Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – November 14, 2024

TAXES: You pay and pay and what do you get? Undereducated kids with poor reading, writing and math skills. For the last 150 years, public education in our state has been free. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, California education was one of the best funded and most envied school systems in the USA.

What happened?

Let’s concentrate just on the amount of taxes we pay to educate our children in public school in California. $129.2 BILLION for 2023-2024. That’s approximately $17,638 per student.

For 2023, Massachusetts ranked 1st in public education and spent $17,058 per student. Cries in California of “we need to spend more per student” just doesn’t shake out. On the other hand, the cost of living in California is higher so our per student cost perhaps doesn’t go as far.

Where does that money come from?

• State income taxes: The primary source of funding for California schools, accounting for 62% of the total
• Local property taxes: Account for 21% of the total
• Other local taxes: Account for 10% of the total – like sales taxes
• Lottery: Accounts for 1.1% of the total
• Federal funds: Account for 6% of the total

Public Education is supposed to teach our children things like reading, writing, science and math. Where do we stand as compared to the rest of the nation? Depending upon which site you research it can be anywhere from 23rd to 29th position out of the 50 states.

California received a score of 74.1, or a C- average in the “chance for success” category. This was below the national average. The state’s highest score was in standards, assessments and accountability at 92.8, or an A average. The lowest score was in K-12 achievement at 67.8, or a D+ average.

This from a company called WalletHub which appears to be legitimate.

Where do we compare on the world scale? Pretty low. Above most African countries, but behind these countries:

United Kingdom: Ranked #2

Germany: Ranked #3

Canada: Ranked #4

France: Ranked #5

Switzerland: Ranked #6

Japan: Ranked #7

Australia: Ranked #8

Sweden: Ranked #9

Denmark: Ranked #10

Netherlands: Ranked #11

Norway: Ranked #12

Finland: Ranked #13

What country ranks #1? South Korea.

What are some of the problems as to why our California public schools are underperforming?

Teacher’s Union! Predominantly made up of Democrats.

Pension liabilities

Declining enrollment and Absenteeism.

School funding based on attendance.

Political indoctrination – leaning towards Socialism and Communism.

Curriculum.

And then there’s the transgender/gender identity problems. When school personnel keep parents out of the loop on their children that’s a major problem.

Bullying

What are some of the solutions?

1. Get the Federal Government Department of Education out of education business. Trump promises to close it down and leave educating our young to the states.
2. Listen to the parents.
3. Re-do the curriculum.
4. Be able to fire bad teachers. Get the unions out of the way.