State Priorities
California state legislators’ recent salary increase from $52,000 to $72,000 (38.5%) makes them the highest paid state legislators in the country. However, in the amount of money we spend on education, our ranking is closer to the bottom than the top. We rank 41st in the nation on a per-pupil expenditure of $4,621, which is considerably below the national average of $5,604. There are only nine states that spend less per pupil than we do.
I dare say our society would be much better served if the exact opposite were true: That we were first in the nation on educational expenditures, and that our legislators’ salaries were ranked 41st. It’s obvious that there is something terribly wrong with our priorities.
SONIA APPELL
Los Angeles
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