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California

San Francisco's school budgets are always tight, as are districts up and down the state. While 2006-07 was a relatively quiet year budget-wise, 2007-08 is shaping up to be much more difficult. New SFUSD Superintendent Carlos Garcia has said he was surprised at the state of the district's budget upon taking the helm of the district last July and to make matters worse an extra-late state budget kept school budgets in limbo right up to the beginning of the school year.

There are many reasons for the continuing crunch, from declining enrollment to increasing special education costs to the soaring cost of providing benefits to retirees.

Getting Down to Facts: A Research Project Examining School Governance and Finance Systems

In March 2007, the Stanford University Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice released 23 studies examining the most burning issues in school governance and school finance facing California policymakers. These studies seek to inform the ongoing conversation about how to reform California's schools. Learn more

California School Finance website
Read short summaries of each of the Stanford studies and keep up with other news about California school funding.

Cuts to education budget

Education budget cuts are being proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger for the 2008-09 budget year. Learn more.

RESOURCES

 

Link to California State Dept of Education website http://www.cde.ca.gov/

EdSource www.edsource.org
Great source of information about education financing and policy.

Are Californians getting their money's worth from their public schools? Commentary by John Mockler on the California School Finance website.

PRESS

School Beat: Californians want more for education; Lisa Schiff; Beyond Chron; May 15, 2008

School Beat: School Governance and Funding Across the State and in Our District ; Lisa Schiff; Beyond Chron; Mar. 22‚ 2007
An article about the Stanford studies, written by PPS-SF member Lisa Schiff.