School Finance

Tipping the Scale Towards Equity: Making Weighted Student Formula Work for California’s Highest-Need Students

California’s education funding system is fundamentally unfair, with large gaps in funding between the wealthiest and the lowest-income school districts, as well as between schools within districts.

In 2012, Governor Brown sought to correct the funding gaps between districts by shifting to a weighted student formula (WSF).

Publication date: 
October 25 2012
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New Education Trust—West Report Exposes Stark School Funding Gaps in California’s Largest Districts; Calls for School Funding Equity and Transparency

OAKLAND, CA (October 25, 2012) – As the debate over school funding and weighted student formula continues to heat up in California and around the nation, The Education Trust—West releases its latest report, Tipping the Scale Towards Equity: Making Weighted Student Formula Work for California’s Highest-Need Students. Using new data submitted by school districts to the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education, this report reveals disturbing school funding inequities and inconsistencies in California’s twenty largest school districts.

Testimony to Select Committee on English Learners on March 26, 2012, by Carrie Hahnel, Director of Research and Policy on Weighted Student Formula

Date: 
March 26 2012

Select Committee on English Learners

INFORMATIONAL HEARING

“Will the Weighted Student Formula Help English Learners?”

Panel on Accountability and Monitoring

 

Good afternoon, Chairman, members of the committee. I’m Carrie Hahnel, Director of Policy and Research for The Education Trust—West. We are a nonprofit advocacy group focused on closing the opportunity and achievement gaps for low-income students and students of color. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak on such a critical topic for our state’s students.

The Cruel Divide: How California’s Education Finance System Shortchanges its Poorest School Districts

A new report released today paints a step-by-step picture of startling inequities in California’s system of education funding that harm our state’s poorest school districts. In The Cruel Divide: How California’s Education Finance System Shortchanges its Poorest School Districts, The Education Trust—West reveals that California’s highest poverty districts—those with the largest concentrations of low-income students—receive $620 less per student from state and local sources than the state’s wealthiest districts. For a mid-sized school district of 6,000 students, that amounts to over $3.7 million per year.

ETW has put together a web tool that allows you to search for a school district's per-pupil state and local revenues.  Click here to access the tool.   

Publication date: 
February 23 2012

Turning Back the Clock: The Inequitable Impact of Shortening California’s School Year

California’s education system has long failed to meet the needs of the low-income students and students of color who are now a vast majority of our state’s student population. To close persistent achievement gaps, we must dramatically improve the learning outcomes of our highest-need students by leveraging proven strategies such as increasing the amount of time students spend in school.

Yet, for the last two years, California’s policymakers have made the inequitable decision to systematically reduce the amount of instructional time that school districts are required to provide. Given that California has some of the widest achievement gaps and lowest student performance in the nation, reducing learning time in our schools should not be an option.

Publication date: 
October 31 2011

California's Hidden Teacher Spending Gap: How State and District Budgeting Practices Shortchange Poor and Minority Students and Their Schools.

This new series of Hidden Gap reports looks at the impact of the hidden teacher-spending gaps in schools throughout California.

Publication date: 
October 16 2005
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