photo courtesy of Fickr and stuartpilbrowOn Easter I jumped into a spirited conversation about school budgets with my Dad and brother-in-law after dinner. In one of my jabs, I suggested we get rid of Proposition 13. My father just about fell out of his chair! He quickly came back at me with, "education gets all kinds of money just look at the California State Lottery." Yea, let's look at the California Lottery. Since it's inception it has provided approximately $17.5 billion dollars to K-12 education. In my district that is $1,000,000, about 2% of our annual budget. The perception of my father is that it actually provided much more funding. Public education is not cheap. The California State Lottery helps support projects and programs, but it is no windfall for public education. The general public's understanding of how public schools are funded is dismal.
Some resources that will help if you too are a little confused when it comes to funding public education:
The Basics of California's School Finance System - http://www.edsource.org/pub_QA_FinanceSyst06.html
The Basics of California's Proposition 98 - http://www.lao.ca.gov/2009/edu/prop98_primer/prop98_primer.aspx
California School Finance Highlights 2009-2010: The Impact of the Fiscal Crisis on California Public Schools - http://www.edsource.org/pub_SchFin09-10_highlights.html
Some resources that will help if you too are a little confused when it comes to funding public education:
The Basics of California's School Finance System - http://www.edsource.org/pub_QA_FinanceSyst06.html
The Basics of California's Proposition 98 - http://www.lao.ca.gov/2009/edu/prop98_primer/prop98_primer.aspx
California School Finance Highlights 2009-2010: The Impact of the Fiscal Crisis on California Public Schools - http://www.edsource.org/pub_SchFin09-10_highlights.html
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