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April 3, 2008Educators Call for Major Overhaul of California's School Finance System |
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From Ascribe Newsfeed: A new report calling for a major overhaul of the state's K-12 school finance system was released today by the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity (Warren Institute) at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law). The new report, "Getting Beyond the Facts: Reforming California School Finance," offers concrete suggestions for improving public education in California through a simplified, equitable, and transparent finance system. "Getting Beyond the Facts" co-author Goodwin Liu, assistant law professor at Berkeley Law, says the finance system is "flawed" and fails to help students-and schools-reach performance goals set by the state. Low-income students in high-poverty areas don't get adequate resources, says Liu, and nearly all students "suffer from a system that fails to support academic achievement." School districts receive revenues through complex formulas that, as a whole, don't take into account student needs or the regional differences in the cost of providing education. Fourth, reforms should apply to new money going forward, without reducing any district's current funding level. "Our plan drastically revises how the state distributes money to local school districts," says co-author Michael Kirst. "There will be new money in the system," says Liu, "so we have to reform the system now if we want that money to make a difference in the future." AScribe Newswire distributes news from nonprofit and public sector organizations.
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