California's 20% supplemental grant weight falls below other states' adequacy-study recommendations for English learners and at-risk students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across five state adequacy studies (2016–2023), recommended weights ranged from 15% to 40% for English learners and 30% to 81% for at-risk students; California's 20% weight is at the low end or below, translating to about $2,100 per student versus nearly $6,500 or more than $9,900 recommended elsewhere. → Kaplan 2025

Evidence¶

Kaplan 2025¶

Kaplan, J. (2025). California's Local Control Funding Formula: Next steps toward equity. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/820.131

q2 · i? · review · r2

Cross-state comparison of five adequacy studies commissioned by the District of Columbia, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Delaware, conducted 2016–2023 and analyzed by LPI. Recommended weights "translated into additional funding of nearly $6,500 per pupil in the District of Columbia, and more than $9,900 per pupil in Delaware and Maryland."

"California's 20% supplemental grant weight translated into additional funding of about $2,100 per student, substantially below the level of additional funding recommended by studies in these other states."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In 2023–24, 49 states provided separate additional funding for English learners, most commonly through weights in their funding formulas, with a national median EL weight of 0.25 — related
• Five school finance costing studies (2016–2023) recommended additional funding weights of 0.15–0.40 for EL students and 0.30–0.81 for low-income/at-risk students, equivalent to $1,548–$4,976 and $3,389–$8,357 in 2024 dollars — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• California is one of only five states that counts high-need students unduplicated, unlike 37 of 42 states that allow duplicated funding — related
• Across 11 states with transparent student group allocation, estimated combined additional funding for dual EL/low-income students ranged from $904 per pupil in Arkansas to $16,161 in New Jersey — related
• In 2023–24, 44 states provided unique funding for at-risk students, with all 44 classifying low-income students as at-risk and 22 providing concentration-based funding — related