California and Per-Pupil Spending

Last week, NPR launched a series of stories focused on disparities across the country in state funding of education. Titled "School Money", the stories specifically focus on how funding disparities impact the most deserving students in our communities. Although this blog has examined educational funding within the California budget and the reliance of state funding, the issues described in these recent stories stress the importance of continued engagement with this topic.

First--a refresher course on California's system of educational funding. As a reminder, until 1978, local school districts relied primarily on local and state property tax revenues for a majority of funding. In the late 1970s, however, soaring property values (and the resulting rise in rates) caused panic amongst California citizens--a panic that ushered in a desire for property tax reform. This desire manifested itself in Proposition 13--a citizen based reform initiative that eventually passed in 1978. While the merits of the Proposition were novel in their effort to reign in the exponentially growing property tax rates, the impacts on education proved significant. Mainly, this measure caused local districts to become increasingly reliant dependent on state sources of funding. Again, see the earlier post regarding the state budget and this helpful timeline of Proposition 13 for a better understanding of this process.

Thirty-eight years removed from Proposition 13 and educational funding now constitutes almost 1/3 of California's total state budget. While this 30% may seem like a substantially large source of funding, a 2013 report from the Washington Examiner found that California actually fell behind 11 other states in the overall portion of the state budget dedicated to education.

Moreover, when it comes to per-pupil spending, California--and most of it's districts--fall below the national average. According to NPR, California as a whole spends an average of $8,399 per student--well below the national average of $11,841. When broken down by individual districts, those numbers continue to fall beyond the spectrum. While most school districts in the northern portion of the state fall within or above the national average, the majority of districts in the Central Valley and Southern portions of the state fall below. For example, San Diego Unified (which is the second largest district in the state according to the California Department of Education) spends $9,880--again, below the national average. In fact, with the exception of Rancho Santa Fe Elementary School District and Julian Union High School District (which spend $14, 874 and $15,168 per student, respectively), all school districts in San Diego County fall below the national average.

The main question to ponder from these findings: how to these funding disparities impact our students?

I recommend reading the full story below and taking a look at the interactive map to compare your own districts with the national average.

Why America's Schools Have A Money Problem