State review of K-12 funding, efficiency has parties anxious over its release
Sacramento Bee 2/7/07
Spearheaded by Stanford University, with $2.6 million in funding from four philanthropic organizations, the yearlong initiative of 23 separate studies seeks to determine how California can meet its educational goals.
The report examines two of the most explosive political questions: Does the state spend enough on K-12 education? And is there too much waste in the system?
It is stirring anxiety on both sides of the ideological spectrum. Democrats hope it will call for more money, while Republicans want greater efficiencies.
The findings aren't scheduled to be publicly disclosed until March to give Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, legislative leaders and the superintendent of public instruction time to digest the data and form responses.
Only a few staff members have been given access to the report -- and they are sworn to secrecy.
"It's like if you tell somebody, they're going to have to kill you," said Sabrina Lockhart, a spokeswoman for the governor. Schwarzenegger requested the study along with Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and schools chief Jack O'Connell.
The report is intended to address enormous disparities that exist in educational quality. For years, policymakers empaneled blue-ribbon commissions whose recommendations have landed in the trash heap.
But policymakers pledged that this report -- which will serve as research for a nonpartisan commission convened by the governor -- will not suffer a similar fate.
"Maybe all the drama surrounding the release of the study will give its ideas a little more traction than we've seen in the past," said Kevin Gordon, an education consultant.
The study comes as students are being asked to meet tougher state and federal standards.
But teachers skilled in such areas as math and science are not evenly parceled, and there is a yawning achievement gap in California public schools
Hilary McLean, a spokeswoman for O'Connell, said white and Asian students score better than African Americans and Latinos by as much as 30 percentage points in English in most grades. The differences are almost as large in math.
Paul Warren, principal fiscal and policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst's Office, said the state is making a record contribution toward schools this year -- $8,250 per pupil -- but still ranks in the lower half of states in per-pupil spending.
The report is aimed at giving state officials information needed to reform the system, with a focus on whether funding is adequate and allocated efficiently and fairly. That means tackling politically delicate topics such as discrepancies between rich and poor districts, and the difficulty of assigning the best teachers to the neediest schools.
Ted Mitchell, the former Occidental College president who heads Schwarzenegger's advisory committee on education, has been reviewing the report since it was released Jan. 23.
Like others who have seen it, he declined to comment on whether the report calls for spending more money on schools or exacting greater efficiencies.
"But speaking from the committee's point of view, the committee clearly leans to a combination of both -- efficiency measures and adequacy concerns," Mitchell said.
O'Connell, who has been briefed on the report, said he hopes it will lead to a statewide dialogue on improving the education system.
The schools chief said he expects legislative leaders will meet with the governor on the matter in the days leading up to the public release of the findings.
"People say they want information on research and data," said O'Connell, a Democrat. "This is bipartisan and it will take a bipartisan effort to implement some of the recommendations."
Lockhart said the Republican governor is committed to improving the state's schools.
In his proposed 2007-08 budget, the governor has called for a $275 increase in per-pupil spending. But advocates for the poor say more is needed.
Only about a third of schools that receive federal funding for poor students meet statewide achievement goals, according to the state Department of Education.
In other states that have conducted studies like the one that has the Capitol on edge, courts have ordered officials to increase school spending. Late last year, the State Court of Appeals in New York mandated at least $1.93 billion a year in additional school aid to New York City in a 13-year lawsuit over education financing.