One of the many liberal talking points against Prop 13 is that it “gutted” public education. Supposedly Prop 13, which passed in 1978, is the main reason our CA schools are so underfunded today — ruining what progressives now claim was once the best K-12 public school system in the nation. But were the CA public schools really that great before they were “gutted”? Indeed, was school funding gutted at ALL?
Short answer to the second question: “Au contraire.”
Below is a chart showing the history of CA public school spending since 1968. It’s PER STUDENT, and it’s adjusted for inflation. As the chart demonstrates, since 1968 the resulting spending has essentially DOUBLED. And I say again, this growth in spending is adjusted for both the number of students and inflation.
I should add that this chart is outdated (pre Prop 30). In the last two years CA public education spending has soared. Yet the Democrats want to raise several taxes to further increase funding “for the children,” — not to mention “reform” Prop 13. Well, actually these tax increase are “needed” to get the approval of the teacher unions — naturally the union bosses want more educator pay. It’s their job.
The chart also demonstrates the negligible positive effect of all this spending on SAT scores (since 1972). Indeed, average SAT scores have dropped since 1972, but that can be largely attributed to a higher percentage of CA students taking the test. But then, let us also note that SAT scores have been inflated by re-calibration — over 80 points on “reading” alone in 1996.
http://www.greenes.com/html/convert.htm
BTW, I think most people will be stunned to find how little our nation’s public school enrollment has grown since 1970 — 8%. Not per year — 8% TOTAL. But more important, look in the graph below — how much the number of public school teachers has grown, and non-teaching staff. Gosh, I wonder where all the increase in education funding went?
http://www.heritage.org/~/media/Images/Reports/2012/10/bg2739/chart1750.ashx
