A year ago, Gov. Jerry Brown convinced voters to pass Proposition 30 on the November 2012 ballot. It raised taxes $7 billion, with most of the money promised for K-12 schools. This year, Brown included his school-financing reform package in a trailer bill to the 2013-14 State Budget.
School financing experts are beginning to ask questions about whether Brown’s financing reforms will produce any results while holding local school districts accountable for how the money is spent.
Louis Freedberg, executive director of the EdSource school reform group, warned on Oct. 16:
“There are great expectations that the historic – and necessary – reforms of California’s outdated and opaque school financing system signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown this summer will translate into improved student performance.
“However, there are several potential weaknesses in the law that could threaten its ability to produce the results Gov. Brown has in mind. Whether these are addressed at the outset – as the law is being implemented – could determine whether this reform will succeed over the long term in improving the academic outcomes of our lowest-performing students. …
“The most transformative dimension of the new funding system is that it provides additional funds to districts based on the number of low-income students, English learners and foster children in attendance in a district. However, there is a danger that many school districts will spend funds in a scattershot fashion, rather than targeting the funds on programs and services that are likely to produce the greatest gains in student achievement.
“The law gives little guidance as to how funds should be spent. In fact, that is one of its main purposes: to give school districts unprecedented control over how to spend state education funds. However, a preponderance of research – in California and elsewhere – shows there is no direct relationship between how much money a district spends and students’ academic outcomes.”
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