The Brief

There’s a constant tension in California public schools.

Education spending is one of the largest chunks of the state’s budget, yet schools often are strapped for money to cover basic needs, including teacher pay and repairs.

The COVID-19 pandemic, uncertain state revenue, settlements from decades-old sex abuse cases and now Trump administration cuts to education funding have made it more challenging for schools to plan and budget for student needs.

Fewer students are enrolling at schools throughout the state, particularly in areas with high costs of living like Los Angeles, which means a future with even less money.

Advocates are working to ensure the resources that remain benefit students who need the most support.

“Every kid deserves to have the same quality education,” said GPSN Executive Vice President Ana Teresa Dahan. “The promise of a public education is to lead thriving adult lives, and so we can't be pitting communities or students or schools against each other in a time where there might be less resources.”

The education-focused nonprofit published a report Thursday, finding that while increased funding generally follows higher-need students, there are some exceptions.

 ”Everyone assumes that every kid gets an allocation from the state and that kids' money follows them into the classroom,” Dahan said. “That's not what happens at LAUSD.”

It’s a complicated system, so we’ve styled this story like an FAQ with the goal of helping you better understand and get involved in shaping your school’s funding.

How do my tax dollars get to local schools?

The majority of LAUSD’s funding comes from the state. The district also receives federal dollars for specific purposes, including to support low-income students and those with disabilities.

Money for K-12 schools makes up the second-largest chunk of funding in California’s general fund. In the 2025-2026 budget, that equates to about $18,671 per student. The actual amount of funding per student varies based on a variety of factors, including student demographics, local funding source and the size of the school.

Broadly speaking, here’s how it works: California distributes money to schools based on their average daily attendance — how many students show up for class each day.

There is additional funding for every low-income, English-language learner, unhoused or foster youth student in the district.

This system is called the Local Control Funding Formula.

How can LAUSD schools spend money?

The money doesn’t go directly to schools. The district distributes it based on several factors.

First and foremost, staffing. The number of students at a school determines how many teachers, administrators, counselors and other employees are assigned to each school. This number is determined by California education law and contracts with the district’s employee unions.

This is called non-discretionary funding because schools cannot use this money for anything other than the specific purpose for which it is allocated.

Non-discretionary funding accounts for about 80% of any school's given budget, the GPSN report found.

“ It's very rare that the principal has a significant source of discretionary dollars,” Dahan said. “But when they do … they should be working with the school community to figure out what the need is at that school site.”

Discretionary funding, on the other hand, is more flexible. A school might decide to pay for classroom supplies, field trips, a counselor or staff to support students' reading or math development.

There may be a school-site council of parents, staff and students that weighs in on campus spending priorities.

Here are several examples of sources of discretionary funding:

• Student Equity Needs Index (SENI): A $700 million annual fund distributed to schools based on several factors, including academic outcomes, rates of chronic absenteeism and the health and levels of violence in surrounding communities. The LAUSD board created SENI with advocacy groups that wanted more funding to support the neediest students. 
• Black Student Achievement Plan (BSAP): A $125 million fund distributed primarily to schools that serve higher numbers of Black students. The LAUSD board voted to create the BSAP in 2021 with the goal of closing gaps in academic outcomes between Black students and their peers. 
• PTA and booster club fundraising: A 2022 LAist investigation found parents and families collectively raise about $30 million a year for LAUSD schools. The money historically has been concentrated in wealthy Westside neighborhoods and the southwestern San Fernando Valley. 

Why do some schools get more money per student than others?

One of the report's findings was that even schools that serve similar populations can receive vastly different amounts of funding per student.

For example, two elementary schools, one in San Pedro and another in Southeast L.A., with identical SENI rankings (highest need) and similar demographics (majority low-income students of color) had a nearly $23,000 difference in per-pupil funding.

The San Pedro school received about $16,000 per student, while the Southeast L.A. school got $39,000.

Dahan said the explanation is in the number of students. The San Pedro school has about 600 students, while the Southeast L.A. school has 129.

“There's some fixed costs that every school has to have,” Dahan said. “The less number of students you have, the less number of students to share that cost when you try to determine a per-pupil funding.”

More money doesn’t mean students have access to more resources because the money is designated for specific purposes.

Those fixed costs can include the principal, cafeteria and janitorial staff.

GPSN points out that while it costs more to operate smaller schools, they play an important role in bringing food, health care and childcare to their communities.

 ”The question should be how do we make sure all the other schools are getting the same academic results regardless of the dollars,” Dahan said. “The true equity will be in the educational experience, not the dollars that each kid receives.”

What is LAUSD’s financial future?

Here are the trends we’ve noticed over the past few years:

About 408,000 students attended LAUSD this past school year, a more than 40% decline from enrollment two decades ago.

Yet, the district has increased the amount of money it spends as enrollment declines. For example, the district created new programs to support students with federal pandemic relief money that’s now spent. Unlike other districts, LAUSD has not closed schools or laid off large numbers of staff in recent years.

LAUSD has relied on reserves to balance the last two budgets. In June, the board approved a plan that includes the possibility of school closures and layoffs in the next school year.

“There is hardship in the future,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho during a September board meeting. “The best way to lead is to lead from the front with full awareness of the sacrifice that lies ahead and the contribution that each one of us can individually make.”

How can families influence LAUSD’s financial decisions?

Dahan, who’s also the mom of two LAUSD students, said the first thing to focus on is your own child’s attendance.

“Not only for their own learning, but I have to understand that that is my financial contribution to the system,” Dahan said. “ The more of us who send our kids to public schools, the more money that will be in public education.”

If you want to dive deeper, here are a few suggestions for getting involved:

• Attend a budget town hall meeting: Throughout October, LAUSD’s board is hosting a series of virtual and in-person meetings to explain the district’s budget process and financial challenges. 
• Look up your school’s spending plan: The district’s budget transparency website shows how much money they’ve spent, the number of staff and enrollment in recent years. You can also see the ratio of discretionary to non-discretionary dollars.  ”That gives you a sense of what might be available for the things you think your school needs,” Dahan said. You can also see how your school’s budget compares to that of nearby campuses. 
• Join a school-site council meeting: This group of parents, community members, staff and students creates a plan for meeting academic goals. The council is required by California law at schools that receive certain types of federal and state funding.
• Contact your school board member: The board is ultimately responsible for adopting a district-wide budget each year. Find your representative below. 

Note: GPSN is a recent financial supporter of LAist. Like other funders, it has no influence on coverage.

We're in for another warm and sunny day in SoCal.

Daytime highs for the beaches will reach the mid-70s and up to the low 80s more inland. Downtown L.A. will see temperatures up to 83 degrees.

Temperatures for the valley communities and the Inland Empire will reach the mid-80s. The western San Fernando Valley will see temps in the upper 80s, up to 89 degrees for Woodland Hills.

In Coachella Valley, expect another day with highs in the 90s, up to 96 degrees.

Friday is expected to be the warmest day of the week.

Newly released data from the city show that Los Angeles police officers use minor traffic stops as a way to investigate Black and Latino people on suspicion of committing a more serious crime at a higher rate than their share of the citywide population.

The LAPD adopted a policy about so-called pretextual stops and began tracking the practice in 2022.

In a report released at the end of January, the city’s chief legislative analyst found that Black people were involved in nearly 31% of pretextual stops conducted by LAPD officers between spring 2022 and fall 2025. According to 2023 Census estimates, Black people make up 8% of the city’s population.

According to the report, "Hispanic/Latino" people, who make up just less than half the city’s population, were the subjects of 56% of pretextual stops.

That analysis, along with a separate report by LAPD, found that of the more than 760,000 people involved in traffic stops between spring of 2022 and fall of 2025, 9% to 10% of them were stopped pretextually.

Chauncee Smith, an associate director of the racial justice-focused nonprofit Catalyst California, said LAPD’s data is “under inclusive” since it relies on officers subjectively deciding when a stop is pretextual.

He said an analysis of data from Catalyst California, published in February, demonstrates that pretextual stops don’t result in evidence discovery enough to make up for the negative impacts of the practice.

“It's affecting the lives of many Black and Latinx Angelenos on an everyday basis,” Smith said, adding that pretextual stops often result in harassment, dehumanization and excessive ticketing or fining of communities of color.

Pretextual stops 

Police sometimes use violations of the vehicle code to stop drivers and investigate them for a more serious crime unrelated to the traffic stop, such as possessing drugs or firearms, according to Deepak Premkumar, a research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California.

 ”Law enforcement officers see tons of violations, and we give them a lot of discretion to determine who they should stop and when,” Premkumar told LAist.

A plausible example of what a pretextual stop could look like is if police see a car matching the description of one that was involved in a crime in the area, then pull that car over for a broken taillight, Premkumar said.

The policy the LAPD adopted in 2022 outlines that officers:

• Can only conduct pretextual stops as long as they are “acting upon articulable information” that the person is close to a serious crime that’s worth investigating. 
• Should minimize stops for minor equipment violations, such as broken taillights, unless the violation “interferes with public safety.”
• State the reason for the stop, whether pretextual or not, while their body-worn cameras are filming.

Despite the adoption of the policy, Catalyst California’s analysis found that the proportion of all officer-initiated stops that are for minor traffic violations has “remained relatively constant since 2019.”

Racial disparities

The analysis from the city’s chief legislative analyst included a comparison of pretextual stop rates for different ethnic and racial groups in L.A. compared to their share of the citywide population.

The analysis found that "Hispanic/Latino" and Black people were overrepresented in data on pretextual stops compared to their share of the population.

L.A. Police Capt. Shannon White drafted the department’s report of the same data, which did not include an ethnic or racial breakdown of those involved in pretextual stops.

At a Los Angeles Police Commission Meeting in February, when she presented the department’s analysis, White said Census estimates for the city don’t necessarily align with “the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime,” who, theoretically, are the subjects of pretextual stops.

“When you look at the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime…what you will find is that they skew towards communities of color for various societal reasons,” White said.

According to the LAPD’s analysis, people in Central and South L.A. were subjects of pretextual at higher rates than in the Valley and West L.A.

Some commissioners at the meeting questioned that disparity.

“Something just doesn't add up,” Commission President Teresa Sánchez-Gordon said. “Is it racial profiling? Is that bias? Implicit, explicit bias that's in the report?”

Discovery rates

The police’s analysis found that searches during pretextual stops yielded contraband, such as firearms and other weapons or drugs, in about every 3 in 10 cases. “Narco-related” evidence is what’s most commonly found in the searches.

Catalyst California’s report looked more specifically at different kinds of searches and how likely they are to lead to evidence discovery.

The nonprofit found that since 2022, when officers used consent-only searches during stops for minor traffic violations, they discovered evidence 3% to 10% of the time. The rate was similarly low when the person stopped was on parole or probation.

According to Catalyst California’s analysis, the type of search most likely to lead to discovery of evidence is when there’s an existing search or arrest warrant for the person stopped.

“This was likely because they occurred in situations when there was a higher likelihood of a significant violation, beyond mere pretext,” the nonprofit's researchers wrote.

California schools lost more than $2.2 million in state funding over two years because some students did not have all the vaccinations required by state law, according to data obtained by EdSource from the California State Controller’s Office. 

The loss of average daily attendance funding was the result of state audits of more than 1,000 public schools, where more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh grade students were not fully vaccinated in 2023 and 2024. After the state investigated, schools in 72 of those districts lost some funding.

Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, with over 400,000 students, lost $324,055 in average daily attendance funding in 2023 and 2024, the two years reviewed by EdSource. The district had a budget of about $19 billion in both years.

The lost funds account for 22.1 days of attendance, including about three-quarters of a day, worth roughly $8,000, from a charter school, according to data from the State Controller’s Office.

San Francisco Unified, with about 50,000 students, was penalized about the same amount — $315,775. The district lost 26 days of daily attendance funding in those two years.

Oakland Unified lost $155,347 of attendance funding combined in 2023 and 2024 because it could not verify it was in full compliance with state vaccination requirements, according to documents provided by the district.

Even small school districts lost large chunks of state funding over the two years because of vaccination mandates. Snowline Joint Unified in San Bernardino County, which has about 8,000 students, lost 15.6 days of attendance funding worth $195,390. Ojai Unified in Ventura County, a school district of about 2,000 students, lost 14 days of funding, worth $166,993.

Because of the state’s complicated school funding system, the amounts schools receive and potentially can lose per student varies.

California law requires students to be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases. Proof of immunization is required in kindergarten and seventh grade, as well as upon entering child care, transitional kindergarten, or when transferring schools from out of state. Schools lose attendance funding for the amount of time each year that each student is not fully vaccinated.

Districts must plan to improve

Last year, 428 schools were identified as having low vaccination rates and are being audited by the state. Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified and Ojai Unified are among the districts that remain on the audit list.

Districts found to be out of compliance are required to develop a corrective action plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again, according to officials at the California Department of Education.

San Francisco Unified has taken steps to ensure the district complies with state vaccination law, said Laura Dudnick, director of communications.

The district has changed its enrollment process to require that immunization records and tuberculosis clearances be submitted in advance, so health workers can review them. During the application cycle for the upcoming school year, families are notified monthly of missing requirements, a move that is expected to reduce last-minute enrollment barriers and increase overall immunization compliance, Dudnick said.

“We take this responsibility seriously and appreciate the families who have worked with us to obtain required immunizations for their children,” she said. “We are working diligently to ensure students are immunized as required by law.”

Los Angeles Unified is hosting vaccination clinics and health fairs to provide immunizations and health services, and educating families on the importance of vaccinations, according to district officials. Health teams are also identifying barriers to vaccination and connecting families to resources.

“The health and safety of our students is our highest priority,” the district said in a statement sent to EdSource. “In response to the state vaccination audit, the district has deployed targeted outreach and support for the identified schools. We have maintained an overall district-wide immunization compliance rate of 98% since the audit.”

California offers exemptions for children in special education, home-based private schools and for medical reasons. But in 2015, the state Legislature added more oversight to medical exemptions, requiring the California Department of Public Health to review exemptions at schools with an immunization rate of less than 95%, or if a doctor has written more than five exemptions in a year.

Measles cases soaring

The 2015 decision came after a major measles outbreak at Disneyland. Now, measles cases are on the rise again, with 982 cases reported in the U.S. so far this year.

Measles cases in California have been racing upward as well, from four cases in 2023 to 25 in 2025. This year, there have already been 19 reported cases of measles in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health. Los Angeles County alone has had four measles cases reported since Jan. 30.

“The MMR vaccine is the safest and most reliable way to prevent measles and protect yourself, your family, and your community,” said Los Angeles County Health Officer Muntu Davis in a statement. “Measles spreads easily and can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia, brain swelling, and even death.”

Six comedic improvisers, dozens of fuzzy puppets and limitless possibilities.

That pretty much sums up Puppet Up! Uncensored, which combines the style of puppetry originated by Jim Henson with improvisational comedy games fueled by audience prompts.

The performers don’t shy away from adult themes, so it can lean a little raunchy, earning this particular cast of puppets the group title of “miskreants.”

The "miskreant" puppets from "Puppet Up!"

(

Omar Gaieck

)

The world lost Jim Henson in 1990, but many artists, including his own children, have kept both the craft and the business going. Son and accomplished puppeteer Brian Henson is chairman of the L.A.-based Jim Henson Company and creator of Puppet Up! Uncensored.

While no “Muppets” are included in the show, the production does include recreations of several original Jim Henson puppets from early in his career interspersed with others from previous Henson productions and some more recent creations made for Puppet Up! specifically.

“They're really old,” Henson said. “It's super fun to rebuild those puppets and actually perform those scenes in front of a live audience. That hasn't happened in 40, 50 years probably.”

Behind the scenes takes center stage

Puppet Up! is really two shows at once.

On top of being a mash-up of sketches, hosted by director and co-creator Patrick Bristow, the audience actually gets to see how it all happens.

The Henson style of puppetry, from design to performance, is tailored for the camera, but in Puppet Up! Uncensored, audience members see both a staged-for-screen performance on video projection, and all the puppeteers' work that’s usually hidden from view, including the performers’ faces when things go awry.

“It's really fun to let people see how we do it because it's clever and it's chaotic,” Henson said. “It also means our audience watches the show in a kind of very different way.”

Bringing it all out into view allows the audience to connect with performers who are usually behind the scenes. “ It sort of just gives it a double layer of entertainment value,” Henson said.

Puppets vs. artificial intelligence

The Muppet Show was brought back by Disney for a Disney+ special earlier this month in honor of the show’s 50th anniversary. Jim Henson’s Muppets actually turned 70 in 2025, and the appetite for the characters and the district Henson style of puppetry hasn’t waned. Audiences are hungry for details of a Miss Piggy movie, reportedly helmed by Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone.

(While Disney has owned the Muppets since 2004 and The Jim Henson Company now only consults on Muppet projects when it is asked to, Henson’s take on the recent special is that it was “really good” and he hopes it’s picked up as a series. All he knows about the Miss Piggy movie, he told LAist: “I don’t think it’s very far along.”)

What’s behind the lasting appeal of puppets and The Muppets specifically?

Henson argues puppetry may be the oldest art form if you think about the basic act of imbuing an object with personality — something parents do instinctively with young children.

“ I used to bring to life my daughter's pajamas,” he said. “That was the way to get her to put her pajamas on so that she would go to bed.”

But that doesn't mean it's ever been particularly mainstream. Even Jim Henson had to shop around the original Muppet Show before it found a spot on American primetime TV, but Henson said he’s felt a shift in just the past few months in response to artificial intelligence.

“The AI craze has created a backlash of, 'Please let me see human craftsmanship, human artistry, where I know that this is coming from a human's artistic mind,'” Henson said. “So I think right now there is just an enormous appreciation for artistry that is not computer-generated in any way. That will benefit all sorts of arts, but it certainly benefits puppetry for sure.”

Some puppet philosophy

Henson describes Puppet Up! as a celebration of the “absurdity of the human condition” and said performing with puppets can elicit a more open response from audiences.

“The audience watches puppets with the innocence of a child, even if they're 70 years old,” he said.

And that distance can allow an emotional access you might not get with actors alone.

“It makes it possible to laugh at themselves rather than be offended,” Henson said. “So particularly in a period of time like now, where everybody's scared of somebody hating them … we can sort of play out examples of that kind of friction with puppets. That's gonna give you objectivity and allow you to sort of reflect.”

"Puppet Up! Uncensored" is playing at The Montalbán from Friday through Sunday.