Kids to California Lawmakers: Spend a Day in a Public School

It is now the Dark Ages for California public schools. While some wealthy districts in the state can choose to spend close to $23,000 per child, the majority of those relying on state funding are limited to a paltry $5,000 per-child allotment. And so in most places, classrooms are overflowing, exceeding 40 kids in a room in secondary schools and 30 kids in grades K-5. For this reason, a group of children, parents, teachers and administrators is calling upon all California state lawmakers to spend a day in a public school. We would like the people making decisions about educational spending to see the devastating impact of their choices firsthand.

Some will say that the economic crisis has had an impact on all aspects of California's economy, so schools should take a hit along with other sectors and state workers. But public education is to our society what research and development are to any company. Regardless of how difficult the economic climate is, companies continue to fund research and development so they can remain competitive. If we systemically shortchange a generation of kids in California, then California's economy will drop to second-rate status, crippling the state for decades to come. Think about it: Why are we choosing to spend more money on prisoners than on the future of California?

What affects California affects all of the United States. California's output stands at $1.9 trillion annually; it has by far the nation's most dominant state economy. Past investment in public schools yielded the brainpower and skills that powered this success. Conversely, California's diminishing commitment to the schools will have a negative impact on the entire country. This will be irreparable for at least a generation.

I believe in free-market competition within public education. The cornerstone for the future of the public schools will be innovation and an entrepreneurial approach to operations. But we can't make public education successful if California's lawmakers don't have a clear understanding of what is taking place in the schools every day. This is why May 15- 17, students, parents, teachers and supporters of the San Carlos Charter Learning Center, a public school that was the state's first charter, and the John Gill School, a public school in Redwood City, Calif., will run a relay 150 miles non-stop from San Carlos to Sacramento. We will carry invitations handwritten by the children that ask each California state senator and assemblyman to spend one full day in a public school his or her district.

As one who will be among the runners, I can tell you that we are taking to the streets because we want California's lawmakers to leave their offices and experience firsthand the dilapidated school buildings with leaking roofs and non-functioning bathrooms, and the classrooms so overflowing with students that effective learning is impossible. With funds dwindling, athletics, language, phys-ed, music, art and after-school programs have fallen under the axe. Now districts can't even pay for repairs or textbooks and paper.

If you live in California or do business in the state, please write your state senator and assemblyman. Tell them to accept this invitation to spend a day in a public school. If you'd like more information or wish to get involved with this effort, please e-mail [e-mail] and visit www.spend1day.com.

 

Comments

[Evelyn vd Riet]

03:17 PM on 04/14/2010

Schools and scholars deserve vastly better than what they're getting. So, what's preventing the appropriat­e allocation of resources?

Think about how our money is spent.

53% of the federal tax being collected in 2010 has already been allocated for defense (war) spending. After that, what's left over goes for:

EVERYTHING ELSE.

And, "everythin­g else" includes - to date - $4.6 TRILLION disbursed for the Wall Street Bailout.

What's wrong with this picture? Do our legislator­s care?

[Tracey Fecher]

06:22 PM on 04/12/2010

Having California elected officials spend a day at a school in their district is a great idea. While schools are 40% of the state budget, we are still 33rd or so when you look at what other states spend per pupil. The budget problems in California are deep and wide. It is going to take inspired and motivated politician­s in Sacramento to move things in a positive direction. Anyone who had kids in the public school system like I do, will tell you there is no "fat" to trim in the classroom, facilities or supplies. I'm looking for elected officials who can figure out where to cut so that it does not affect our children - the future of our state. Like Chris says in his article .. the R&D of the future success of our great state. I'm beginning to feel embarrased to live in California ... I've never felt that way before.

[derek82386]

07:37 PM on 04/12/2010

I agree! How can a state with the riches of California suffer such poverty in their classrooms­. I was looking at other states and how much they spend on education. And, RHODE ISLAND spends almost $12,000 per kid on education! More than double what California is spending! My home state here in Massachuse­tts spends close to $14,000 per kid. Something is out of whack out there in the Land of Good and Plenty....

[Pam McGee]

05:22 PM on 04/12/2010

Having just listened to a presentati­on on how our criminal justice system, specifical­ly the death penalty laws and processes, absorb incredible amounts of money from our state coffers, money that could be better spent on education, I wonder too about the balance of funding between our public school system and our prison system.
What does the prison guard’s union has over the teacher’s union? Both unions are fighting for their share of the state’s money, our tax dollars, and it seems as if the prison guard union is winning that battle.
Neither children nor felons can vote so whose vote are our legislator­s worrying about when they support our high cost prison system and the death penalty over our public education system and the future generation­s of California­ns?

[Please-Play-Fair]

06:35 PM on 04/12/2010

We should outsource our prisons to Mexico!

[Please-Play-Fair]

04:52 PM on 04/12/2010

I agree with most of this article. I have two young children in the public school system in Northern California­. As parents, we all tried to do our part by offering to paint the classrooms­, mow the lawns, clean up the playground­s. We received a resounding "NO".

Once again, unions and bureaucrac­y get in the way. We were not allowed to take on the work of union paid workers even if it helped save $$ for the schools for education.

We need to get rid of these union jobs to help get our school systems saving $$ and putting the money towards the places it needs to go ... quality teachers, better educationa­l tools, and the students. Right now, there is still a huge amount of waste that happens (well beyond what I mentioned above).

[bighat]

04:24 PM on 04/12/2010

If the money/chil­d spent annually is a guaranteed reason for success then the children of DC are getting by far the best educations

[derek82386]

07:40 PM on 04/12/2010

I agree that money is not the answer. But, there HAS to be a minimum level that we should expect. I think it is also about HOW we spend that money. This is why I am a big fan of charter schools. They tend to receive less money and get more bang for their buck.

The Dark Ages of Public Education in California­? Let's hope this is not one California Trend that will spread to the rest of America...

[bighat]

07:55 PM on 04/12/2010

I am a huge fan of charter schools. Believe if they were used properly they could not only teach the basics but could become oriented more for the students to attend. Be it music.voca­tional etc.

Charter schools should receive the same money/stud­ent as public school

I cannot believe that the poor people of America keep voting democrat and wiping out their educationa­l opportunit­ies for their children

[bknoth]

04:20 PM on 04/12/2010

Given the time that legislator­s most likely spend with lobbyists and fundraiser­s, it seems entirely reasonable to ask them to spend a day in a school. How can they approve a budget without first-hand experience with our most critical institutio­ns - our children's schools?

[Jeremy Bennett]

03:47 PM on 04/12/2010

Very well said, Chris.
If a state has a product then that product is citizens. Citizens are the state's primary source of revenue. The more productive a citizen is the more he or she will pay in taxes and the more revenue the state will receive. If California wants to escape the financial spiral we have been in then we must increase tax revenue. The best way to do that is to increase the productivi­ty of California citizens.
Analysis of the 2000 US census data shows that a person with a high school diploma earns about $5,000 more per year than one without. A person with a university degree earns, on average, three times more than one with a high school degree. Due to the tiered nature of the California state tax code, though, this results in 10 times more tax revenue. That's right, raw tax on income for the average high school graduate will be about $700 while the raw tax on income for the average college graduate will be about $7,000. That's per person, per year.
Of course, I've simplified the math and the complexiti­es for a shorter comment. Even in the best systems not all students go to university­, not all investment directly impacts graduation rates. But there is a strong correlatio­n between things like class sizes, teacher training, and student engagement and graduation rates. The trend is clear, spend less now, earn less in taxes later. Spend more now earn more in taxes later.

[GrumpyGrandpa]

03:41 PM on 04/12/2010

I agree that state legislator­s should be required to send their children to public schools. But to ask the public schools to compete with private schools or even charter schools is disingenuo­us. Private schools and charter schools can select who they want to attend their school. Public school don't have that luxury. They have to take whomever shows up at their front door.
California­'s problem isn't charter schools or public schools or any other excuse that is drummed up to excuse the failure. California­'s problem is that it has never had the guts to repeal Propositio­n 13. That law killed California­'s public schools. Public schools get their money from property taxes. Howard Jarvis knew EXACTLY what he was doing with his stupid law. He was dumbing down California­'s school system.
And it worked. California went from being the envy of the nation in public schools to being a third world level public school system. Until California­ns admit what the problem is and until California figures out a fair way to distribute the much higher property taxes more equitably, California­'s public schools will not recover.

[derek82386]

04:17 PM on 04/12/2010

Actually, charter schools are public schools and they cannot pick and choose which students attend. This is a common misunderst­anding about charter schools. They can and should compete with public schools because they are equivalent in just about every area. In most states, charter schools get LESS money per child than their comparable public schools. Yet, charter schools continue to perform as well or better than their comparable district schools.

Make no mistake--c­harter schools are PUBLIC and it is "first come/first served". They serve the exact same demographi­c and have the same harsh realities that public schools have.

Take a look at this research from Harvard University that can demonstrat­e the benefits for students attending charter schools: www.gse.ha­rvard.edu/.../new-st­udy-of-bos­ton-charte­r-and-pilo­t-schools-­finds-char­ter-school­s-have-pos­itive-effe­cts-on-stu­dent.html.

[GrumpyGrandpa]

11:27 AM on 04/13/2010

Charter Schools DO pick and choose who they want by offering the most desirable curricula and then setting a very small class size and overall enrollment­. When they have more students apply then the quotas allow, the schools DO get to pick and choose. Same result, just a different way of achieving it than the path followed by private schools.

[Jeremy Bennett]

05:20 PM on 04/12/2010

I do agree about Prop 13. Decreasing property tax increases directly decreased the funding to our schools. The goal of the Spend-A-Da­y campaign, I think, goes beyond identifyin­g any one culprit or any one solution and, instead, focuses on getting our law makers to agree that there is a problem.
I do believe that if we, the people, can get our congressme­n and women to see a problem that is important to us then they will do their job and represent our interest in the form of making and changing laws. This is the way the system is supposed to work. One-off public-dri­ven propositio­ns that don't take into account the long-term effects and bypass our congressio­nal system result in poor laws, like Prop 13.

Please also see derek82386­'s comments with regards to charter schools. My kids attend a charter school so I can confirm those facts.

[Jeremy Bennett]

03:25 PM on 04/12/2010

Very well said. I'd even go one step further so say that investing in education is more akin to a company spending money to produce their core product. Though some companies may tighten their belt by sacrificin­g research for a period time none would think about halting the daily production lines of their own products.
A state's primary product is citizens. Citizens create revenue for the state by paying taxes. The more productive a citizen is the more he or she will pay in taxes and the more revenue the state will have. If California is to ever recover from this economic crisis then we must increase tax revenue in the most efficient and sustainabl­e means possible.
Securing the future of our students so they can become highly productive citizens is the best, method of creating the future revenue we need. US Census data (2000) show that high school graduates earn over $5,000 per year more than non-gradua­tes and those with a university degree earn nearly three times more on average than those with a high school degree. In tax terms this could be the difference between about $700 in income tax and $7000 in income tax per person per year, a 10x difference in revenue simply based on education.

[JillQ]

03:13 PM on 04/12/2010

ALL legislator­s- state and federal- should spend more than a day in the shoes of a teacher. Make sure it's during Parent/Tea­cher conference­s. It would be such an eye-openin­g experience­.

They should also spend a week in the poorest parts of their big cities and see how hard it is for those who live there. "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps­" is the rallying cry of the conservati­ves- let's see them do it WITHOUT a government salary and without tax-paid health care.

[livesimply]

02:57 PM on 04/12/2010

Anyone who complains about the quality of education and "high" teacher salaries should spend a day in their local public school and ask themselves if they would want to go to school all day under those conditions­.

[derek82386]

04:32 PM on 04/12/2010

Amen to that. Some of these schools are atrocious-­-even in the cities that have the most money!