California made unprecedented investments in college and career pathways and the whole child approach in 2021-23 state budgets, including $128 billion for K-12 and community colleges. However, budget increases for long-underfunded education and youth development priorities were delivered with little state guidance to regions on aligning funds to achieve the greatest cross-system impact.

In response, the LA Compact team developed a funding crosswalk, which outlines 17 state investments to reduce equity and opportunity gaps. The crosswalk is intended to be utilized by partners in K-12 and higher education who seek to capitalize on state and local funding that advances a cradle-to-career student-success framework.

Highlighted investments include:

• The California Regional K-16 Education Collaboratives Grant Program
• Golden State Pathways
• Dual Enrollment Investments
• Community Schools
• Learning Aligned Employment

The L.A. Compact team spent the year presenting the tool in numerous contexts to stakeholders across the region and state such as grant-making foundations, education institutions, the L.A. Regional Consortium of Community Colleges, and high school and postsecondary counselors engaging in pathway planning. To further broaden the Crosswalk's implementation and influence in the educational and funding sectors, UNITE-LA also shared the guide with influential organizations across the state, which used the tool in their own work and shared broadly among their networks. Organizations such as Career Ladders Project and the Linked Learning Alliance featured the crosswalk in their work attempting to support colleges and school districts across the state in promoting coherence among these funding opportunities.