COUNTYWIDE : Unequal School Spending Decried

Prompted by a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Anaheim) that attempts to make per-pupil funding more equal among school districts, the state Assembly Education Committee held a hearing Monday in Santa Ana to discuss the problem.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) said he asked fellow Education Committee members to conduct the hearing at McFadden Intermediate School to demonstrate that even schools in a county known for its affluence are suffering from unfair spending formulas. Most school districts in Orange County are considered “low-wealth” districts because per-pupil funding falls below the state average, Umberg said.

Per-pupil funding has pitted low-wealth schools against their more affluent counterparts since the school-funding formula was changed after voters approved Proposition 13. Past attempts to change the formulas have met fierce opposition from wealthier districts that would have lost funding.

Allen said equalizing allocations to all school districts would cost the state upward of $1 billion if done all at once. However, the gap can be narrowed through smaller increases over a period of years, she said.

Allen noted that the current system can result in drastically different per-pupil allocations, even among neighboring school districts. For example, the Cypress School District receives about $185 more per pupil than the statewide average, but the neighboring Garden Grove Unified School District receives about $33 less than the average.

Overall, Orange County schools receive less money per pupil than schools statewide, Allen said Monday.

But the notion of equalizing funding among school districts may be fraught with pitfalls, educators and committee members said.

Equalizing the districts without increasing spending would be “equalizing mediocrity,” said Michael Dillon, executive director of the Assn. of Low-Wealth Districts, an organization of about 240 California public school districts on the short end of state funding formulas.

And even if the state increased spending to raise equal funding to a higher level, there is no guarantee the money will find its way equally to students, said committee chairwoman Delaine Eastin (D-Union City). Some districts spend only half as much per pupil at one school as they do at another, Eastin said.

“That’s a dirty little secret that not enough people are talking about,” she said.

Eastin also noted that districts with special needs don’t always get a fair share of funds set aside for special programs, she said.

“We set the rules at one point in time and took a snapshot of it, but we’ve never changed the rules and never changed the players,” Eastin said.

The Education Committee was set to discuss “intra-district” funding inequalities, but representatives from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Los Angeles Unified School District canceled their appearances before the committee. MALDEF has sued the district over alleged funding inequalities at schools with large minority populations.