School Resources and Student Achievement in California

Since the early 1970s, ballot initiatives and court rulings have sought to equalize funding across California schools. Yet 30 years later, variations in funding remain both across and within school districts. Moreover, although “funding per pupil” provides a readily available and understandable measure of school resources within a district, it provides little insight into how individual schools spend their revenues. For example, one school might choose to have smaller class sizes, financing this choice by hiring less-experienced teachers. Another might have higher administrative costs and might choose to economize by hiring fewer teachers, thereby increasing class size.