Currently browsing Student spending
Brown commits $1 billion for Common Core, sticks with funding formula
Gov. Jerry Brown proposed Tuesday to direct all of the extra $2.8 billion in revenue that the state expects to receive this year to K-12 schools and community colleges, mostly for one-time uses, including $1 billion to implement the Common Core standards. There had been projections of even more money this year, but in a news conference releasing his May budget revise, Gov. Jerry Brown tempered expectations; the drag of federal tax changes, sequestration of federal spending … Read entire article »
Filed under: Categorical Funding, Common Core standards, Equity issues, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Poverty, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, Student spending, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Brown’s former adviser: Aim for balance behind shift to local control
Sue Burr has seen and done a lot in 40-plus years of playing key roles in California education – advising legislators and governors, administering the finances of a large school district, running the state county superintendents’ organization and, for the past two years, serving as executive director of the State Board of Education. Burr retired at the end of last year, only to be nominated two weeks later by Gov. Jerry Brown to return to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Categorical Funding, Charter Schools, College Remediation, Featured, Jerry Brown, Q&A, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education, State Budget, Student spending, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Study compliments and questions Brown’s funding formula
An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California, released Wednesday, praises Gov. Jerry Brown’s overall plan for school finance reform, while raising questions about elements of the formula that would steer substantially more money to disadvantaged students. “The governor’s series of reform proposals are in keeping with many of the principles of good school finance reform,” conclude Margaret Weston, a PPIC research fellow, and Heather Rose, a UC Davis associate professor of education. And his … Read entire article »
Filed under: Categorical Funding, Featured, Finance, Reporting & Analysis, Student spending, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
State releases district breakdowns under school funding formula
Districts and charter schools now know how they’d make out under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Local Control Funding Formula, his plan for sweeping school finance reform. The state Department of Finance posted the long-awaited district-by-district breakdown and a two-page overview Wednesday. The 80-page chart calculates districts’ base per student funding for 2011-12 as a comparison and lists funding for the next two years and full per student funding in seven years – if projected state revenues … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, Student spending, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
New Assembly Education chair skeptical of plan for weighted funding
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. Her views reflect those of suburban and demographically better off school … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Common Core standards, Equity issues, Evaluations, Facilities, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Getting Down To Facts studies, Reporting & Analysis, Student spending, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions, Technology, Tests & Assessments, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
What last Tuesday’s vote got us (not much)
It’s amazing how fast we can adjust to an inadequate educational status quo. Somebody in Sacramento called it “re-benching our lowered expectations.” For months, mostly thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown’s intense campaign, California’s school supporters had been in a state of nerves, swinging from excitement to near-panic: If Proposition 30, the governor’s proposed tax increase, was to fail, the budget trigger would force schools to lop yet more days off the calendar, lay off yet more … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Common Core standards, Funding and Taxation, Revenue and taxes, Student spending
Campaign contributors should make matching donations to schools
The welcome passage of Proposition 30 by voters this week will help avert an immediate fiscal crisis in our schools. But it will not undo the damage of years of underinvestment in public education in the state. Additional help could come from those who contributed to any number of federal, state or local campaigns during the just-ended electoral season. While California and the nation have recorded political contributions in the billions of dollars, schools still face enormous … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Finance, Funding and Taxation, State Budget, Student spending
Vast inequality lurks behind mind-numbing data on school spending
School finance has the power to bring tears to my eyes. Sometimes, when I am reading the latest School Services of California bulletin, I start squinting. Then I start yawning. Then, before I know it, I’m squinting and yawning simultaneously, causing my eyes to water. When I see the words “revenue limit,” I begin looking for a pillow. The explanation of the difference between a “Test 1” and a “Test 2” year for calculating Proposition … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Poverty, Proposition 98, Student spending, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Texas, California do compete – in funding race to the bottom
Steve Murdock isn’t a household name in Sacramento – but maybe he should be. Murdock is the former state demographer in Texas. This month, he testified in a trial in which hundreds of Texas school districts are suing the state for failing in its constitutional obligation to adequately fund its schools. The suit was prompted by the $5.4 billion the Legislature cut from public school funding and education grant programs last year. If that level of funding … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Revenue and taxes, Student spending, Workforce preparation
Shame on districts seeking to perpetuate funding advantages
February 14th, 2013 | 24 Comments | By John Affeldt / commentary
Kudos to Jerry Brown for proposing to end the inequities in California school funding – and shame on the districts that seek to fossilize the advantages they have enjoyed for decades now. Brown is the first governor in recent times to acknowledge what the education community and funding experts have known for years: Our public schools are funded irrationally and inequitably based on outdated formulas bearing no relation to student need. As the Getting Down to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adequate Funding Lawsuit, Commentary, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Student spending