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> Better schools across all grades [citation needed] When I type “california public schools” into DuckDuckGo, the top suggestion is “california public schools

> Better schools across all grades [citation needed] When I type “california public schools” into DuckDuckGo, the top suggestion is “california public schools bad.” Accepting this, the top three results are: ① “California schools were once the nation's envy. What went wrong?” > The enormous strike in Los Angeles paints a grim picture of wealthy state that is struggling to fund its education system https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/19/california-school-funding-los-angeles-strike-what-went-wrong https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jan/19/california... ② “Are California Schools the Worst in the Nation?” > Roughly speaking, there’s the usual mix of good ones and bad ones, and overall they’re about average. https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/are-california-schools-the-worst-in-the-nation/ https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/are-californi... ③ “California Is Home to Some of America's Worst Public Schools” > In fact, a spokeswoman for WalletHub says, “California has the 12th worst school system in America.” > The study was based on 17 metrics, including student-to-teacher ratio, dropout rates and average SAT and ACT scores. Compared with the other 49 states and the District of Columbia, California ranked 47th in reading test scores, 46th in math test scores and dead last in student-teacher ratios. https://www.laweekly.com/california-is-home-to-some-of-americas-worst-public-schools/ https://www.laweekly.com/california-is-home-to-some-of-ameri... According to https://www.forbes.com/sites/reneemorad/2020/08/04/states-with-the-best-public-schools/?sh=2654967c1f4c https://www.forbes.com/sites/reneemorad/2020/08/04/states-wi..., Texas public schools rank 28th in the nation, while California’s are now №37.

jacobolus 6y ago
California funds schools mostly at the state level. Other states fund schools mostly at the local level. For wealthy people living in wealthy neighborhoods, local schools are therefore richer in states where they don’t also have to contribute to funding poor people’s kids’ educations. Here’s a clear summary I found describing education funding in CA https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays The local -> state change to the funding structure in CA a few decades ago has benefitted previously grossly underfunded schools in poorer cities, but it is a trade-off for sure. Arguably almost all of the schools statewide are now underfunded. One problem with funding schools at the state level is that it has made it very difficult to increase school funding, because it requires support from across the state to raise taxes for it, and (a) most people in the USA are generally opposed to any taxes that they can’t see immediate direct benefit from, and (b) Prop 13 makes the bar for tax increases very high.
- boogies 6y ago
  Interesting, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25363022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25363022 claims that Texas has less inequality between schools.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

jacobolus 6y ago

California funds schools mostly at the state level. Other states fund schools mostly at the local level. For wealthy people living in wealthy neighborhoods, local schools are therefore richer in states where they don’t also have to contribute to funding poor people’s kids’ educations. Here’s a clear summary I found describing education funding in CA https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays The local -> state change to the funding structure in CA a few decades ago has benefitted previously grossly underfunded schools in poorer cities, but it is a trade-off for sure. Arguably almost all of the schools statewide are now underfunded. One problem with funding schools at the state level is that it has made it very difficult to increase school funding, because it requires support from across the state to raise taxes for it, and (a) most people in the USA are generally opposed to any taxes that they can’t see immediate direct benefit from, and (b) Prop 13 makes the bar for tax increases very high.

boogies 6y ago
Interesting, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25363022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25363022 claims that Texas has less inequality between schools.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]