Taxes and California Schools. July, 2012. California public schools are in crisis- and they are getting worse. This is a direct result of massive budget cuts imposed by the legislature and the governor in the last four years. Total per pupil expenditure is down by over $1,000 per student. The result- massive class size increases. Your students are in often classes too large for learning. Supplementary services such as tutoring and art classes have been eliminated. Over 14,000 teachers have been dismissed, and thousands more face lay offs this fall.

California schools are now 47^th. in the nation in per pupil expenditure and 49^th in class size. Our low achievement scores on national tests reflect this severe underfunding.

Of course the economic crisis of 2007 to the present made matters worse. The state took in some $30 billion less in taxes and thus had less to send to the schools. School budgets have been cut by some $10 billion. K-12 education receives about 40% of the California budget. Thus any decline in the state budget leads directly to cuts in school services.

The question for the corporate agenda, such as the Chamber of Commerce is can the economy prosper with a poorly educated work force. California grew and prospered from 1970- 1994 based upon a well educated work force. Then, in the 1994-2008 period over $10 billion of tax cuts were passed – making the current crisis much worse. California suffers from a decade of disinvestment. Today, instead of following the education approach, conservative anti tax forces have imposed an Mississippi approach on California.

See, There is no substitute for organizing. Bill Fletcher.

On the state of California schools. Jan. 2012. In January 2012, Education Week gaves California schools a D for k-12 achievement, and an F for school spending. The usually respected newspaper in its annual Quality Counts report gives the state an overall grade of a C. You can read their report here. http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2012/16src.h31.html?intc=EW-QC12-LFTNAV

If you look internally at the scores you can see that the Education Week editors, like California school officials, place emphasis on having committees, reports, and standards, all things that consultants and opinionators do, and less emphasis on school achievement -where California gets an F. Improving school achievement requires support and resources for teachers. Teachers’ working conditions are students learning conditions.

Education Week has long been an advocate for “high standards” , assessment and accountability. This is the mantra of one side of the “Education Reform” industry. California ranks high in these items. However, the data shows there has not been significant improvement in student achievement.

California excels at writing reports and issuing statements and promoting educational entrepreneurs , but lags behind in student achievement. Diane Ravitch, speaking in Sacramento on January 20, is well informed on this trend she covers it in her book as the Billionaires Boys Club.

There is persistent, well supported evidence that the primary contributor to low school achievement is childhood poverty. Poverty is increasing in the nation and in California. It is precisely schools in low income areas that are failing. The relationship is extensively documented in my own book, Choosing Democracy: a practical guide to multicultural education (2010).

Researcher David Berliner in 2006 said,

“ The U.S. likes to be first, and when it comes to poor children, we maintain our remarkable status. No other wealthy nation in the world has a greater percentage of children living in poverty, except Mexico. …

And, surely, it is no surprise to hear poor children do worse in school. ..

Thousands of studies have linked poverty to academic achievement. The relationship is every bit as strong as the connection between cigarettes and cancer. “

We are presently watching the decline of a great California school system. It once was first class. Now, students typically score in the 48/49 position out of the 50 states. And, it is a crisis of poverty. Well funded schools in the suburbs do rather well. Poorly funded, staffed, and directed schools in urban areas and several rural areas, fail our children.

School budgets in California have been devastated by the economic crisis and the state budget crisis since 2008. Schools will have an additional cut this year and probably next year. Until the voters rise up against the anti tax radicals, we are not likely to move from our ( F )rating in school finance....