Getting Down to Facts about California Schools

The Stuart Foundation cares deeply about improving schools so that all students reach high standards for learning and are ready for college, the workplace and citizenship.

We are pleased to be one of the four foundations that provided resources for the research recently released by Stanford University's Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice: Getting Down to Facts: School Finance and Governance in California.

We believe this unprecedented research should accelerate the efforts by policy makers, educators, parents, and the public to make sure California has the schools our students need. 

We believe in acting on data and the data are now clear – California’s system of schools needs fundamental change:

• Compared to students in other states, California students are doing poorly in achievement.
   
• California’s complex system of financing its schools is neither rational nor equitable.  It is not based on the needs of students.
   
• California under-funds its schools compared to other states. The rest of the country spends 30 percent per student more than California does. But simply adding money won’t dramatically improve achievement unless the larger system is overhauled.
   
• California over-regulates its schools, giving education leaders little or no flexibility to make good educational decisions.
   
• The traditional salary scale for teaching does not adequately reward the professional dedication and skill essential to helping students learn.
   
• California lacks the data systems and evaluation capacity necessary for policy makers and education leaders to understand what is or isn’t working and make adjustments.

The researchers do not offer us a prescription, and they acknowledge there will be disagreements over the best approaches for the state to take. But they are quite clear that California needs to overhaul its system for financing and running its schools. Spending more without fundamental change is unlikely to produce the much higher levels of student achievement that we care most about.

The Stuart Foundation is hopeful that policy makers, education leaders, and the public will heed this message.  We remain committed to helping the state work on realistic solutions.

Research studies may be accessed at www.irepp.net.

This research project was funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation and The Stuart Foundation.