Aligning School Finance With Academic Standards

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Aligning School Finance With Academic Standards

• Heather Rose (UC Davis and PPIC)
• Jon Sonstelie (UC Santa Barbara and PPIC)
• Margaret Weston (PPIC)

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A Simple Description of Californias School
Finance System

• Prop 98 determines total revenue
• Total revenue allocated to districts in
  proportion to enrollment

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An Alternative System
Need
Revenue
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An Operational Definition of Need
Resources necessary for a school to achieve an
Academic Performance Index of 800
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The Approach

• Budget simulations
• 568 participants
• 189 teachers
• 190 principals
• 189 superintendents

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Need Depends on Poverty Level
30 poor
70 poor
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Need Depends on Regional Costs
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State Total Applying Model Predictions to All
Districts

• 950 districts with complete data
• Spent 43 billion in 2003-04
• Need 60 billion to achieve 800 API
• 40 percent increase

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Conclusions

• Resources inadequate in total
• Distribution of resources among schools and
  districts is also an issue

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PPIC Tools for School Finance Reform

• School finance simulation model
• Data source
• Interactive tool to simulate new formulas
• School finance manual
• Describes every state revenue program
• Shows distribution of funds based on poverty, EL,
  district size and density