Exploration: What is the Importance of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF)?

David Valdez is the director of the Youth Institute at the Weingart YMCA in East Los Angeles. At the Youth Institute he works on youth development and also works with Building Healthy Communities, a 10 year funded program that focuses on building a healthier community in three different areas.

David gave us a presentation on the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF,) which is a new state policy that allocates and distributes additional funding and resources to foster youth, English language learners, and low income students.

We learned that it is important to bring awareness to what LCFF is all about so schools can actually use the money that is being given to them to improve our education. Every LAUSD student receives less than $8,000 a year and LCFF will raise that closer to $12,000 a year per student by the year of 2021. The law of LCFF states there has to be 8 outcomes that are being focused on and improved in order for it to be effective.

My own High School, Roosevelt is part of LAUSD, so this issue of LCFF relates directly to the community cause I'm investigating with the Weingart YMCA Youth Institute - Youth Voices project. One of our goals is to identify ways our schools may be improved with the LCFF funds and help develop a plan for schools throughout LAUSD.

I will gather some information about my school and also conduct surveys that will help develop a plan by figuring out what are some of the things that students want changed in their own school. David can support my cause by helping me reach more people and connect to a network of people working on this cause.