January 19, 2012, 12:05 AM
School foundations and PTAs used to raise money for the extras – high-tech projectors and special field trips. But these days, private donations to schools have grown dramatically and are being used to prevent teacher layoffs, keep libraries open, and save music and foreign-language classes....
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October 17, 2011, 12:05 AM
Budget shortfalls have pushed California's spending on public schools to a historic low, relative to the rest of the United States, according to a new analysis by the California Budget Project. California ranks 46th in the U.S. in K-12 spending per student. It spent $2,856 less per...
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August 19, 2011, 12:05 AM
A recent effort to reform California public school financing has stalled, but key players say there’s a growing consensus that the system needs to be simplified and made more equitable. A bill by Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, sailed through the state Assembly but faced...
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August 1, 2011, 12:05 AM
This year's payout of a three-year $416 million federal grant to struggling schools has been delayed for several California schools after monitoring teams found the state Department of Education and local districts not implementing required reforms. At a tense meeting last month, unhappy...
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June 8, 2011, 8:00 PM
Despite years of efforts to equalize spending in California schools, some districts receive thousands of dollars more per student than others. But the bigger expenditure didn't assure higher test scores. Browse the spending per student and test score data by county for all school districts in the...
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June 2, 2011, 6:59 PM
How we did it: California Watch closely examined California Department of Education figures for the current expense of education. The data accounts for each student in attendance in the state’s nearly 1,000 school districts in the 2009-10 school year.
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June 2, 2011, 6:58 PM
State lawmakers have struggled for decades to bring equality to how school districts are funded, yet some districts receive thousands more per student than others, a California Watch analysis has found. And the data shows spending more provides no assurance of academic success.
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June 2, 2011, 6:57 PM
Two Los Angeles County communities illustrate the gap in funding at the state’s public schools.
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June 2, 2011, 6:55 PM
Los legisladores estatales se han esforzado durante décadas para lograr igualdad en el financiamiento de las escuelas, sin embargo algunos distritos reciben miles de dólares más por estudiante que otros, concluyó un análisis de California Watch. Y los datos muestran que gastar más no garantiza el...
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June 2, 2011, 6:50 PM
Have questions on how schools are financed in California? Check out these frequently asked questions.
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