California’s system of funding schools is based on a set of bizarre outdated formulas that result in serious, calcified inequities: some schools receive around $4,000 a student, and other schools receive more than $8,000 a student.
Beyond these basic per-pupil amounts are other tiers of funding that can boost a schools allotment by as much as $10,000-$100,000 a student in some areas.
The question is, how did we get in this mess? California Connected attempts to explain California’s wacky school finance system.
- School Finance Overview, EdSource, an “independent, impartial, not-for-profit organization, our sole mission is to clarify complex education issues and to promote thoughtful decisions about public school improvement.”
- What are revenue limits?, EdSource,
- A History of Revenue Limits: Or, Why is Your Base Revenue Limit Bigger than Mine?, School Services of California, Inc
- A Guide to California’s School Finance System, Education Data Partnership, State of California
- Three Decades of Financial Earthquakes Rattle California Education, RAND Corporation
- “The battle over how to pay for schools: Governor wants to be able to curtail annual increases,” San Francisco Chronicle
- “A labyrinth of spending: Special programs have grown into vast, bureaucratic jungle,” The Sacramento Bee
- LAO 2005-06 Budget Analysis: Education, California Legislative Analyst’s Office
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.