The Sacramento Bee – Dan Walters
“Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised 2015-16 budget sharply increases spending on California’s 6-plus million elementary and high school students. He estimates that local property taxes, state aid and federal funds will raise K-12 spending to $83 billion, or something north of $13,000 per pupil. Most of it is devoted to Brown’s “Local Control Funding Formula,” which provides extra money to school districts with large numbers of poor and/or “English-learner” students. More than half of our school kids fall into that category and the extra money – in theory, at least – will help close the “achievement gap” between them and their more affluent white and Asian American classmates. Coincidentally, as Brown unveiled his education-centric budget, a coalition headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell released a report on high school graduation rates, and California didn’t fare too well.”(more)