My Word: Awful school funding formula plagues Alameda County - Inside Bay Area:
"CALIFORNIA'S FISCAL outlook continues to worsen.
Concern is mounting over the impact the state's budget deficit will have on education funding.
The California Teachers Association (CTA), along with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, claims California's per-pupil funding now ranks 47th nationally. In reality, most experts agree California is around the middle of the pack when it comes to school funding, including the CTA's own parent organization, the National Education Association.
But what matters to most California parents isn't how much other states are spending — it's the results their children's school districts are getting compared to other school districts in California."
On that front, California must do better. It's not because there's too little funding. It's because the state's school financing system is illogical and inequitable.
The California School Finance Center database — a new project from the Pacific Research Institute and the Educational Results Partnership (formerly Just for the Kids-California) that compiles data from a dozen California Department of Education sources — helps shed some much-needed light on this reality.
The data show some troubling discrepancies among similar school districts.
"CALIFORNIA'S FISCAL outlook continues to worsen.
Concern is mounting over the impact the state's budget deficit will have on education funding.
The California Teachers Association (CTA), along with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, claims California's per-pupil funding now ranks 47th nationally. In reality, most experts agree California is around the middle of the pack when it comes to school funding, including the CTA's own parent organization, the National Education Association.
But what matters to most California parents isn't how much other states are spending — it's the results their children's school districts are getting compared to other school districts in California."
On that front, California must do better. It's not because there's too little funding. It's because the state's school financing system is illogical and inequitable.
The California School Finance Center database — a new project from the Pacific Research Institute and the Educational Results Partnership (formerly Just for the Kids-California) that compiles data from a dozen California Department of Education sources — helps shed some much-needed light on this reality.
The data show some troubling discrepancies among similar school districts.