Dive Brief:

• The Public Policy Institute of California released a long-awaited report Tuesday that recommends California legislators send special education funding directly to schools, rather than going through regional agencies.
• EdSource reports 133 regional Special Education Local Plan Areas currently distribute billions of dollars in special education funding, but the state could fold that money into the Local Control Funding Formula, better integrating special and general education.
• The PPIC report says the current system features inequitable and inadequate funding as well as poor accountability, but it doesn’t recommend eliminating SELPAs altogether, which can still serve important support roles for districts.

Dive Insight:

California’s Local Control Funding Formula created massive changes in the way schools are governed and funded in the state. Gov. Jerry Brown proposed the change and the legislature approved it in 2013. The goal was to increase equity in district funding, send more power to the local level and shift priorities when it comes to accountability. Under the current system, the state is supposed to offer positive reinforcement rather than punishment as a strategy for supporting school improvement.

Nationwide states are considering new methods of distributing state and federal dollars. Complicated formulas that end up sending more money to schools with privileged student populations are under attack. The Every Student Succeeds Act is expected to bring even more attention to per-pupil spending through its requirement that states report such spending by school on report cards. In the past, that level of detailed was only reported by district.