Any bill to change the way that California funds its public schools will have to go through Joan Buchanan, and that could present problems for Gov. Jerry Brown.Buchanan is the new chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and, as she made clear in a lengthy interview with EdSource Today (see transcript), she’s skeptical of Brown’s weighted student formula, which he plans to reintroduce next year.
Buchanan is worried that funding for some districts would stagnate while funding for other districts would increase at a much higher rate under a weighted student formula. Photo by Kathryn Baron. (Click to enlarge.)
Her views reflect those of suburban and demographically better off school districts that, like everyone else, have lost more than $1,000 per student during the past five years, but now fear that they