California approved a massive overhaul of its byzantine and unequal school finance system when the state Legislature passed and Governor Jerry Brown signed the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2013. LCFF featured a new state finance model, but it was much more than a change in finance distribution formulas. It also provided districts with more flexibility in allocating resources and with a new accountability approach. For example, one of the accountability components revised local district processes for budgeting and resource allocation through a new state-mandated, three-year Local Control Accountability Plan. Using the passage of LCFF as a kind of case study, this policy brief brings together a conceptual analysis of state policy change with a contextual understanding of California's political and policy environment at the time in order to illuminate how this policy breakthrough occurred.