CA Schools’ Long Financial Fall
March 23, 2010
VIDEO
Above: The last time California spent more money on students then most other states in the country was 45 years ago, according to government and education association statistics.
SAN DIEGO — The last time California spent more money on students than most other states in the country was 45 years ago, according to government and education association statistics.
During the past five decades the state’s per pupil education spending has plunged from a one-time high of fifth in the nation in 1965 to 43rd in 2009.
“The citizens of California used to spend 5.6 percent of our personal income on schools. Now we are spending 3 percent,” said California’s former Secretary of Education John Mockler.
“We are spending 26 billion less on our children’s education, as a percent of our income, then when Ronald Reagan was governor in 1972 – before revenue limits and Proposition 13 and all of those things passed,” Mockler, now an education consultant, said.
As part of our series on Prop 13, KPBS set out to determine why California’s per pupil education spending has dropped so dramatically when compared to other states. Prop 13 is the 1978 ballot measure that capped property taxes at 1 percent of purchase price and limited yearly increases to 2 percent.
Just how did California fall to the bottom of the heap and how much of that decline is directly attributable to Prop 13? Pinning down an answer is no easy task.
The California Department of Education, the National Education Association (NEA), and the