About this analysis

This page was created by Jeff Camp for Ed100.org on Jan 31, 2024

(it supersedes prior versions)

Purpose

Understand the significance of property tax in funding for school districts in California

Identify the districts where property tax fully funds schools, without state aid

Identify the extent of funding these fortunate districts receive for their students.

Figure out how to explain it to a non-technical audience in a factual way that avoids hype, blame or jealousy

Explain how Minimum State Aid (MSA) works and explain it with a similar sensibility.

Summary

Public K12 school systems in CA (LEAs) are funded by a mix of state revenue (mostly income tax) and local revenue (mostly property tax)

Most LEAs are school districts. This analysis concetrates on them.

For each district, the LCFF system guarantees a certain amount of funding per student in attendance

They don't have to care about whether the funds come from the state or from property tax. It's a formula

Some districts also enjoy ongoing state funding due to historical commitments

In most disticts, the amount of property tax locally generated is less than the LCFF-guaranteed amount

These (most) districts receive state aid in an amount that delivers the guaranteed amount per student.

In some districts, the amount of local property tax collected is MORE than the LCFF-guaranteed minimum amount.

These (few) districts do not necessarily receive state aid other than a basic amount (they are called "basic aid" or "excess tax" districts)

Some districts also receive Minimum State Aid due to long-ago promises made to enable passage of LCFF

Some MSA also goes to a few county offices of education. This is harder to understand. Again, history!

Funds are mainly delivered to districts (LEAs) in two apportionments during the year (called P-1 and P-2)

They may receive other state funds through programs such as Prop28 arts funding

The pandemic funding also spurred temporary funding.

Detail

This workbook is based on a report of P2 data from the Calif department of education for 2022-23

... there is an official list of basic aid districts and MSA-recipient districts from CDE using "75.70" data

... The 75.70 list aligns best with the PRIOR YEAR P2 data.

The Minimum State Aid (MSA) Guarantee is the level of funding to ensure that LEAs receive at least the same amount
in state aid as they received in 2012-13, adjusted for changes in ADA and property taxes. The Additional SA for MSA,
available for some LEAs, is the difference between the Net State Aid and the LCFF State Aid before MSA.

Which districts are Basic aid?

The provided list from CDE (including MSA recipients) is on this page: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/documents/advtax22.xlsx

Which you find here: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/ada75702223.asp

By going here: https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/pa2223.asp

Under Other fiscal information : Look for a heading called something like Advance Average Daily Attendance for Section 75.70 of the Revenue and Taxation Code Allocation of Supplemental Taxes for Fiscal Year 2022–23

I copied this into the Basic Aid tab of this workbook

How much property tax do these lucky districts get beyond the LCFF guarantee level?

The numbers are on a sheet like https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/documents/lcffsummary2223.xlsx

Which you find here https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/aa/pa/pa2223.asp

Note the columns "Total LCFF Entitlement" and "Total Local Revenue or In-Lieu of Property Taxes"

I copied the info into the LCFF Summary... tab of this workbook (see green tab)

How I pursued analysis

First, I created a consistent code to match school districts (the two CDE references used similar but different structure)

I added this to the LCFF Summary sheet in column U

Next, I compared the two CDE lists to see whether the list of schools identified as Basic Aid showed on the LCFF Summary

This comparison is in column V

The lists do not match, (e.g. Acalanes Union High)

At this point I conclude that the $ data is more useful than the list.

Notes on map creation

In order to chart this stuff, it's necessary to find the matching version of the number of each district from NCES, which required code.

Clean the

Summary stats - 2022-23

District type

Elementary

Unified

For more detail see the Summary 22-23 worksheet in this workbook