California at a crossroads: my generation’s future hangs in balance
Today I’m traveling to Sacramento, along with hundreds of student and parent leaders from across California, to deliver an urgent but simple message to the State Legislature and the Governor: It’s time to upgrade California’s education system.
We’re coming to our state’s capitol as part of the Campaign for Quality Education, a statewide coalition of grassroots, civil rights, policy, and research organizations committed to educational equity for all communities in California’s public schools. We travel from the gritty grassroots to the halls of power, as mothers, fathers, students, brothers, sisters, and community leaders.
We’re here because California is at a crossroads. Our state’s economic future depends on the brainpower of the rising generation — my generation.
Over the past two years, $17 billion has been cut from education in California. According to the California Budget Project, in 2009-2010 California’s K-12 per-pupil spending ranked 45th in the country. And we are last in students-per-teacher ratio.
I’m angry about it. I think we should move in a direction that strengthens the California Dream, not one that jeopardizes our economic future. An educated society is a better society.
So today we are presenting our ideas for “Education 2.0” and a new “OS (Our Schools) 2011 device.” Our device contains four “apps”: 1) Which Way CA? 2) Kids Count, 3) Teacher Ready, and 4) 100% Prepared.
Which Way CA? It’s time to decide whether our state will prioritize the requests of special interests or invest in our future by revamping our education finance system to reflect 21st century realities. Which way will California go? Are we going to continue with deeper budget cuts? Or will lawmakers have the courage to recognize that kids like me need them to raise more money so we can invest in education and in our future?
Kids Count: We need to upgrade California’s school finance system to one that distributes funding based on what it takes to prepare all students for both college and careers. That means moving to a system that funds schools adequately and also targets students who need the most help, such as English learners and low-income students.
I don’t want to be just another statistic we see on paper, or part of the 50% dropout rate everyone talks about. California is a place where I can write my own destiny, but no one succeeds alone. All I want is a chance to get the best so I can give my best.
Teacher Ready: My teacher, Ms. Aguilar, is an unsung hero. Every day she comes to class ready to challenge us to learn, and she inspires me to reach for my dreams. We know that thousands of teachers across the state have received layoff notices, but one thing is clear: teachers make a difference. We need to make sure that all our teachers are qualified when they start teaching, but once they’re in the classroom they need our support to be the best they can be. I have learned from Ms. Aguilar that the only limit to the height of my achievement is the reach of my dreams and the willingness to work for them.
100 Percent Prepared: I want to have practical skills I can use in real-world situations, but also an academic foundation that allows me to innovate and use my creativity. Being 100% prepared means I can reach higher because I am prepared for both college and career. Watering down high school requirements creates low expectations for students; instead, we want to be ready to pursue our dreams and be prepared for pursuing both college and a trade.
When I meet with my elected representatives today, I want to look them in the eye and tell them they need to invest in my future, the future of my classmates, and the future of students across California. We’re worth it.
Miriam Hernandez is a Junior at Roosevelt High School in Fresno and a student campaign chair with Californians for Justice (CFJ), which is part of the Campaign for Quality Education.
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Well said. Thank you!
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Your demands would be better met, if the vast majority of the demographic you represented, actually helped pay for your education. We’re going to go with deeper budget cuts, because the money isn’t there. Taxing the rich isn’t going to work. You need to help pay for it. Take a look for yourself at what the state spends. You demand the state spends more, but we’re already at 43% of the State Budget now for K-12 education. Add the nearly 12% for Higher Ed and we’re already over half the budget.
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pdf
The upper 15% of the Taxpayers, pay 85% of the State Income taxes. That means that 85% of the population pays nearly nothing! They get it all for free. The sales tax they might pay, doesn’t nearly cover the costs of education for them, nor the vast array of entitlements that a large portion collects. Look up and see what each year of your education is costing the taxpayer.
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/RevenueEstimates.pdf
“Or will lawmakers have the courage to recognize that kids like me need them to raise more money so we can invest in education and in our future?” You mean raising or extending taxes. I think not and good luck. The State is and has been a huge black hole, along with becoming a failed Socialist experiment.
“We need to make sure that all our teachers are qualified when they start teaching, but once they’re in the classroom they need our support to be the best they can be.” Research the facts about Teacher Unions in regards to Tenure and Test Scores.
“100 Percent Prepared: I want to have practical skills I can use in real-world situations, but also an academic foundation that allows me to innovate and use my creativity. Being 100% prepared means I can reach higher because I am prepared for both college and career. Watering down high school requirements creates low expectations for students; instead, we want to be ready to pursue our dreams and be prepared for pursuing both college and a trade.”
The numerous lawsuits, NCLB and race-based settings of expectations have created this. It is no longer ‘your fault’ if you fail, so it must be somebody else’s fault and somebody is going to sue somebody else. Want to see something interesting? Take a look at this: Latino lawyers bringing lawsuits against school districts for millions of dollars, because there isn’t enough ‘Latino’ representation on the school boards. They’re taking money away from you! It isn’t about the ‘best people’ for the job, it’s about what color or ethnicity they are. Pretty stupid, as I don’t care what color, race or whatever you are, if you are truly the best, then there you are.
“School boards need to reflect the demographic composition of the communities they serve. If they don’t, then how those board members are elected should change. If it doesn’t, you will be sued and it’ll be expensive.”
“Robert Rubin, the committee’s legal director, helped write the California Voting Rights Act. So did Joaquin Avila, co-counsel in several of the Lawyers Committee’s voting rights lawsuits.”
http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?xid=zoio9zqj17×4t8
Your perspective is admirable, but unfortunately, the reality of politics, money and conflicting agendas is going to sink it all.
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Everyone wants to make sure that kids get the best education. Intuitively one would think that “more money = better” but is that true? Is a Mini Cooper better than a Corolla? Depends on your goals. Does more money mean better education? Prove it.
The race to the top in $/pupil hasn’t translated into any correlation with measurable results on NAEP. I did a regression analysis of $/pupil with NAEP scores by state and the correlation coefficient was about 0.1 which is basically no correlation at all. Even in the SF Bay Area a regression analysis on school districts and $/pupil vs. API shows no correlation at all. Where’s the proof that educators have any idea of what to do with more money when they get it?
Summary of data (references at end):
In Inflation adjusted dollars, the amount going to public schools has risen from $443/pupil in 1919-1920 to $10,041/pupil in 2008 or about 3.5% per year. [1]
In Inflation adjusted dollars, the amount going to public schools has risen from $3,812/pupil in 1967 to $10,041/pupil in 2008 (263%) or about 2.5% per year. [2]
In Inflation adjusted dollars, the average salary for public school teachers nationwide has risen from about $43K in 1991 to about $45K in 2011. I.e., in 20 years essentially no change. [3] Compare to CA average of about $70K – the highest of the 50 states.
Public elementary and secondary schools revenues as a percentage of GNP have fluctuated from a low of 3.2% in 1984 in to a high of 4.1% in 2008. [2]
The amount going to public schools nationwide in 2006 was $562B [4]. The US military budget in 2009 (excluding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) was $494B [5]. (last years available for each).
The increase in expenditures on education over the last 40 years has gone to hire more teachers so that nationwide the pupil/teacher ratio has been reduced from 22.3 in 1970 to 15.5 in 2007. [6]
CA ranks 36th out of 50 on $/pupil according to the NCES, not 50th C.f., http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/expenditures/tables/table_06.asp?referrer=edfin
On a nationwide basis, those running the school systems when given more money can’t think of anything to do with it but what they have always done which is hire more teachers requiring more administrators, more class rooms, another school bond, while teachers salaries go nowhere and nothing improves in our schools at all. Considering the amount of passion that goes into proclaiming the importance of ‘creativity’ vs. ‘learning what can be measured’ this lack of creativity on the part of the those running the schools is simply astonishing.
Nationwide, the schools have a bigger percentage of the GDP than they have ever had (ref. 3. below) and all that has improved are administration salaries while the shrieks about “our future in peril” and “devastating cuts” seems if anything to be getting louder than ever. Does the education establishment think that after an economic crash like the entire world just went through with massive layoffs and millions losing their homes and their jobs, and some countries essentially going into default, that schools would escape without some dislocation? That is a sense of entitlement and privilege that inspires awe.
There is simply no evidence that smaller class sizes above K-3 makes any difference. Class sizes are nearly half of what they were in 1970 and it is hard to see any improvement. Where I grew up in New York, the Catholic parish schools typically had class sizes of 65 for grades 4-8 and still did remarkably better on the state Regents exams. Maybe that’s why Ravitch in her book wonders why the public money didn’t go to Catholic schools instead of charter schools. (I guess she favors vouchers).
Data sources.
National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Total and current expenditures per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools: Selected years, 1919-20 through 2006-07 is a table showing that in inflation-adjusted 2007 dollars, expenditures per pupil have risen from $443 in 1919-1920 to $10,041 in 2006-2007 per enrolled pupil (”current expenditures” not counting $ for loan payments). In the 39 years from 1967 to 2006, expenditures in inflation-adjusted dollars went from $3,812 to $10,041 (263%) for a compound annual growth rate of 2.5%, roughly in keeping with the growth in GNP. C.f., http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_182.asp
(NCES)Total public revenue in elementary and secondary schools as a percentage of GDP: 1969–70 to 2007–08 is a graph (available in table form by clicking table at the top of the page) showing that as a percentage of GDP, revenues have fluctuated between a low of 3.2% in 1984 to a high of 4.1% in 2008. C.f. http://nces.ed.gov/edfin/graph_topic.asp?INDEX=11
National Education Association – page 77 of http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/NEA_Rankings_and_Estimates010711.pdf
InfoPlease has the annual expenditures on the military at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0904490.html
During the 1970s and early 1980s, public school enrollment decreased, while the number of teachers generally increased. For public schools, the number of pupils per teacher—that is, the pupil/teacher ratio1 —declined from 22.3 in 1970 to 17.9 in 1985 (table 64 and figure 6). After 1985, the public school pupil/teacher ratio continued to decline, reaching 17.2 in 1989. After a period of relative stability during the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, the ratio declined from 17.3 in 1995 to 16.0 in 2000. Decreases have continued since then, and the public school pupil/teacher ratio was 15.5 in 2007. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/ch_2.asp
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Wonderful Miriam. Thank you for speaking out for educational equity, as it is the foundation of building our future and our way forward together. Inspired by what you and other student leaders are doing to build the world we need.
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We’re with you Miriam!
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Regis: yes, people with more income pay more taxes than people with less of it. I doubt you would want to trade places, though. This argument has never seemed particularly powerful to me.
Michael: I agree with your analysis that the connection between dollars and scores is not straightforward. A marginal dollar plus or minus does not appear to have a reliable effect on scores, and marginal effects matter. However, the California context is unusual, because this state is already far below norm in real resources per student. Money may not be magical, but the lack of it does real harm. Please have a look at http://ed100.org/californiaskimps.
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Michael, as discussed in other threads where you’ve made the same statements: If “more money” doesn’t equal better schools, why do high-net-worth parents routinely pay $30,000 per kid per year tuition in high-end private schools that ALSO fundraise for still more?
Diane Ravitch does praise parochial schools, but doesn’t call for public funding for them — it’s not OK for you to misrepresent her. I am a big fan of hers but don’t particularly agree with her on that. Parochial schools have the private-school advantage of being able to select, and are famous — celebrated — for kicking out troublesome and challenging kids, while proclaiming themselves superior to the public schools that accept those kids. They also notoriously reject and dump children with disabilities — kids whom the public schools to which the parochials proclaim themselves superior also accept. My kids’ public schools have regularly accepted parochial school dumpees, including a dying kindergartner who was dumped by one of SF’s Power Parishes, and who was welcomed and supported by our school community.
I’ll go to Leonie Haimson for research on class sizes, but meanwhile, don’t forget that the high-end privates also promote their small class sizes, and many wealthy parents I know say that’s one of the main reasons they find it worth paying the $30K.
Bill Gates has recently been promoting larger class sizes in the public schools on which his money is such a potent influence — but the website of the private school he attended promotes the school’s small class sizes.
So the wealthy believe that a solid education costs more than $30,000 per kid per year and that small classes are essential. I wonder what schools the people who claim that schools don’t need more money and that class size doesn’t matter send their own kids to.
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