By Kathy Moffat, Fourth District PTA Vice President, Education

Thirty years ago, California was a national leader in education. Today, many are worried about the status of education in our state. Despite the development of world-class academic standards and a system of assessment and accountability, there is overwhelming agreement that we can and should do a better job of educating our young people. In order to begin to work seriously to improve schools, more information was needed about our school finance and governance systems.

Getting Down to Facts is a research project of over 20 studies, planned and reported through the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice at Stanford University, and designed to give policy makers that information. This project was specifically requested by Governor Schwarzenegger’s Committee on Education Excellence, Democratic leaders in the State Legislature, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. The 18-month study was financed by several foundations and results were released in March.

The project sought to find common ground for meaningful conversations leading to reform. The specific questions it asked were:

• What do California’s systems of school finance and governance look like?
• How can we use our resources more effectively to educate students?
• Are additional resources needed to meet our goals?

In the area of reform, the key findings of the studies included:

• The current finance system is deeply flawed and contributes to the problem. California’s education system is not making the most effective use of its current resources.
• California’s schools may need more resources to meet student achievement goals, but to have an impact, increased funding must go hand in hand with reforms.
• Highly prescriptive finance and governance policies thwart local schools and districts in their efforts to meet the needs of their students and promote higher achievement.
• Current teacher policies do not let state and local administrators make the best use of the pool of potential teachers or adequately support current teachers.
• California must do a better job of tracking educational data and sharing knowledge.

In the area of finances, the studies found:

• California’s K-12 spending is below the national average, even factoring in recent budget increases.
• There are substantial differences across schools and districts in educational needs and the accompanying resource demands, which are driven largely by differences in poverty, special needs students, and the cost of teachers.
• Among schools that serve a high proportion of students in poverty, even the most successful rarely meet state achievement goals.
• Based on the responses of school personnel, a 40 percent increase in spending would still leave more than half of the California districts below the goal of an 800 score on the API.
• Without significant reforms, investing more money in the current system is unlikely to result in more students meeting state standards.

For more information about the results of the study, go to http://irepp.stanford.edu/projects/cafinance.htm.
Adapted from “Getting Down to Facts,” by the Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice.