California 47th in the nation in education (Alameda: school districts, university)

[jaynetarzana]

How does everyone feel about this? Why does the state with the largest economy in this country have one of the worst records when it comes to educating the future generations?

[seain dublin]

Wow, if that is true than it is very shocking. They just built the most expensive high school (RFK High School) in LA. It cost over 500 million dollars.

How does that make any sense?

[NewToCA]

I've seen it listed as 47th in school spending per kid, which isn't an "output".

[Gurbie]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

How does everyone feel about this? Why does the state with the largest economy in this country have one of the worst records when it comes to educating the future generations?

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Wash Post on 05-20-10 that gives a little background. I hi-lited a couple key sentences.

The article doesn't say when Ca. was #1 in per student spending- bet it was a loooong time ago, prior to Prop 13 at least. When you go from first to 47th, yeah, you're going to see some negative results.

Add to that the tremendous pressures of an exploding student population, the reality of those students' current demographics, the fact that of the money slated for education, only a trickle makes it into the classrooms, and you have a situation on your hands.

California sued over education funding crisis


It has come to this in California: Desperate educators are turning to the courts for some relief from historic budget cuts that are leaving some districts unable to provide all students with an equal opportunity to meet the state’s academic goals.
A broad coalition of organizations and school districts
filed a lawsuit Thursday in the Superior Court of California in Alameda asking that the state’s education finance system be declared unconstitutional. It also seeks creation of a new process by which schools are equitably funded.
California’s public schools have been battered by budget cuts in recent years. The state Constitution gives education financing a unique priority by requiring that "from all state revenues there shall first be set apart the monies to be applied by the State for support of the public school system.” The lawsuit argues that recent budget cuts have violated this requirement.
In the last two years, $17 billion has been cut from schools and colleges, and several billion more in cuts are scheduled. California once was No. 1 in the country in per pupil spending; now it is 47th, spending $2,856 less per pupil than the national average, according to the California School Boards Association.

[jaynetarzana]

Thanks Gurbie. I missed this in the news and I am glad to see that citizens are being proactive about this issue. I think it is despicable what California has let happen to education. There are so many public services that should be cut WAY before education is ever considered. According to the state constitution in California, they agree. Too bad they didn't refer to their own constitution when making the budget cuts.

Here is the link to the full article if anyone is interested in reading it in it's entirety. The Answer Sheet - California sued over education funding crisis

[Charles]

Simple solution: Eliminate government schools. All private. Parent's choice. No more problems with religion in schools, gay controversies, teacher tenure and union problems, bureaucracies. Market economy. Private schools are much less expensive in $/student.

[KC6ZLV]

Originally Posted by Charles

Simple solution: Eliminate government schools. All private. Parent's choice. No more problems with religion in schools, gay controversies, teacher tenure and union problems, bureaucracies. Market economy. Private schools are much less expensive in $/student.

Private schools are usually focused around religion or ethnicity, so the potential problems there are infinite. As soon as it is figured out that a private school for German-Americans doesn't allow hip-hop apparel to be worn, and that they don't teach Mexico 101, the legal fees will go through the ceiling making things expensive all over again.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by KC6ZLV

Private schools are usually focused around religion or ethnicity, so the potential problems there are infinite. As soon as it is figured out that a private school for German-Americans doesn't allow hip-hop apparel to be worn, and that they don't teach Mexico 101, the legal fees will go through the ceiling making things expensive all over again.

That isn't happening now, why would it happen (and be a huge problem) in the future?

[Highnlite]

A couple of points here, I have three kids in University, all products of the California public school system. The youngest scored a 5 out of 5 on AP calculus test, and 4's on the other AP tests.

California schools do a great job, the stats are brought down because of the number of at risk students in CA.

So you want a private school education for your child? Let me set up a little analogy for you. You have a line of work, whatever it is, you are trained for that work, perhaps a license program, trades apprenticeship, university education. You do good work.

Now, a person opens a similar shop down the street. They have no training in your field, they have no license or diploma or credential and are willing to work for half of what you make.

Do you think they will be as good as you? Would you send anyone to them for that work?

Well, that is private school. No credential needed, pay is usually about half what public school teachers make. My question has always been, why are they willing to work for half pay? Generally because they are pushing an ideology, not necessarily focused on a quality education.

Now, you may say, "harrummph, public school teachers are overpaid anyway" But if you did that, you would be admitting you don't know what the heck you are talking about.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Gurbie

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Wash Post on 05-20-10 that gives a little background. I hi-lited a couple key sentences.

The article doesn't say when Ca. was #1 in per student spending- bet it was a loooong time ago, prior to Prop 13 at least. When you go from first to 47th, yeah, you're going to see some negative results.

Add to that the tremendous pressures of an exploding student population, the reality of those students' current demographics, the fact that of the money slated for education, only a trickle makes it into the classrooms, and you have a situation on your hands.

California sued over education funding crisis


It has come to this in California: Desperate educators are turning to the courts for some relief from historic budget cuts that are leaving some districts unable to provide all students with an equal opportunity to meet the state’s academic goals.
A broad coalition of organizations and school districts
filed a lawsuit Thursday in the Superior Court of California in Alameda asking that the state’s education finance system be declared unconstitutional. It also seeks creation of a new process by which schools are equitably funded.
California’s public schools have been battered by budget cuts in recent years. The state Constitution gives education financing a unique priority by requiring that "from all state revenues there shall first be set apart the monies to be applied by the State for support of the public school system.” The lawsuit argues that recent budget cuts have violated this requirement.
In the last two years, $17 billion has been cut from schools and colleges, and several billion more in cuts are scheduled. California once was No. 1 in the country in per pupil spending; now it is 47th, spending $2,856 less per pupil than the national average, according to the California School Boards Association.

This was already addressed pre-Prop 13... the Serrano Decision forever changed the way California Public School funding.

California was already sued over school funding and Prop 13 come about in part because of this... read the Serrano Decision.

Basically, Serrano set up a system where money from one district could be used in another district... Serrano shifted school funding basically to the State...

How about a return to the pre Serrano days where local districts funded local schools?

California School Board Association is paid to represents only one side... and it is not necessarily in the best interests of the Students...