State Cuts Create O.C. School Inequalities

Every year, the Corona del Mar Parent-Teacher Assn. sponsors a public tour of glamour homes of Newport Beach, typically raising more than $50,000 for the high school’s students and teachers. Across Newport Bay, meanwhile, an annual 5K run--the Costa Mesa High School PTA’s primary fund-raiser, raises a fraction of that: $6,000.

The elementary schools in Corona del Mar all supplement the regular staff with additional teachers paid through parents’ fund-raisers for such subjects as art, science and music, which are no longer fully staffed by the district because of budget cuts.

Parents at Adams Elementary School in Costa Mesa also pay for an art teacher; she comes just six times a year and it costs the PTA $3,000, the maximum it can spare from its $15,000 annual budget. The rest of the proceeds from such fund-raisers as gift wrapping and candy sales pays for a few field trips and assemblies.

Although both the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa schools are governed by the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, they are hardly equal.

The dichotomy in this district illustrates what educators say is a caste system of sorts that has resulted statewide from shortfalls in state funding of public schools: Those in affluent neighborhoods do far better raising funds to offset budget cuts than those in lower income areas.

The funding discrepancy concerns officials because studies have shown a direct relationship between the amount of money spent on students and their future success. In the Newport-Mesa district, not only does Corona del Mar raise more money to compensate for programs lost to budget cuts, its students rank higher on standardized tests at all grade levels.

Parents who can pay for a nicer environment, technology, and art and music teachers are buying their children a better shot at graduating from high school, getting a college degree and having a successful career, said Rebecca Sargeant, president of the California School Boards Assn.

“Some people might think of these as extras, but there is a direct link between providing things like athletics and drama and band and the success of the children,” Sargeant said. “And what about technology? Our kids are not going to compete in the year 2000 and beyond if they don’t have access to technology. These things are not frills.”

There is little evidence to suggest that the situation will change. In an attempt to make up for state funding shortfalls, many school districts set up foundations to collect money and disburse it in even amounts to its schools. But such efforts have not been as successful at raising money as the individual schools in a district, because parents prefer to donate only to the schools their children attend.

Established in 1980, the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation gave out a total of $21,000 last year, a fraction of what some of the individual schools raise.

“We find that parents are much more interested in donating to their local school rather than the abstract concept called a school district,” said Newport-Mesa Supt. Mac Bernd. “They want to see the impact on their own children.”

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Parents in Costa Mesa--and school district officials--do not begrudge the right of parents in wealthy areas to do what they can for their schools. There is a need there as well, given the state of public funding for public education in California.

Some parents, like Kimberly Rothwell of Corona del Mar, became involved with fund-raising because they have watched the schools in their areas deteriorate.

“It just kills me to see the school I went to worse off than it was and not offering programs that it used to,” said Rothwell, a Corona del Mar High graduate whose two sons now attend the school. As a high school student in the 1970s, Rothwell anchored a broadcast news show produced at the school, but today the media center is closed. And television sets are no longer found in every classroom as they are too expensive to replace when they wear out.

Parents and school officials say fund-raising first became important after the 1978 passage of Proposition 13, which limited property tax levies--the main source of school funding. The measure forced schools to seek aid from the state to make up for losses in property tax revenue, giving Sacramento more control over funding for public schools.

Public schools now get about 85% of their funding from the state. But for the last several years, the amount of money Sacramento has committed to education has not increased, forcing schools to cut their budgets to cope with escalating costs. Most schools in California have made 2% to 3% cuts in their budgets every year for the last five years.

In Orange County, parent funding gained further momentum after the county declared bankruptcy late in 1994. Many school districts had placed money in a county-run investment pool that lost $1.64 billion of its value because of risky investment practices.

Schools across the county have met varying success in making up lost state funds.

Although contrasts might be expected between affluent and impoverished areas of the county, even within predominantly middle-class districts such as Newport-Mesa Unified the division is evident and telling.

Newport Bay divides the two very distinct communities served by the school district. One is home to Orange County’s rich and powerful, the other is mostly middle class with pockets of intense poverty.

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Nowhere are the extremes of these two communities so apparent as in their neighborhood schools, where some children get daily science lessons and others don’t, some work on computers with elaborate CD-ROM drives and video hookups while others use machines from the 1970s, and some take field trips while others can’t afford them.

Whittier Elementary School draws its mostly low-income students from apartment buildings not far from the industrial zone on Costa Mesa’s west side.

Parents at the school raise “a couple of thousand dollars a year,” according to Principal Juan de Jesus. Last year the money was used to buy playground equipment and library books and to pay for student assemblies featuring such visitors as South Coast Repertory.

It is a much different story at Anderson Elementary School in Newport Beach, where million-dollar homes in the Harbor View section ring a sprawling, well-manicured campus.

Anderson’s PTA raises more than $100,000 each year to enhance education.

“What parents expect for their children is to give them a level of education they were used to a long time ago,” said Alan Troop, president of Anderson’s PTA. “We had science, language, music and art, and none of that exists anymore unless we pay for it.”

Administrators lament the funding discrepancies, which they say have resulted in dramatic differences in student performance.

“When money can reduce class sizes, when it can give [students] access to computers and technology and when it can ensure that teaching can go on in attractive and well-maintained facilities, the case is so strong it really jumps at you,” said Bernd.

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Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, by far the wealthiest school in Newport-Mesa, has outperformed the three other high schools in Newport-Mesa on Scholastic Assessment Test scores and on Advanced Placement Scores, according to a 1994 curriculum audit of the district.

The district maintains an open-enrollment policy, meaning that students are assigned to the schools in their neighborhoods but may enroll anywhere they choose so long as there is space for them. While fund-raising inequities might be redressed if some of the wealthier children were more spread out among the schools, district officials say there is no political support for changing the policy.

Nevertheless, parents in Costa Mesa are keenly aware of what their children are missing because they lack the fund-raising power of their counterparts across the bay.

Adams is in the wealthiest part of Costa Mesa, but has traditionally bused in Latino students from the less affluent west side of town also lying within its boundaries. Last year, district officials redrew the Adams boundaries at the request of some parents, a move that sent 90 of the bused children to a different school.

The action drew heavy criticism from some parents who said the change was racially motivated. Rejecting these charges, PTA President Donna Bennett said the issue was not race but parental involvement.

“I do see things that are not offered here that are offered somewhere else . . . supplemental programs that the parents support where they pay to hire specialists like computer teachers,” said Bennett. “We could do it with sufficient parent support.”

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the redistricting.

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Meanwhile, school funding disparities show signs of growing more stark.

At Corona del Mar High, parents kicked off a fund-raising campaign last week to build a 500-seat performing arts theater as well as a new technology center. The goal--to raise at least $1 million before the next school year begins--is already in sight; by April 2 organizers had received $450,000 in pledges.

At Costa Mesa High School, the goals are far more modest.

Paulette Witt, president of Costa Mesa High School’s Parent-Teacher-Student Assn. said they would like to beautify their campus or build a gymnasium. The school also needs a new swimming pool.

Students sometimes have to use another school’s facility, an inconvenience that parents believe has kept many from participating in sports and other extracurricular activities.

But these fund-raising goals are just pipe dreams at the moment. The parents’ fund-raising ability pales in comparison to their neighbors’ in Newport Beach.

“You don’t have people who own companies here,” said Witt. “You have people who work for companies.”

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Dollar Disparity

Here’s a look at a selection of county high schools and what outside organizations raise for them. Many schools in the wealthier parts of the county bring in more money through parent-organized fund-raisers than schools in low- and moderate-income areas:

Corona del Mar High School, Newport Beach

* Parent-Teacher Assn.: Largest event, in fall, raises about $50,000 for student activities

* Super Boosters Club: Raises $25,000-$35,000 that buys supplies for teachers, administrators

* Touchdown Club: Football boosters are single largest source of school money; typically raise more than $150,000 per year; recently bought $350,000 weight room for football team

San Clemente High School, San Clemente

* Triton Booster Club: Earns about $231,000 yearly for various campus booster clubs

* PTA: Raises about $2,000 from sweatshirt sales, with money used for an enhancement project such as painting school logo on gym exterior

Canyon High School, Anaheim

* Canyon Bingo: Raises money for campus booster clubs, which sponsor student activities; makes at least $200,000 per year; proceeds also funded a computer lab and wired the school with fiber optic cable

* PTA: Fall membership drive and several fund-raisers throughout year net $25,000-$30,000 per year

Buena Park High School, Buena Park

* PTA: Most of $3,000 budget comes from selling school event ticket packages to students; money used to fund scholarships

* Coyote Master Boosters: Earns money through weekly bingo game, which brings in several thousand dollars per month; money used to make school improvements and pay for scholarships

La Habra High School, La Habra

* Grad Night Committee: Sells candy, holds car washes to raise $20,000 for senior graduation activities

* PTA: Sponsors several fund-raisers including dances and barbecue to raise $10,000 for scholarships

Aliso Niguel High School, Aliso Viejo

* Parent-Teacher-Student Assn.: Raises $15,000-$20,000 for books and technology

* Aliso Niguel Foundation: New this year; plans to start bingo game to help pay for large-scale improvements at the school

Century High School, Santa Ana

* Booster Clubs: Approximately four that raise less than $10,000 per year; largest one sponsors the Model U.N. Club, which travels to Model U.N. conferences across California and U.S.

* Bilingual Parent Organization and Parent-Faculty Organization: Focuses on getting parents to volunteer; neither raises funds

Fullerton High School, Fullerton

* Fullerton Indian Booster Club: Holds annual gold tournament, which raises about $5,000 that is distributed to various campus booster clubs

* PTSA: Sells scrip, which yields less than $2,000 per year

Source: Individual schools; Researched by HOPE HAMASHIGE / For The Times