[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Julia Rosen

Dan Walters is out with a column arguing that our schools have plenty of money already. He describes the education community and Democratic legislators as "howling" about Schwarzenegger's proposed bugdet, which slashes education spending and has already resulted in 20,000 education professionals getting pick slips.

Naturally, the Republicans are attempting to claim that we are already spending too much on school administration costs and education reforms. They point to California's poor scores on standardized tests as a reason to cut school funding even more. Somehow logic seems to be eluding them.

Walters bases his column on numbers released by the Census Bureau, based on what he calls "hard numbers", but when you dig into them, they actually undermine Walter's argument. (check the flip)

The Census Bureau report strongly refutes the oft-cited "fact" that California is near the bottom in per-pupil school spending. The national average was $9,138 in 2005-06. California was at $8,486, with New York the highest at $14,884 and Utah the lowest at $5,437 - one of 22 states, in fact, that fell below California's level.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Dan Walters is out with a column arguing that our schools have plenty of money already.  He describes the education community and Democratic legislators as "howling" about Schwarzenegger's proposed bugdet, which slashes education spending and has already resulted in 20,000 education professionals getting pick slips.

Naturally, the Republicans are attempting to claim that we are already spending too much on school administration costs and education reforms.  They point to California's poor scores on standardized tests as a reason to cut school funding even more.  Somehow logic seems to be eluding them.

Walters bases his column on numbers released by the Census Bureau, based on what he calls "hard numbers", but when you dig into them, they actually undermine Walter's argument.  (check the flip)