January 2009

The largest proportion of school funding in California comes from the state's General Fund (largely sales and income taxes). However, local education agencies also receive lottery funds, local miscellaneous revenues, and federal funding.

In the budget enacted in September 2008, some of those funding sources—such as state funds, local property taxes, and local miscellaneous revenues—are providing more funding this year than last year. In contrast, other sources—namely federal revenues and the state lottery—are not changing significantly compared with 2007–08.

2008-09 revenues for K-12 education based on the enacted budget

 Data: California Department of Education            EdSource 1/09

Note: Not all K–12 Proposition 98 funds support K–12 education. For example, $791 million will support adult education programs and $1.8 billion will finance child care programs. The percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding.

Total estimated revenues for 2008–09 from all sources are about $71.9 billion including:

State funds $42.2 billion (including $37.5 billion Proposition 98)
mostly from California sales and income taxes, including about $4.6 billion not counted toward the Proposition 98 guarantee.

Local property taxes $16.5 billion (including $14.0 billion Proposition 98)
are collected and distributed locally, but the state determines the distribution among school districts and other local governments. The $16.5 billion includes $2.5 billion not counted toward the Proposition 98 guarantee, such as $2.1 billion in local debt service.

Local miscellaneous revenues $5.4 billion
includes such sources as community and foundation contributions, interest income, developer fees, and revenues from local parcel tax elections.

Federal government $6.8 billion
earmarked for special purposes, most notably Child Nutrition, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and Special Education.

Lottery $0.9 billion
Per-pupil estimates for 2008–09 are unavailable. In 2007–08, with the same total dollars, districts received $121 per pupil (ADA)* in unrestricted revenues plus $22 for instructional materials only. However, enrollment is slightly lower in 2008–09.

Projected California public school average daily attendance (ADA)
5.92 million K–12 students (for the purposes of Proposition 98) plus about 297,000 students in adult education and 137,531 in regional occupational programs.