Stephen talks about poor California school system

I have another cause: the teachers union

Before anyone starts fooling around with Prop 13 they should consider why Prop 13 came into existance - state and local authorities were taxing homeowners out of their homes. Let's keep something in mind about California's budget problem, the state doesn't have a revenue problem, the state has a SPENDING problem. Almost half of the state's $100 billion annual budget is devoted to public education, and that's not even taking into account federal funding.

Link: Stephen talks about poor California school system.

Stephen Pierzchala: my kids are learning more by not being in California Public Schools.

I agree. My son is in a California Public school. They are so far behind kids in other states it isn't funny. Class sizes are bigger. Fewer computers per student than my friends' kids in other states (my son's school doesn't have any computers for kids to use, for instance because the school couldn't afford to keep them up -- and that was for a Mac lab). Teacher pay ridiculously low compared to cost of living (translation: best teachers leave the state to work elsewhere).

Stephen (and Warren Buffett, who Stephen quotes) nails the cause: Proposition 13.

I was lucky to be in the Cupertino School System back when Prop 13 passed. Cupertino schools WERE among the best in the nation back then (and that reputation was among the reasons so many imigrants wanted to live there. Today the street I grew up on has mostly Asian residents).

Comments

[Stephen Pierzchala]

So, if CA spends 50% of State Budget on Public Education why do parents have to supply TOILET PAPER to schools.

I lived in San Mateo, which is a pretty affluent suburb of SF. The school system shocked me.

California has to ask itself, if residents think that spending is the problem, where is the education funding going? Is it a pork barrel? Are there districts doing better than others?

And if the Teacher's Union is an issue, then you have a rational explanation for why why teachers cannot afford to live in the communities that they teach in. The real reason: housing costs are not moderated by increasing tax rates, ensuring that there is no penalty for rapidly climbing house values.

The real boom in California is in real estate, not tech or biotech. Prop 13 drives this "wild west" market. If out of control spending is the issue, then perhaps we should reduce spending on highways to compensate. Or bridges. Or dams?

Which infrastructure is more valuable: concrete products, or inquisitive, challenged minds? California is the beacon of the knowledge economy. It's education system is a blight on this shining star.

Proposition 13 is a seemingly good idea gone very wrong.

[jeff]

Listen, before you start flying off the handle consider the following:
- I have been writing about the sorry state of education in California for 2 years, here's just a few of my posts:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ca+education&btnG=GO%21&domains=sapventures.typepad.com&sitesearch=sapventures.typepad.com

- I live in the same neck of the woods that you do, it's not necessary to lecture me about the state of San Mateo County schools.

- yeah, were exactly is all the frickin money going? Good question. One thing is absolutely clear, in the face of declining enrollments, many school districts keep building out and increasing their capacity even though their funding is on a per student basis. In recent study it was documented that 400 school districts in California, including 17 entire counties are experiencing declining enrollment.
http://wwwstatic.kern.org/gems/ccsesaAtWork/DecliningEnrollmentpaperfall.pdf

- the other issue about how teachers can't afford to live in their school districts is a lot of spin. CalSTRS (FreddieMac) and a whole range of public programs have subsidized mortgages for teachers, a group that is at risk of enjoying more sponsored subsidies than any other group of people who have midrange incomes of $56-61k a year - right in the average for California as a whole.

- teachers union. Let's start with their ideological opposition to vouchers and end with their opposition to a compensation system based on merit. Better yet, how about their opposition to anything that doesn't involve more funding for schools. Yes, the teachers union is a major part of the problem in California.

- the other flaw in your analysis of prop 13 is that you fail to take into account that record housing sales reflect a turnover of housing that drives higher revenue even at moderately low rates. This is the entire problem with the Democrats approach to taxes: you believe that tax revenue increases require higher rates of taxation without considering that the historical economic evidence that low tax rates drive higher revenues when those tax rates facilitate growth... it's also one reason why Democrats keep losing elections.

Finally, you will never get my support for repealing Prop 13, we went through a decade of out-of-control state and local authorities who were unrestrained in their spending and taxation tendencies, there is nothing that you can point to that suggests those tendencies among government officials is somehow diminished.

You are also fatally flawed in your statement that the real boom in california is real estate... without jobs created by industry (everything from manufacturing to biotech), those homes won't have buyers.

K-12 education in California is a disgrace, and I'm an advocate of radical overhaul of the entire system (even to the point of splitting the entire state in 2 or more administering authorities from the current single on in Sacramento). Just don't come in here and tell me that more money is going to fix the problem, we are putting $48 billion a year into education and what are we getting out of it... 48th out of 50 states in terms of academic achievement. While we are on academic achievement, NSLB if forcing attention on that from California's failed experiment in self-esteem education.
http://www.sciamdigital.com/browse.cfm?sequencenameCHAR=item2&methodnameCHAR=resource_getitembrowse&interfacenameCHAR=browse.cfm&ISSUEID_CHAR=B4EF8E6A-2B35-221B-6F6BEA5E3961CC2C&ARTICLEID_CHAR=B508560B-2B35-221B-6E2566B8AE095724&sc=I100322