Comparative data on school district finances is available on the Ed-Data website.

How much of my tax dollar goes to Los Altos School District?

Your property tax dollar goes to pay for a number of services — city government, police and fire protection, roads and infrastructure upkeep, county government and services, libraries, parks, and, of course, schools. For the typical Los Altos resident 20 cents out of every tax dollar goes to the Los Altos School District.

Where does the state get the money it uses to fund our schools?

55% of the state budget (or $47 billion) goes to K-12 public schools. The state gets its money primarily from three major sources — sales tax revenues, income taxes, and bank and corporation taxes.

What is the Parcel Tax and how does it support education in our schools?

Since 1989 district voters have approved ballot measures that allow the district to tax property owners a per parcel assessment to raise money for the schools. These funds support key academic programs, help retain our excellent teachers and support student success in our classrooms. Parcel tax funding provides approximately $10.3 million, or 17% of our school district budget. We believe that our community's generous support is a key reason that our schools are among the top one percent in the state.

All parcel tax funds support our local students and cannot be taken by the state or be used for administrators' salaries. Citizen oversight is required to verify that all monies are used for voter-approved purposes to support education in our schools.

For more information, visit the Parcel Tax information page.

What are LASD plans to accommodate increased student enrollment and upgrade school facilities?

In November 2014, local voters approved Measure N, a $150 million bond measure to prevent school overcrowding, protect our small neighborhood schools and make basic repairs and upgrades to aging classrooms and labs.

The first expenditure of bond funds will be used to keep our neighborhood schools small. A thorough and extensive community engagement process has always indicated that our community's preferred solution to enrollment growth is to build a 10th school site. The district is diligently continuing its search and closely examining multiple sites to ensure we find the right solution for our students, schools and community. For more information about the Facilities Master Plan and our community-driven process to keep our schools small, please visit the Facilities Master Plan page.