More Schools Meeting Spending Decree Goals

Three years into the thick of a legal agreement aimed at evening up spending among schools, the Los Angeles Board of Education learned Monday that fewer than one in seven schools violates the decree, down from one in three last year.

At the same time, more than twice as much money was spent this year--$10.8 million--to compensate low-spending schools for their inability to hire more experienced, and expensive, staff.

The Rodriguez Consent Decree, named for an Eastside teacher activist, requires all schools to strive to spend about the same amount on teachers, administrators and other staff. But because the agreement does not override union protections, no teachers can be forced to transfer, even though that would speed up the equalizing process.

Because of lag time in calculating the decree formula, the higher level of compensation funding this year was based on the larger gap in the previous year. Because some schools have difficulty finding and hiring the more experienced, more expensive teachers, those schools can spend the money on other instructional enhancements, such as teaching training and supplies. Schools above the decree levels were not penalized.

“We would hope that over time it would take less money . . . as the experience levels even out,” said Assistant Supt. Gordon Wohlers, who presented the information as part of the annual review of the legal agreement.

Currently, the Rodriguez-governed annual expenditure levels are set at $1,497 per student for elementary school, $1,762 for middle school and $1,858 for high school. Schools that fall within $100 per student of that amount, either up or down, are considered in compliance.

Based on numbers provided to the school board Monday, 54 schools rise above that compliance level and 26 fall below. Reasons cited ranged from inability to attract more experienced staff to inaccurate portrayal by teachers of their salary level when hired.

Although the decree was championed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a cure for the discrepancies between haves and have-nots, the narrow group of expenditures it ultimately included meant that the distribution of low- and high-spending schools did not necessarily correspond to the neighborhood income levels.

For instance, the new report indicates that the dozen top-spending elementary schools include two on the Eastside, one in South Los Angeles and two near the downtown core--some of the city’s less affluent neighborhoods.

However, all of this year’s dozen lowest spenders are in poorer areas of town, ranging from the east San Fernando Valley to Southeast Los Angeles.