From the perspective of a lifelong educator, I was elated to see that Gov. Jerry Brown's 2013-2014 state budget proposed no cuts to K-12 or higher education and increased public-education funding. Most encouraging, was Brown's proposal to deliver school funding based on need.
In the governor's plan, the amount of state money a school receives is weighted by the number of English-language learners and low-income students attending, with extra funding to schools with more than 50 percent English-language learners and/or low-income students.
Public-school districts across the country, including San Francisco Unified, already have implemented similar formulas at the local level to address educational disparities within their districts. Since its implementation, San Francisco Unified has improved its funding to high-poverty schools, resulting in more even distribution of experienced teachers across all schools, and improvement in student achievement for seven consecutive years. Of the largest urban districts in California, San Francisco has the highest average percentage of students performing at proficient or above on the English language arts California Standards Test.
Low-income and English-language-learner students bring unique educational challenges that the average middle-class student does not. To afford these children the same level of education, it requires more resources for them to enable equal opportunity.
Why is this investment important? Because America has one of the highest child-poverty rates among developed nations and it is undermining our nation's economic strength and innovative power. Among states, California has more poor children than any other: Some 2,085,000 children here live below the poverty line. The Center for the Next Generation in San Francisco recently has reported that the state's poverty rate has jumped 21 percent since 2008.
The effects of poverty continue to impact the United States' Programme on International Student Assessment (known as PISA) scores, which have stagnated while our global counterparts surpass us. This is not to say America's public-education system is failing, but it is failing students in impoverished areas. When the scores of students living in poverty are removed from our national average, America's students are among the world's top performers.
To ensure America's future prosperity, it needs to invest more in the children most challenged. The return on this kind of investment is immense: Our society is richer, our economy is stronger, our workforce is better and our outlook is brighter - and, consequently, we witness lower welfare costs, lower crime and lower levels of incarceration.
This is why achieving education equity is so essential for our state's students. The status-quo approach allocates the same amount of money per student. By not accounting for unique needs, it fails to provide an equal education for each child and merely perpetuates disparities in achievement.
The state's public-education system should allocate resources so that the each and every child has the same starting point and same opportunity to learn. Then, we will have an equitable system. Today, we're not even close.
The sad reality is that the children who need the most resources are often relegated to under-resourced schools that do not provide an adequate education. A huge source of revenue for every school is the local property tax, and schools in impoverished areas have less property-tax revenue than schools in affluent areas. This translates to poorly maintained school facilities, lack of quality educational programs and support services, and less ability to attract and retain quality teachers.
Even if two districts spend the same per pupil, one district might need to spend little on transportation costs (e.g., buses), whereas the other district might require a significant portion of its per-pupil funding for transportation. The result? The two districts don't spend the same per pupil in the classroom.
Education can be the great equalizer. Currently, it is not. A well-prepared and vibrant 21st century workforce is imperative for maintaining our role as a global economic force, and I applaud Gov. Brown for taking a step toward providing an equitable education for each and every child.