Riverside school trustees hear grim budget report

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Riverside school trustees hear grim budget report

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, October 19, 2009

By DAYNA STRAEHLEY
The Press-Enterprise

California's per-pupil spending has dropped to 50th out of 50 states and is $1,700 less than the national average, an administrator told the Riverside school board Monday.

Mike Fine, deputy superintendent of the Riverside Unified School District, said in his budget update that the 50th-place ranking resulted from state budget cuts in May.

School funding based on Prop. 98, which set minimum funding guarantees, has fallen 13 percent since 2008, Fine said. He projected further cuts for 2009-10 after January and more for 2010-11.

With revenue declining and not projected to improve for a few years, Trustee Tom Hunt suggested the district may have to consider consolidating some schools.

"We have some sites here with low enrollment and we may have to make some difficult decisions," Hunt said after Fine's update.

"Absolutely," said board President Kathy Allavie.

The district expects a shortfall of $66.3 million by 2011-12, Fine said.

The district will spend $25.6 million more than its revenue for the current year but has a $47 million balance, his memo said. School districts received some federal stimulus money late last year. California districts also expected 2008-09 budget cuts from Sacramento, which were postponed until this year.

The budget projects a $10 million balance going into 2010-11 and a shortfall of $22.2 million, the memo states.

Per pupil revenue from the state has dropped to $5,209.23. It had been projected at $6,380.34 before state budget cuts, the staff report says.

However, state revenues still are falling below the projections on which the state budget was based.

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I don't believe this.

California's per-pupil spending has dropped to 50th out of 50 states and is $1,700 less than the national average, an administrator told the Riverside school board Monday.

I contacted State Senator Benoit's office and got some figures on the revised 2009 - 10 State budget:

K - 12 education 40%

Higher education 12%

(between the two, that's over half of the state
budget. How typical is this across the nation?)

Health & Human Services 29%

Corrections and Rehabilitation 10%

Business, Transportation and housing 3%

(Caltrans also has another source of funding, which is
independent of the budget)

Legislative, Judicial, Executive 2%

All other spending 4%

There is a pie chart on Benoit's newsletter http://cssrc.us/%28X%281%29A%28rlGjf...ookieSupport=1

If the link doesn't work, search for Benoit Bulletin July 2009

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U.S. spends average $8,701 per pupil on education

May 24, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States spent an average of $8,701 per pupil to educate its children in 2005, the Census Bureau said on Thursday, with some states paying more than twice as much per student as others.

New York was the biggest spender on education, at $14,119 per student, with New Jersey second at $13,800 and Washington, D.C., third at $12,979, the Census Bureau said. Seven of the top 10 education spenders were Northeastern states.

The states with the lowest spending were Utah, at $5,257 per pupil, Arizona $6,261, Idaho $6,283, Mississippi $6,575 and Oklahoma $6,613. The 10 states with the lowest education spending were in the West or South.

Overall the United States spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in 2005, up 5 percent from $8,287 the previous year, the bureau said.

Funding is largely a state and local responsibility under the U.S. system, with 47 percent coming from state governments, 43.9 percent from local sources and only 9.1 percent from the federal government.

Students in northeastern and northern states tend to perform better on standardized tests than students in southern and southwestern states. But experts say the correlation between spending and testing performance is not strong.

The "No Child Left Behind" education reforms passed during President George W. Bush's first term have placed increased emphasis on performance on national standardized tests. Schools can be penalized if they repeatedly fail to meet targets for improving student scores.

"It's not necessarily so that states with higher spending have higher test scores," said Tom Loveless, an education policy expert at the Brookings Institution think tank.

He said Washington, D.C., has among the highest spending in the country but its students have among the lowest scores on standardized tests, while some states like Montana with relatively low spending have fairly high performance on tests.

Loveless said two areas where education spending might make a difference were in teacher salaries and small class sizes for first graders. But overall, the relationship between spending on education and test performance was not strong, he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...ype=RSS&rpc=22

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US Census Bureau News press release

National Per Student Public School Spending Nears $9,000

MAY 24, 2007

The nation’s public school districts spent an average of $8,701 per student on elementary and secondary education in fiscal year 2005, up 5 percent from $8,287 the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

States with the highest spending per student

Findings from Public Education Finances: 2005, show that New York spent $14,119 per student — the highest amount among states and state equivalents. Just behind was neighboring New Jersey at $13,800, the District of Columbia at $12,979, Vermont ($11,835) and Connecticut ($11,572). Seven of the top 10 with the highest per pupil expenditures were in the Northeast.

Utah spent the least per student ($5,257), followed by Arizona ($6,261), Idaho ($6,283), Mississippi ($6,575) and Oklahoma ($6,613). All 10 of the states with the lowest spending per student were in the West or South.

The report and associated data files contain information for all local public school systems in the country. For example, in New York City, the largest school district in the country, per pupil spending was $13,755.

In all, public school systems spent $497 billion, up from $472.3 billion the previous year. Of these expenditures, the largest portions went to instruction ($258.3 billion) and support services such as pupil transportation and school administration ($146.3 billion).

These school systems received $488.5 billion in 2005, up from $462.7 billion the previous year. Of the total, 47 percent came from state governments, 43.9 percent from local sources and 9.1 percent from the federal government.

Other highlights:


* The $214.6 billion schools received from local sources included $186.5 billion from taxes and local government appropriations.

* School construction spending totaled $41.8 billion nationwide, with California ($8.7 billion) and Texas ($4.7 billion) combined accounting for almost one-third of this amount.

* Alaska led all states or state equivalents in the proportion of its public school system revenue coming from the federal government (18.9 percent). Hawaii led all states in proportion from state sources at 87.4 percent; Vermont’s share was 87.2 percent.

The data come from the 2005 Annual Survey of Local Government Finances. The tabulations contain data on revenues, expenditures, debt and assets for all individual public elementary and secondary school systems.

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Comparing California with other states has some inherent difficulties.

Comparing California with other states has some inherent difficulties. The data are not always consistent from one state to another. Differences can occur in what numbers are collected, how they are collected, and variations in their interpretations and reporting. States are dramatically different in size, ethnic and socioeconomic characteristics, cost of living, and in how they set policy, fund public education, and govern their schools. Teachers’ salaries can reflect the changing characteristics of the workforce over time, particularly the addition of new teachers. In addition, averages and aggregates, while often illuminating, can mask variations that are informative and important to the accuracy of the picture they paint.

Still, in the absence of a robust data system capable of tracking inputs and outputs, comparison data offer valuable information to California’s citizens: California schools are attempting to educate the most diverse and challenging school population in the country and doing it with substantially fewer human resources than almost any other state. The state has the most students, a diverse group of students, more English learners than any other state, and substantial numbers of students from low-income backgrounds. It will also soon again face increasing enrollment. At the same time, the state has fewer school staff per pupil than all other states and spends less than the national average per pupil.

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New York Governor Makes Sweeping Budget Reduction Proposal to Improve Long Term Fiscal Stability

...Specific 2009-10 programmatic impacts as part of this $1.3 billion across-the-board local assistance reduction include the following: a $480 million State fiscal year cut to school districts ($686 million on a 2009-10 school-year basis); a $287 million cut to Medicaid; a $184 million cut to other health and mental hygiene programs; a $28 million cut to social service programs; a $67 million cut to Aid and Incentives to Municipalities; a $125 million cut to transportation programs; a $62 million cut to higher education programs; as well as other reductions.

The School Aid reduction would be structured progressively based on local fiscal capacity, student need, and residential tax effort. Prior to proposed mid-year actions, enacted 2009-10 school year School Aid was projected to total $21.9 billion, an increase of $415 million or 1.9 percent from 2008-09. After enactment of the DRP, overall 2009-10 school year School Aid would total $21.2 billion, a decrease of $271 million or 1.3 percent from 2008-09. When federal stimulus aid through the Title I and IDEA programs is included, however, support for school districts in the 2009-10 school year would total approximately $22 billion, a $546 million or 2.5 percent increase compared to the prior year.

In recent years, School Aid has increased dramatically. Even after implementation of the DRP, 2009-10 school year School Aid spending of $21.2 billion would still represent a $6.8 billion or 47 percent increase compared to 2003-04. Moreover, based on census data, New York spends more total per pupil than any other state and 63 percent above the national average.