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School Funding Task Force

The School Funding Task Force is focused on creating solutions to persistent inequities in California’s Local Control Funding Formula to better support students living in high-cost counties like San Mateo County.

In 2025, the San Mateo County Board of Trustees created a collective task force to study and explore options for addressing funding inadequacies for Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) districts in high-cost counties such as San Mateo County.

The Task Force is a collaborative body led by San Mateo County Board of Education President Hugo Torres, County Board Members Patricia Love and Michael O’Neill, and County Superintendent Nancy Magee. Participants include representatives from the Burlingame, Belmont-Redwood Shores, Cabrillo Unified, Jefferson Elementary, Pacifica, Ravenswood City, Redwood City Elementary, and San Carlos school districts, along with County Office staff.

Why This Matters

Despite San Mateo County’s strong property tax base, LCFF districts here often receive less funding than neighboring basic aid (community-funded) districts. This funding gap has real impacts on schools:

  • Teacher shortages caused by unaffordable housing and low wages

  • Larger class sizes and outdated textbooks

  • Reduced access to student supports, such as mental health and academic services

These inequities threaten the quality of education for thousands of students in San Mateo County.

Resources

School Funding Task Force Report (approved October 8, 2025)

April 21, 2025, School Funding Task Force Meeting (provides an overview of how schools are currently funded)

Excess Revenue, Unequal Opportunity (Policy Analysis for California Education and Bellwether, October 2025)

Related Stories

Inequalities grow unchecked in some wealthy counties despite funding formula reforms (EdSource, published October 7, 2025)

 

 

Progress to Date

The task force held a series of meetings to understand the impacts of inadequate funding for LCFF districts in high-cost counties and develop proposals to share with State legislators. Through these meetings, the task force created a report that was approved by the Board of Education on October 8, 2025. It was further discussed with Capitol Advisors in November 2025 and used to brief state legislators. The Legislative Analyst Office is currently studying this issue, and will issue a report in late summer or early fall 2026.

Recommendations and Next Steps

In October 2025, the Task Force identified three potential areas of focus for new legislation:

  1. Cost of Living Adjustment – Adjust LCFF funding to reflect the high cost of living in counties like San Mateo

  2. Excess Property Taxes – Allow County Offices of Education to redistribute excess property tax revenue back to local schools

  3. Housing Solutions – Align affordable housing requirements with educator salaries in high-cost regions

The Task Force will continue to work with local legislators, with the goal of introducing a bill to address these issues in the future.