SI Off-Formula” Funding in California Public Schools

PPIC’s Summer Intern Program provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students interested in a public policy career to work in a policy research environment. Intern projects are proposed by PPIC staff members and designed around a specific set of tasks and deliverables that can be accomplished within the term of the internship. Please complete your application by February 9, 2026.

We expect to make final selection decisions by mid-April.

Project title: “Off-Formula” Funding in California Public Schools Project Directors:
Julien Lafortune and Brett Guinan Project Description

California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) was designed to make school finance more equitable and flexible by channeling additional resources to high-need districts while granting more local discretion. Yet, despite increased investment and demonstrated gains from targeted funding, wide achievement gaps persist and concerns about adequacy remain. Meanwhile, an increasing share of education dollars now come from “off-formula” sources—restricted state funding, local property tax surpluses, parcel taxes, bonds, and parent or community donations—that can widen disparities between districts.

These funding streams account for up to half of K–12 spending but are rarely captured in statewide analyses or policy decisions.

This project will provide new evidence on how off-formula revenues shape funding and capacity across California’s districts. We will compile and analyze comprehensive data across various funding sources to understand trends and highlight their implications. We will use PPIC’s school funding simulator to assess how potential policy changes—such as state recapture or matching strategies—might affect revenue distribution. Findings will offer policymakers concrete evidence to inform school funding decisions and to ensure that revenue mechanisms holistically work together to advance equity, efficiency, and long-term fiscal sustainability.

Under guidance of the project team, the intern will actively contribute to the collection, compilation, and cleaning of off-formula school revenue data from parcel taxes, local bond elections, and from local parental contributions to associated school non-profits. Some data collection may involve original efforts, potentially including web scraping, searching and categorizing nonprofit tax and contribution records, and data validation. Time permitting, the intern will also assist in initial descriptive analyses using merged and compiled data.

The intern will also participate in regular research team meetings and will be a member of PPIC’s PK–12 Education team.

A strong candidate for the position will bring undergraduate or graduate training in economics, education, public policy, data science, or a related field, and should have an interest in California education policy.

The intern for this project should have:

• Strong analytical and organizational skills
• Experience gathering data from public sources
• Experience compiling, cleaning, and/or merging data; experience with the web scraping is a plus but not required
• Data management and statistical programming experience (STATA, R, and/or Python) preferred
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work independently and with a team
• Ability to seek and accept feedback, changing direction when necessary

Interns are offered the opportunity to participate in the collegial atmosphere of PPIC through daily interaction with all aspects of the institute. They are invited to join the staff in their regular meetings and to attend PPIC’s outside events, including the institute’s public affairs programs and research briefings. PPIC offers access to the Institute of Governmental Sciences library at the University of California, Berkeley, allowing interns to work with many important databases, journals, and statistical datasets.

The intern program also includes a discussion of California state policy by PPIC’s government affairs staff.

Each intern’s project will include an initial meeting with research staff, and towards the end of the project, a briefing by the intern on…