Posted on 03/07/2007 5:45:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
California schools are woefully under-funded--one estimate of the shortage hovered at an astonishing $1 trillion--according to a massive new study due next week that is believed to be the most comprehensive evaluation ever of California's education system.
The omnibus document, a collection of nearly two-dozen reports, is all but certain to set off a new policy debate in the education community and yet another political battle in the Legislature over education funding.
The reports are not simply designed to place a dollar figure on what is needed in the schools. They are expected to take a much deeper look at California's maze of education funding, and how the state might make better use of the dollars it is already spending on public schools.
The work is the result of 23 separate studies conducted by four separate foundations, and requested by Democratic legislative leaders, state superintendent Jack O'Connell and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The studies will look at everything from the state's tangled web of education finance to funding shortages to problems and inefficiencies in the way schools are funded.
"California's education system is overly bureaucratic," says Ted Mitchell, chairman of the governor's Committee on Education Excellence. "There are multiple conflicting layers throughout the system. The studies took a hard look at that."
Mitchell says the studies will not be making policy recommendations. That job will fall to the committee, which expects to take time analyzing the new data and making a number of recommendations to Gov. Schwarzenegger.
Officials are tight-lipped about some of the studies' findings, but several Capitol sources who have seen the studies say some of the findings indicate schools are under-funded by as much as $1 trillion. But they caution that the huge number is the product of diverse estimates, and subject to revision.
The studies can be broken down into three categories: The first are descriptive, providing a roadmap and outline of the state's complex system of education program finance.
The next series of studies are "efficiency studies," looking at ways to better utilize existing resources. These studies will look at, among other things, categorical spending programs. Many policy makers have argued that the state's piecemeal education finance system needs improvement.
A number of legislators, including Speaker Fabian Nunez, have introduced spot bills that they will amend based upon the findings of the research.
Privatize the whole stinking mess.
I don't even have to read the article. I'm betting blind that the conclusion is they need more money.
Darn, you seen this script before.. But this time they'll be more efficient. ;-)
Everybody or every organization is ALWAYS underfunded, with fewer resources than desirable. The art of good management is getting the most out of limited resources, because resources are always limited.
I'd like to see a breakdown, in dollars, of money spent on Administration versus all other expenses. It's my suspicion that administrative bloat has a lot to do with it. It seems like every five years or so, districts 'create' new administrative positions to thank their cohorts with cushy, do-nothing jobs. The phrase 'kicked upstairs' often applies -- moving bad administrators to 'new' district positions, avoiding the need to ever fire bad administrators.
Darn, you seen this script before.. But this time they'll be more efficient. ;-)
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For the state that spends MORE MONEY PER STUDENT already, has some of the worst, and in many case THE WORST education performance. It ain't about money -- it is the GROSS INCOMPETENCE of the liberal ownership of the government school system. This is not news. Been this way for a long time.
Yet the libs want MORE MONEY...for what? Themselves.
Millions of Mexican children raising costs perhaps?
Too many chiefs and not enough Indians, as they say except that at the cost of $10,000 per student per year, we aren't getting lose to our money's worth.
Blow up the system. Make it all private choice. Public Ed. is done. They're nothing but Liberal indoctrination factories now.
If this whole mess was turned over to private enterprise by bids on taking over and running the schools, I'll bet the school budget would be cut in half and the scholastic achievement doubled, with money left over.
Blow up the system. Make it all private choice. Public Ed. is done. They're nothing but Liberal indoctrination factories now.
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It will be hand-to-hand combat with the socialists over the "indoctrination camps"...it is a bastion of power for them over the kids. It is fight that must be fought and won.
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