Mark Twain once commented that it's not what we don't know that
gets us in trouble; it's what we know that just ain't so. Many
Californians "know" that the state ranks 49th out of 50 in education
spending, "just ahead of Mississippi." In fact, some even cut
the education establishment considerable slack in performance,
partly out of guilt because taxpayers have treated it shabbily.
But that statistic is a factoid. It "just ain't so."
The misperception that 1978's tax-cutting Proposition 13 resulted
in "cutbacks" in California per student spending is pervasive.
In fact, California K-12 per student spending rates since 1978
are up roughly 50% in constant, inflation-adjusted dollars. The
latest National Center for Education Statistics rankings have
us 30th of the 50 states, and the latest National Education Association
rankings peg us at an even-better 29th. Those of us who care about
education would like to see us much higher still in the rankings,
but the notion that we lag far behind the other states is bogus.
  |
