California’s public school children continue to struggle academically, reports show, even as the state has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on K–12 education in recent years, and the governor’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year maintains such numbers.
State funding reached a record-high $110.6 billion for the 2021–22 fiscal year and $110.4 billion for the current fiscal year. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recently revised May budget (pdf) proposal promises $106.8 billion to the state’s schools.
The numbers translate to state spending, on average, of $20,000 per pupil in 2021–22, and likely $17,000, on average, in the upcoming fiscal year, according to an April analysis (pdf) by the state’s Legislative Analyst Office….