Disparities Found in Per-Pupil Spending

By TINA BORGATTA

May 15, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A county education report shows wide disparities in how much money public schools in Orange County are spending on their students.

The school district with the highest per-pupil expenses, Laguna Beach Unified, spent $7,411 per student in the 2000-01 school year, while the lowest-spending district, Orange Unified, spent $5,632 per pupil, a difference of more than $1,700, according to the report from the Orange County Department of Education.

There are several reasons for the differences, education officials said. They have to do with the two ways that districts can be funded, along with the state’s complex formula for giving school districts money for each student. Private donations also play a role, as do funds that districts might receive for children with special needs.

Laguna Beach, for example, is one of the county’s basic aid districts, meaning it gets most of its funding from property taxes, rather than being funded by the state for each student that attends. With growing property values in a high-priced area, the district is well-funded. In books alone, Laguna Beach Unified spent about $400 per student, almost twice the amount spent in Irvine.

“If we had $300 more per student, that’s more than $5.4 million that we would have,” said Brock Wagner, Tustin Unified School District’s assistant superintendent of business. The district spent less than $6,000 per student, lower than the average for unified school districts, which cover grades kindergarten through 12. “I could do a lot if I had $5.4 million more.”

The district could hire specialists, beef up programs or make campus improvements, he said.

Santa Ana Unified School District spent $6,477 per student last year--the second-highest per-pupil spending among the county’s 12 unified school districts. That’s partly because it also got roughly $23.8 million from the state for special education--far more than any other unified school district in the county. With more than 5,000 special education students, Santa Ana Unified has one of the largest programs in the county.

“They have a greater need for special education funding than other districts,” said Wendy Margarita, assistant superintendent of business services for the county Department of Education.

The per-student spending figures do not include construction bonds that many Orange County districts have passed.

Some school officials say the disparity has more to do with the formula the state uses to allocate money than anything else.

Until the late 1970s, school districts relied on local taxes for funding. Proposition 13 in 1978 changed that system, distributing the money for most districts centrally from the state, based on how many students attended. But the per-student formula was based to some extent on property values at the time. Over the years, relative property values have shifted considerably.

Irvine Unified, for example, receives about $100 less per student from the state than the state average, while Los Alamitos Unified’s is $202 higher.

“That’s because Irvine was pretty much lima beans when these base revenue limits were set,” Margarita said. “Their property taxes would have been much less than an area such as Los Alamitos, which was much more urban.”

As a result, Irvine has relied on private donations to keep science and other programs going.

The county’s per-student spending figure for Orange Unified doesn’t include $3.6 million that the district paid in benefits to its retired teachers who are over 65. No other district in the county offers that benefit and carries that expense, said Linda Gibbs, the district’s assistant superintendent of business and finance.

“Had we included that, our per-student expenses would have gone up to $5,755,” Gibbs said.

But the district would still be the lowest among the county’s unified districts, and second lowest in the county.

Most districts in the county fall below the state average--but still are better off than they would have been in the pre-Proposition 13 days, when funding was based on property values alone.

The exception is a smattering of districts throughout the state such as Laguna Beach, where property taxes are high enough that the state determines that the district is better off using that as the source of funding.

“Our property taxes run pretty high,” said Norma Shelton, Laguna Beach Unified’s assistant superintendent of business services. “We feel fortunate that we were able to have those expenditures. It shows that we’re ... able to provide the best education possible for the students.”

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District Spending Laguna Beach schools spent more on its students last year than any other unified school district in the county--almost $2,000 more per student than schools in Orange Unified, which spent the least, according to an annual study conducted by the Orange County Department of Education.

Annual Per Pupil Spending, 2000-01

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Westminster $6,473

Savanna 6,368

Buena Park 6,364

Magnolia 6,201

Fountain Valley 6,199

Ocean View 6,110

La Habra City 6,070

Cypress 6,005

Anaheim City 5,996

Huntington Beach City 5,977