State Board of Education Approves Emergency LCFF Regulations after Listening to 7 hours of Testimony

On Thursday, January 16th, I traveled to Sacramento to testify with 4 other SMFC District leaders, including Colleen Sullivan (SMFC School Board, President), Lory Lawson (SMFC School Board, Trustee), Dr. Cynthia Simms (SMFCSD, Superintendent), and Laura Phan (SMFCSD, CBO), before the State Board of Education in support of keeping "local control" in the Governor's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) regulations.  340 speakers, including students, parents, teachers, school board members, superintendents, and others testified for 7 hours before the State Board.  Testimony was heard from approximately 160 governance teams!  Our team waited 6 hours and we each spoke for ONE minute!  Governor Brown visited the hearing in the morning and shared his thoughts on LCFF and the importance of the regulations, cautioning that they are only intended to provide guidance for true implementation at the local level, which was encouraging.  After hearing all public comments, the State Board unanimously approved implementation of the LCFF regulations on an emergency basis, as well as unanimously approving the beginning of the process to finalize permanent regulations.  It was an inspiring day in Sacramento!