Mary Briggs

mbriggs
Mary Briggs
Senior Director of Research and Education Policy Development,
California School Boards Association

Mary Briggs is senior director of research and education policy development at the California School Boards Association (CSBA). She leads a team of education policy analysts who provide board members with research and timely information on key governance issues. Her work focuses on local K–12 governance, school finance, and policy implementation. Recent CSBA research projects examine local educational agencies’ use of state and federal COVID-19 relief funding, school safety, and budgeting through an equity lens. She was an elementary school teacher for 12 years and studied school organization and education policy at the University of California, Davis, with research on district coherence, school finance, and local policy implementation.

updated 2025

Contributing topics
Publications by Mary Briggs
How Districts Responded to Flexibility in Tier 3 Categorical Funds in 2010–2011
California's system of school finance is highly regulated and prescriptive. A large share of state funding is allocated through categorical programs, that is, programs whose funding is contingent upon districts using the money in a particular way or…