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How did California rank among the states in terms of funding before the economic crisis?

California clearly lags the national average and has for years.

Two years ago, in 2007-08, California ranked 28th among the states in its per-pupil expenditure according to data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The characterization of the state as being at the bottom is based on adjusting that per-pupil expenditure for the relatively high labor costs here. When those adjustments are made for 2007-08, the state falls to 43rd.

It is also important to keep in mind that school funding was cut in 2008-09 and again in 2009-10. Schools face further cuts in the current budget debate. However, the same is true in most other states so it is impossible to say where California would place in those rankings now. (It takes a couple years for financial data from every U.S. school district to be validated by their state governments, sent to NCES, and analyzed.)

Per-Pupil Spending in 2007-08

 

Per-Pupil Spending in 2007–08 

Data: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Professor Lori Taylor, Texas A&M University
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Professor Lori Taylor of Texas A&M University has developed a Comparable Wage Index (CWI) to adjust education expenditures across the country based on regional salary variation. The CWI measures variation in the salary costs of college-educated, full-time workers in noneducation fields, and assumes that school districts' personnel costs are affected commensurately. With about 80% of districts' spending going for labor costs (65% for certificated and classified staff salaries and 15% for employee benefits), the CWI is a reasonable, albeit imperfect, way to account for cost differences among states. 

 

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