By Robert McEntire, EdD and Brianna García of School Services of California
The concurrent timing of the implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) with the economic recovery from the Great Recession dramatically changed the landscape for public education in California. The LCFF is a vast departure from the prior funding mechanism that included revenue limits plus more than forty categorical programs, which often competed or even conflicted in priority and goals across schools.
Now eleven years into the longest economic recovery on record, some segments of the economy continue to thrive, but there are persistent concerns that an economic recession is on the horizon as cracks in the dam start to materialize. Even with modest economic growth, many LEAs find themselves in a silent recession as operating costs grow at a faster pace than revenues.
