Discussions have been ongoing among the various educational groups ever since SRI International released its set of 22 studies on school funding and governance reform.

“Getting Down to Facts” immediately ignited conversations among the education community and political leaders as the more than 1,800 pages of research and various recommendations began to be absorbed.

The Education Coalition has been holding weekly discussions to see where areas of common agreement exist. Certainly all groups agree that California schools could use more funding, as a number of studies clearly indicated the state lags behind other states in per- pupil funding. The studies also pointed to the extraordinary diversity of California’s student population and the need for extra assistance for English learners, special needs students and students who live in poverty, in order to help all reach the world-class standards the state has set for them. Thus far, the Education Coalition has managed to come up with a set of guiding principles to help shape the conversation as we head into 2008’s Year of Education. The principles are as follows:

Accountability

• Accountability must include all parts of the education system. This includes holding the state accountable for adequate funding. Each level of government must receive resources and decision-making authority commensurate with its responsibilities.
• The state accountability system must: 1) include components that make key data regarding school expenditures and activities available and understandable to parents and community members, and; 2) contain multiple accountability measures that are outcome-based and reflect student performance.
• The accountability system should ensure that students and schools not meeting outcomes receive effective targeted support and assistance.

Finance system

• Changes to the finance system must include substantially greater resources for all public schools. California’s schools are making steady progress. The major constraint on greater improvement is the lack of adequate funding. Any proposals to improve school performance must address the fundamental resources issues.
• To be equitable, funding must recognize the diverse needs of schools in very different situations and with very different student populations. For example, very small schools and schools with large proportions of students from families in poverty will require additional per-pupil funding. Any changes to the school finance system should ensure that no student loses resources.
• Funding must be provided to re­store the necessary classified services for students and schools, including appropriate curricular, operational and administrative support. Every student should have a safe, clean learning environment with any and all services that are needed to help them be ready to learn and to succeed in school.
• Funding must be provided to restore necessary school leadership and certificated support services.
• The school finance system should place greater reliance on local decision making and should be easier to understand to parents and the general community.

Governance

• The education system should emphasize and build local decision-making capacity and meaningfully engage parents, families and communities.
• Meaningful local control in governance must include the ability to raise local revenues.
• At the state level, the authority of the state superintendent of public instruction must be restored to make it equivalent to his or her responsibilities.
• The state should maintain and support the state accountability system. School districts and schools should have greater authority to use state funding to implement programs they believe will be effective in meeting the state accountability standards.

High quality staff

• The education system must provide high quality training, mentoring and ongoing professional development for all school staff.
• The school funding system must provide resources necessary to recruit and retain high quality staff and to improve the ratio of staff to students.

Data system

• The education system must support the use of data at the state and local level to improve instruction, program effectiveness and decision making.
• The state must invest in the establishment and maintenance of a quality data system.