An abyss with its mouth open
Academic achievement is down. Enrollment, down. But K-12 schools in the Bay—and beyond—keep pandering for increased state/fed funding (by 32% since 2018!) and for taxpayers to sign off on yet another tax. Um, isn't gluttony supposed to be a sin? Public Policy Institute of CA gives the data.
Increased state spending and one-time federal pandemic funds have contributed to record K–12 funding levels in recent years.
In 2023–24, state, local, and federal funding for California K–12 public schools is roughly $131 billion, compared to roughly $125 billion in 2022–23 (estimates as of July 2024).
Between 2018–19 and 2023–24, state K–12 funding increased nearly 32%.
The federal government allocated $31 billion in one-time aid since the pandemic; federal funds accounted for 23% of K–12 funding in 2020–21 and 11% in 2021–22. These one-time funds needed to be spent by fall 2024. In most non-recession years before the pandemic, the federal share ranged from 6% to 9%.
The state provides the majority of K–12 funding.
Since 1990, the state share of K–12 funding has largely hovered around 55% to 60%; the local share is typically near 33%.
After reaching a 30-year low (51%) in 2020–21 with the influx of federal pandemic aid, the state share of funding has been above 60% for the past four years, slightly above historical levels.
California’s per pupil spending is slightly above the national average.
In 2021–22 (the most recent school year for which we have nationally comparable data from the US Department of Education), spending per pupil on current operations (e.g., staff, materials) was $19,548 (in 2024$), roughly $1,800 more than the average in the rest of the nation ($17,783 per pupil).
California spent less in 2021–22 than two of the five next most populous states: less per pupil than Illinois and far less than New York, which is also the top-spending state ($33,739). California spent about $3,900 dollars more than Georgia and about $6,000 more than Texas and Florida. …
Despite record funding levels, the K–12 system faces fiscal challenges.
With declines in California’s K–12 enrollment projected to continue through the next decade, most districts and counties will face the fiscal, operational, and educational challenges of downsizing.
District funding is based on average daily attendance (not enrollment); this means that high rates of chronic absenteeism since the pandemic—especially among low-income, Black, and Latino students—have fiscal implications for districts.
Because roughly 80% of current spending is for staffing (teachers, support staff, etc.), increases in personnel costs—such as health coverage and other benefits—can have an outsized fiscal impact. Notably, rising pension contributions absorbed about 25% of the pre-pandemic spending increase from 2013–14 to 2019–20.
Districts will need to decide which pandemic-era school resources and services to continue after the expiration of federal stimulus funding in fall 2024; this will be challenging for schools that are still grappling with academic and social-emotional fallout from the pandemic.
Read the whole thing here.
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