The intent of this article is good—spend money on classrooms not bureaucrats. LAUSD has lost 250,000 students. At the same time the number of staff and administrators went from 67,000 to 81,000. Wonder how many staff they would have if the district had no students?
“California’s education system is broken and needs deep, system-wide reform. Despite the state spending more than $18,000 on each student, public school performance continues to worsen. In the 2023–2024 school year, the rate of chronically absent students reached 20.4%, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year; for comparison, before the pandemic school closures, some 14% were chronically absent in 2020–2021, which was up from only 10% before the pandemic lockdowns. Some rankings place California’s performance in K-12 education among the states as low as 37, which is shameful given how much taxpayers spend. Indeed, what California needs is not higher taxes; rather, we just need higher standards for those who spend our tax dollars.
It is the curr5iculum and the quality of the teachers that count—teach racism and sexual grooming, you get failure. Teach math, science, English and history, you get success. California schools prefer failure, no matter how much you spend.
Cash to California’s Classrooms, Not Bureaucrats
Fixing ADA funding would be a landmark move
By Mike Garcia, California Globe, 4/16/25 https://californiaglobe.com/fr/cash-to-californias-classrooms-not-bureaucrats/
California’s education system is broken and needs deep, system-wide reform. Despite the state spending more than $18,000 on each student, public school performance continues to worsen. In the 2023–2024 school year, the rate of chronically absent students reached 20.4%, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year; for comparison, before the pandemic school closures, some 14% were chronically absent in 2020–2021, which was up from only 10% before the pandemic lockdowns. Some rankings place California’s performance in K-12 education among the states as low as 37, which is shameful given how much taxpayers spend. Indeed, what California needs is not higher taxes; rather, we just need higher standards for those who spend our tax dollars.
These problems aren’t political rhetoric or matters of opinion — they’re measurable, as are the long-term effects on our kids, their teachers, and our state economy. The good news? There are things we can do to right California’s educational ship, and they start with addressing a core component of how schools are funded.
Currently, California schools operate according to the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) formula, which punishes schools and, consequently, teachers and students for absenteeism rates. It’s an outdated and regressive policy that hurts our poorest populations the most. California is one of only seven states that continue to use this system.
When I was in Congress, I worked to pass the Cash to Classrooms Act, which would have released ADA’s death grip on so many of the Nation’s classrooms. By passing similar state-level legislation, California legislators would help ensure our schools could provide a quality education for America’s next generation. And the Golden State, long a policy-innovation leader, could likely influence other states to make similar improvements.
Why is ADA a problem? Consider this: California has an ADA-to-enrollment ratio of 91.4%, which means nearly 10% of the average California school’s budget is withheld because of a metric teachers and students can’t control. Districts could access those missing funds — for raising teacher pay, providing more classroom resources, or other improvements to our schools — without adding a single dollar to the state’s budget. But only if they do away with the ADA formula.
ADA’s grip on school funding means little decisions can have big effects. For example, many children walk to school every day. Naturally, if the child must walk alone for any number of reasons, parents may not consider it safe, and these students may not always make it to school. Is it fair for teachers and other students to have fewer resources because of this unavoidable reality? Another example is that some school districts still require students to stay at home if they test positive for COVID-19. Is it fair to teachers and other students that they must shoulder the cost of this mandatory absence? These measures are particularly egregious in California, where teacher unions and misguided COVID policies kept students out of school long after we knew children were not especially affected by the virus — with commensurate cuts in school funding.
ADA is also particularly harmful to schools and students in poor neighborhoods, where funding is often already challenging, and absentee rates may already be high. Fixing the funding formula could help these schools recruit and retain better teachers, fund additional education resources, and deliver better results for the students they serve.
In California, as elsewhere, teacher pay is a very real issue driving recruitment and retention challenges. Fixing ADA is one tool in the policy toolbelt for addressing these challenges; another tool is cutting the administrators and bureaucracies needlessly absorbing funds that should go straight to teachers and their students.
Fixing ADA funding would be a landmark move toward repairing a host of California education problems. California lawmakers should join the fight to support teachers and guarantee America’s youth get the education they deserve. If California leads, we can provide an example for my former colleagues in Congress — on both sides of the aisle — and join the common-sense policies of 43 other states.
