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Im having trouble reconciling these numbers with with total spending in California. Does it include local and federal funding?

The California department of education puts[1] per pupil k-12 spending at 23K, almost double that listed in the census.

>The total overall funding (federal, state, and local) for all K–12 education programs is $124.3 billion, with per-pupil spending of $21,596 in 2021–22. For 2020–21, per-pupil funding increased from $16,881 in the 2020–21 Budget Act to $23,089 in the 2021–22 Budget Act.

There is a minimum state funding of $13,976, which is pretty close to the census numbers. There could also be a difference due to comparing the 2023 CA budget to 2019 census data, but a near doubling in 4 years seems pretty extreme.

https://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fr/eb/yr21ltr0811.asp#:~:text=For%....



Very interesting, I didn't realize there was a recent sharp increase in spending.

I think you're right, the census is out of date. However, given spending likely has a lagging effect, the historically low budget - coupled with harsh covid lockdowns - does begin to explain why CA ranks low among public schools.


Perhaps it is a cost disease issue with high cost of living driving up expense of mostly labor expensed fields with little automation fields like education?


I think there are lots of possible reasons for different outcomes. I was mostly curious about which funding numbers are accurate.




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