UNDERSTANDING CALIFORNIA'S SCHOOL FINANCE SYSTEM

The Basics

California's school finance system pays for thr education of more than six million students in kindergarten through 12th grade. It also supports the salaries of thousands of employees and the construction and maintenance of more than 9,000 public schools.

Current Funding

Each year in California, the adoption of the state's budget also marks the most important decision regarding the amountof revenues K-12 schools will receive. This page shows how find the most current information on the education budget and K-12 funding.

Revenues

California's public education system is supported primarily by state sales and income tax revenues and by local property taxea. These are supplemented with money from the federal government, the California State Lottery, and miscellaneous funds generated locally by school districts.

Allocations

In California, the state controls not only how much funding goes to K-12 education, but how those funds are allocated.

Dollars to Districts

On average, about two-thirds of the revenues districts receive are for general purposes and the remaining third comes from categorical programs.

Facilities Funding

For the most part, funding for the construction and repair of school facilities is separate from funding for operations. The bulk of capital costs are paid for through public bonds.

Charter Schools

Charter schools in California are publicly funded but function somewhat differently from traditional public schools. They operate independently under a performance agreement with a chartering authority, which is typically a school district but can also be a county office of education or the state Board of Education.

History

Since 1968, California's school finance system has been shaped by a variety of laws, court decisions and ballot measures.

The above information was taken from EdSource

School Finance
			EQUITY				SPENDING
	Grade		Wealth Neutrality Score (2005)1	McLoone Index (2005)1	Coefficient of Variation (2005)1	Restricted Range (2005)1	Per-pupil expend- itures (PPE), adjusted for regional cost differences (2005)	Percent of students in districts with PPE at or above U.S. average (2005)1	Spending Index (2005)1	Percent of total taxable resources spent on education (2005)
			Relationship between district funding and local property wealth (negative value indicates higher funding for poorer districts)	Actual spending as percent of amount needed to bring all students to median level	Amount of disparity in spending across districts (lower value indicates greater equity)	Difference in per-pupil spending levels at the 95th and 5th percentiles			Per-pupil spending levels weighted by the degree to which districts meet or approach the national average for expend- itures (cost and student-need adjusted)
West Virginia	A	92.5	0.075	94.3	0.058	$1,626	$10,073	100.0	100.0	4.6
New Jersey	A-	91.0	0.014	91.0	0.177	6,173	12,252	99.5	100.0	4.9
Wisconsin	B+	89.5	0.053	94.7	0.095	3,588	10,199	96.8	99.9	4.1
New York	B+	88.7	0.080	85.5	0.133	7,313	12,218	100.0	100.0	4.2
Connecticut	B+	87.9	0.089	92.3	0.120	5,391	10,652	99.8	100.0	3.9
Vermont	B+	86.9	0.136	83.2	0.225	7,092	12,105	92.0	99.2	5.2
Maine	B+	86.6	0.113	87.6	0.146	5,605	10,539	87.5	99.5	4.6
Wyoming	B	85.9	-0.008	94.1	0.181	9,910	11,126	100.0	100.0	3.8
Rhode Island	B	85.0	0.160	89.7	0.119	5,148	10,581	84.8	98.9	4.0
Maryland	B	84.9	0.283	95.2	0.105	3,696	9,829	95.3	99.9	3.8
Indiana	B	84.3	0.017	89.5	0.145	3,785	9,542	64.8	96.8	4.5
Delaware	B	83.5	0.159	92.1	0.092	3,521	10,661	93.7	99.8	2.2
Ohio	B-	82.0	0.094	92.1	0.144	2,644	9,441	55.9	96.6	4.2
Massachusetts	B-	81.9	0.058	89.9	0.191	6,399	9,930	77.0	98.7	3.7
Pennsylvania	B-	81.5	0.160	92.8	0.133	3,435	9,985	56.4	97.5	4.0
Arkansas	B-	81.1	0.033	93.9	0.103	2,355	8,790	39.5	95.8	4.1
Michigan	B-	80.9	0.146	91.8	0.136	2,996	9,197	48.4	95.6	4.5
Nebraska	B-	80.2	-0.108	95.7	0.178	4,117	9,930	40.5	95.0	3.5
Iowa	B-	80.1	-0.007	95.1	0.098	2,414	9,026	36.5	95.9	3.5
Kansas	C+	78.9	-0.004	95.3	0.159	4,176	8,862	40.3	95.2	3.8
Georgia	C+	78.7	0.127	94.1	0.099	3,530	8,658	42.1	96.7	3.7
Minnesota	C+	78.7	0.015	93.6	0.136	3,899	8,891	41.9	95.2	3.5
New Hampshire	C+	78.2	0.169	83.6	0.191	6,138	9,323	65.2	96.2	3.9
Virginia	C+	77.6	0.288	92.8	0.137	4,163	9,169	65.3	97.9	3.2
Louisiana	C+	77.2	0.045	95.3	0.094	3,335	8,582	36.7	95.6	2.9
South Carolina	C	76.1	0.212	93.7	0.112	3,060	8,339	30.6	93.6	4.0
North Dakota	C	75.1	0.086	91.1	0.259	4,418	9,181	51.0	95.9	3.1
South Dakota	C	74.4	-0.030	95.6	0.205	4,510	8,736	33.2	91.8	2.9
Kentucky	C	74.0	0.070	92.1	0.091	1,920	7,978	9.0	91.0	3.4
New Mexico	C	74.0	-0.011	97.7	0.187	5,233	8,431	22.4	87.7	3.7
Alabama	C	73.8	0.171	94.0	0.092	1,980	7,924	16.3	92.1	3.4
Illinois	C	73.2	0.170	90.7	0.135	4,743	8,621	25.4	91.1	3.5
Missouri	C	72.9	0.077	89.7	0.162	3,659	8,276	19.6	87.9	3.5
Mississippi	C-	72.3	0.127	92.5	0.112	2,396	7,513	6.4	86.3	3.8
Montana	C-	72.3	0.091	92.5	0.299	6,505	8,951	38.5	91.4	3.7
Oregon	C-	72.1	0.142	93.4	0.141	3,957	8,353	19.7	90.4	3.2
Colorado	C-	72.0	0.149	93.4	0.128	4,865	7,939	25.3	92.0	3.0
Florida	C-	70.6	0.148	94.4	0.074	2,837	7,539	3.8	87.1	3.0
North Carolina	C-	70.3	0.201	95.6	0.098	3,090	7,525	15.6	90.6	2.7
Texas	C-	69.9	0.156	93.9	0.143	4,756	7,687	11.5	88.3	3.3
Tennessee	C-	69.7	0.093	93.3	0.095	2,092	7,506	2.0	83.5	2.7
Oklahoma	D+	69.5	0.016	90.9	0.180	4,062	7,331	9.0	81.1	3.3
California	D+	69.2	0.036	92.7	0.133	4,633	7,081	3.0	82.1	3.3
Washington	D+	68.5	0.079	92.2	0.139	5,839	7,432	4.9	86.1	3.1
Alaska	D+	68.2	-0.185	94.0	0.334	14,764	8,562	22.7	89.1	3.5
Nevada	D+	67.6	-0.123	100.02	0.115	13,541	7,141	6.7	84.0	2.8
Idaho	D	65.3	0.276	89.2	0.198	4,121	6,867	7.6	80.3	3.5
Utah	D	64.9	-0.029	98.1	0.168	6,343	5,463	1.1	65.7	3.3
Arizona	D	64.8	0.078	93.2	0.206	5,775	6,232	4.5	71.8	3.4
District of Columbia3	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	12,429	100.0	100.0	NA
Hawaii3	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	9,022	100.0	100.0	3.7
U.S. 5	C+	77.6	0.085	92.6	0.147	$4,725	$8,973	46.1	92.7	3.6
	1. Figures in this column are adjusted to reflect regional cost differences and weighted for student needs. The national average for adjusted per-pupil expenditures is $7,372.
	2. Because the Clark County school district enrolls the majority of students in Nevada (71 percent), it's per-pupil spending is also the statewide median. In addition, Clark County is Nevada's lowest-spending district, with adjusted per-pupil expenditures of $5,717. These two factors account for Nevada's score of 100 points on the McLoone Index.
	3. The District of Columbia and Hawaii are single-district jurisdictions. As a result it is not possible to calculate measures of financial equity, which capture the distribution of funding across districts within a state. The District of Columbia and Hawaii do not receive grades for school finance.
	4. The District of Columbia does not have a state-level revenue source.
	5. The U.S. row reports the indicator value for the average state.

Information taken from Education Weekly.

 

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