A Decade of Disinvestment: California Education Spending Nears the Bottom

There is an excellent article over at the California Budget Project that clearly shows that our great state is scraping along near the bottom when it comes to spending on education.

Because the link above is a PDF document you will have to take the link and view the excellent charts and graphs to see for yourself what a dire predicament we are in here is beautiful California, frankly, it is a travesty.  All of this has roots, the roots for our present debacle start with Proposition 13 and the absolutely unfair nature of this property tax system.  Because of Prop 13 California has to rely on a majority of their funding from state budgets, not from local property taxes.

Over time this has eroded the amount of money that public schools in CA have received as compared to other states.   I remember growing up on the East Coast and hearing wonderful stories about California, the great schools, the great weather, the low cost of college.  Well, we still have great weather at least.  This is a real shame, schools are operating with the highest teacher to student ratios in the nation (we rank 49th in that area).

I have said it many, many times here – teachers need to get politically active, teachers need to vote for politicians who support us, and our students.  There is no other choice.