EDITORIAL:
In California, “Getting Down to Facts” Requires Gearing Up for Change

To reform its school funding system in ways that create and sustain good schools, California’s policy makers need to mine the set of 23 studies recently released in the “Getting Down to Facts” report, which points out the need for a major infusion of funds and concludes that the current funding system is profoundly inequitable. They must also reject the cautionary tone in the executive summary about the need for more data, because we already have good examples of what programs and practices can boost student achievement. Policy makers rarely have absolute knowledge, but that has not prevented major educational progress in other states.

No matter where across the country I travel to talk about education policy, I usually mention California. Why? One in every eight children in the U.S. is attending public school in California – 6.4 million out of 50 million students.

By all accounts, many of California’s students are not doing well. If they are unable to thrive as capable citizens and knowledgeable workers in the 21st century, the entire nation will be weakened. In a sense, we are all Californians. Our nation’s future depends, to a surprising degree, on California’s education system.

Over the past 18 months, a talented set of scholars—coordinated Stanford’s Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice—conducted 23 studies on many aspects of California’s schools and school finance and governance systems. Funded by major foundations with cooperation from the leaders of California government, the studies deserve careful review and many of their findings and recommendations are compelling. One reform – changing the state’s arcane and convoluted funding scheme – deserves speedy implementation because it stands in the way of effective and efficient educational practices that are known to work, practices that are exactly what many California schools need now.

Two independent cost studies using different methodologies conclude that the extent of funding deficiencies is extreme, in the tens of billions of dollars. With both low achievement and low funding, and while high-spending states have much higher scores and graduation rates, the need for urgent action in California is clear.

California’s kids cannot afford to wait. Their needs are great and their potential even greater. Fortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger and bipartisan political leaders have pledged that 2008 will be the year of education funding reform in California. We all need to keep watch to see that they keep their word.

This editorial by Molly A. Hunter, Managing Director, National Access Network, is part of our continuing opinion series