFF activities.
But with the money, districts are also being warned that adjustments in entitlements are likely. Officials at the California Department of Education said they didn’t have enough time to perform all the necessary recalculations needed to fully implement the system – so the money is going out based on last year’s allotments.
Elizabeth Dearstyne, an administrator at CDE’s fiscal division who helps oversee apportionments, said the process for updating LEA entitlements is not scheduled to be completed until the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year. Thus, administrators may find that after the final calibrations are made – state payments may go up or they may go down.
“We are basically just flowing money based on the prior year,” she explained. “We are just flowing cash based on last year’s P-2 funding (the Second Principal Apportionment made in June). The new LCFF formula – in terms of base grants, targets and economic recovery as well as the unduplicated pupil funding – those components won’t occur until we do the P-2 certification for 2013-14, which is required to be done by July 2.”
The landmark restructuring of state support for K-12 education gives local school boards vast new authority over