Voter Awareness, Support, and Participation in California’s Local Control Funding Formula

In this brief, we update previous research on the implementation of California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) with the results from a 2019 poll of California voters. Results show that while public awareness of the LCFF has increased, more than half of voters remain unfamiliar with this state finance and accountability policy. However, voter support for the policy remains high, though it has decreased since last year. Participation in LCFF engagement has increased, but remains low, despite a majority of voters reporting desire to be involved in decisions about local education. Finally, reports of awareness, participation, interest, capacity, and trust are higher among high-income voters relative to low-income voters, raising questions about the extent to which low-income communities are meaningfully engaged in the LCFF.

Full poll results can be found in the Poll Archive.