Much anticipated draft regulations that the State Board of Education will discuss next week would give school districts lots of latitude – too much so, say some advocates for disadvantaged students – to deal with a thorny issue: how to account for the extra money that districts will receive for low-income kids, English learners and foster children.
The proposed regulations (see pages 1-4), posted in the agenda for the Nov. 6-7 State Board meeting, interpret a critical section in the law establishing the Local Control Funding Formula. Broad in intent and short in length, it requires school districts, county offices of education and charter schools “to increase or improve services” for high-needs students “in proportion to the increase in funds apportioned on the basis of the number and concentration” of those students. The board must adopt the regulations at its next meeting in January to meet a deadline imposed by the funding law.
While providing substantial funding for low-income children and English learners in the Local Control Funding Formula that he pushed through the Legislature, Gov. Jerry Brown has made it clear that the state should not micromanage how districts choose to spend money on those students.
The new funding system provides additional dollars for low-income children and English learners: 20 percent more funding per targeted student plus additional dollars when a district has large concentrations of those students. Advocacy organizations for low-income kids had argued that the extra dollars should be spent on programs for those students at the schools they attend. But they
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