Budget Crisis in Public Funding for Elementary Schools in the state of California

Introduction

The lack of enough funding for elementary schools in California is bound to affect the education system given that education goals at the college level are largely influenced by early learning.  The problem of elementary school funding can be attributed to the budget crisis in the state that has previously seen budget cut for public school funds.  The lack of enough funding in these schools will compound the challenge previously experienced in terms of poor achievement by students and low quality teaching services (Cody & Roller,1).  California has a large student population and most come from low income households which indicate that there is relatively a high level of need than many other states. A previous move by the state administration to cut the funding for public school has affected the education of children from such families and even the latest effort of increasing the funds has not yet born fruits.

California elementary schools are faced with some unique challenges that involve educating more than 6.2 million children a number that represents about an eighth of all students in the nation.  In addition, the state has the biggest share of English learners most of whom come from the low income households (EdSource, 1).  Although the state uses the biggest share of its budget in funding education, its level of per-pupils spending is among the lowest in the entire country .This fact if also confounded by the fact that the state is far behind in regard to student performance and enough educational staff. Moreover, these schools depend on a funding that is low and unstable, which is threatened further by high retirement cost and termination of short-term tax increments (California Association of Teachers, 1). The unstable funding affecting the elementary schools goes back the 2007-08 economic recessions that hit hard the California state where the budget for the public school fell by 19 percent.  Due to the cuts that were introduced during this recession , the states per pupil spending fell to about $9,892 which was 39^th in the country and lower than U.S average by $ 2,000 (Tatum,1).   When adjusted for other varied living costs, the spending levels are lower than this. In addition to the lower per-pupil spending in comparison to the national average, a large portion of the state’s budget is utilized in funding K-12 (Tatum,1).  Given that there is a set percentage of state funds which the schools’ budget should receive as a guarantee , it means that the least levels of funding always rise when the revenues are high and falls when revenues falls in the state.

 The shortfall in funding of California State Teacher’s Retirement Benefit system is also an impending threat to the future of the elementary school budgets at the district level. The low spending per-student in California is indicated by the reduced number of teachers in these schools which means that pupils experience bigger class sizes, have to share limited resources with more pupils and the teachers will have less time with every student (Rogers’s et. al 252). The budget crisis also means that supporting stall in these schools such as administrators and counselors are also in low numbers (Oliff et. al 1). The relatively low number of school staff worsen the higher needs the state’s students. The need is also indicated by the fact there are many students who come low income households and hence, they qualify for reduced or free lunch. The students in these elementary schools have more educational needs and require more resources which seem to be lacking in California. The lack of sufficient resources is also indicated by the gap in educational achievement among pupils with different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds, since the state has wide population diversity for the students (Callmaters, 1).  For instance, White and Asian students are more likely to graduate from the elementary schools than Hispanic and Black students while those from low-income households rank quite below the average. 

The widening gaps in achievement for the pupils has resulted to the shifting of funding to those with most needs and less focus is placed towards improving the overall quality of education. It means that budget cuts at the state level results to schools being forced to reducing educational services provided, increase the local revenue with an aim of covering the aforementioned gap and hence affecting the level quality education.  Since the fall of property values during recession, it has been very challenging for the school districts to raise considerable additional revenue from taxes on local property without increasing the tax rates (Leachman, 1). This present budgetary and political challenge even when the economy is experiencing good times in terms of growth. Even though there has been increased budget allocation due to increased property taxes and economic gains, the elementary schools are experiencing times finding qualified teachers due to past higher turnover and low recruitment. The increment in the budgetary allocation will only remain as long as the economy remains healthy and any recession will force schools to once again cut costs and lay off the teachers. 

So far, the discussion has served to show that the budgetary crisis has affected the quality of education in California. The reduced funding has affected the preparation of pupils for high school and college education especially those from low income earners, the Hispanic and Black households (Coley& Bruce, 1). It has also affected the size of the class so that it has been hard to reduce the elementary school class size which is important in improving child-teacher contact and education service delivery (Terrien et. al 12). A significant impact of the budget crises is lack of previous recruitment of educational support staffs and school teachers which means that learning process is greatly affected. The future of the country relies on quality of schools. Instead of increasing budgetary allocation to elementary school which would go supporting reforms such as recruitment and retention of qualified teachers, reduction in class size and expansion of access to improved early education, the state has been doing the opposite. Lack of enough funding in elementary schools weakens their capacity for creativity and intelligence development of the future professionals and entrepreneurs (Albert Shanker Institute,1). It is common logic that funding plays the most crucial role in educational outcomes. As such, children from low income households who are enabled to attended schools with enough funding are more likely to perform well and progress through the necessary educational stages from elementary schools level to college level.  

 The trends in budget cutting are of great concern to the prospects of the country’s future. The health of nation’s economy and population’s life quality will rely heavily on intellectual capacity and developed creativity of these children (Darling-Hammond, 1).  If elementary schools are neglected through reduced resource allocation, the future is diminished as a consequence. The budget crisis also impedes significant initiatives on education reform at a crucial time when people with higher level of analytical and technical skills are needed to drive the growth of the economy.  However, the opposite is true as increases budgetary allocation will improve the quality of education and ensure that education is accessible to all children from a diverse population in California. The educational gap between the high income and low income households, and among the Asian, White, Black and Hispanic population will be reduced considerably. In addition, the state will be able to support professional development, improve on teacher quality and interventions for these children to increase school readiness and turn-around the elementary schools that have lowest achievements.  Improving the quality of teachers goes a long way in determining the success the of the children elementary schools (Gomez et.al 171). The budget crisis has made the achievement of these tasks quite difficult and especially teacher retention through supplementary wages and other motivations.

In conclusion, resolving the budgetary crisis is the way to go in resolving funding challenges to the elementary schools. The lack of enough funding for elementary schools in California is bound to affect the education system given that education goals at the high school level are largely influenced by the early learning. The problem of cutting school funding affects mostly the children from low income households and their educational achievements. Lack of enough resources also affects the recruitment of high quality teachers and support staff for these schools. Solving the budget crisis will enable introduction of reforms that can offer appropriate results.

Works cited