School Beat: School Governance and Funding Across the State and in Our DistrictLisa Schiffbyline‚ Mar. 22‚ 2007It’s been a packed two weeks for public schools. At the state level, a long-awaited, Stanford-based analysis of the condition and impact of California public school financing was released. At the City level, new and somewhat disconcerting movement is afoot regarding City supplied funding for schools (the ambiguously defined “third third of Proposition H). Starting at the 10,000 foot level is the news from Stanford’s Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice, which released a robust set of 23 rigorous studies regarding California’s public education finance and governance situation (http://irepp.stanford.edu/projects/cafinance.htm). These papers are collectively entitled “Getting Down to Facts: A Research Project Examining California’s School Governance and Finance Systems,” and represent hefty pieces of analysis that deserve careful reading on all of our parts. |