It’s far too soon to tell if the state’s new education law will improve outcomes for the neediest students, but more investment in the public school system, including quality preschool, teacher training and student health care, is necessary to offset the burden of poverty on California’s children, according to a report released Tuesday.“Despite some positive recent efforts, children in California are doing very poorly overall,” said the2014 “California Children’s Report Card”released by Oakland-based Children Now, a nonprofit policy and advocacy organization.
The report card, an evaluation that Children Now has released annually for two decades, doled out grades for how the state is doing in 27 education, health and child welfare areas, including a B+ for after-school and summer learning programs, a B- for the new education finance law and a D for teacher training and evaluation. Noting that California public education is “chronically underfunded,” the report gave the state’s K-12 investment a D grade.
Growing up in an impoverished family, which research has closely linked to poor academic
No more excuses: As California rebounds, invest in kids - by Ted Lempert / commentary
Even as California heads into 2014 with lots of good news – a rebounding economy, a stable state budget and a functional state government – state spending on children’s health and education continues to lag far behind the rest of the nation. Not only does this misprioritization contradict public will, ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit the Edsource Today website for full links, other co