Keeping better tabs on California's education funding
Educational history is full of examples of expensive, well-intended programs that never helped impoverished students.
One of Gov. Jerry Brown's greatest and most dramatic accomplishments has been his reform of the way California allocates money to public schools. He used the recession to hit the reset button, replacing an arcane and blatantly unfair formula with a streamlined and equitable distribution: a certain amount of funding per student, and significantly extra for those who are poor, in foster care or not fluent in English — in other words, students who need extra help.
But this fairer approach will work only if school districts are committed to spending the money for the benefit of the disadvantaged students for whom it was intended, and early signs are that at least some school districts are defining that benefit broadly — perhaps too broadly.
The Fresno Unified School District, for instance, is seeking permission to use the added funding for teacher raises. Now a study from UC Berkeley finds that Los Angeles Unified has spent a significant portion of the extra money on library aides and assistant principals for schools districtwide, not just those with the most students in need.
These developments are troubling to some of the people who initially cheered the Local Control Funding Formula, and they're right. Of course some flexibility is needed, but there is enough cause for concern that the state should be thinking about tighter, though still-sensible, controls.Keeping better tabs on California's education funding - LA Times: