SECTION 1.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) Despite California’s leadership in the global economy, this state falls in the nation’s bottom quintile in nearly every measure of K–12 public school funding and staffing.
(2) California ranks 45th nationally in the percentage of taxable income spent on education, 41st in per-pupil funding, 45th in pupil-teacher ratios, and 48th in pupil-staff ratios, and K–12 public school funding in this state has
not substantially increased, on an inflation-adjusted basis, for more than a decade.
(3) Under the local control funding formula (LCFF), state funding for K–12 public schools has only recently returned to the levels of funding that predated the Great Recession that began around 2007, and the modest revenue increases since the implementation of the LCFF have been eroded by rapidly increasing costs for health care, pensions, transportation, and utilities.
(4) Fifty-eight percent of California’s K–12 public school pupils are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches, which is 13 percent above the national average, and 23 percent of California K–12 public school pupils are English learners, which is more than twice the national average.
(5) California funds its K–12 public schools at a level that is roughly $1,961 per
pupil lower than the national average, and this amount translates to $3,462 per pupil when it is adjusted to reflect California’s high cost of living. California trails the average of the top 10 states in per-pupil funding by almost $7,000 per pupil.
(6) In order to prepare our pupils for participation in a democratic society and an increasingly competitive, technology-driven global economy, California must fund public schools at a level sufficient to support pupil success.
(7) If California is to close opportunity and achievement gaps and create a K–12 public school system that offers consistently high levels of education, this state must provide public schools with the resources to meet the needs of their specific pupil populations.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation providing
that, beginning in the 2019–20 fiscal year, the state shall begin to provide increases to the LCFF to address the existing inequities in per-pupil funding and fund California K–12 public schools at a level that is equal to, or above, the average of the top 10 states nationally by 2025 and, at a minimum, to maintain this level of funding indefinitely.