[quote=EconProf]The chart you show put CA about in the middle compared to other states, but I could not tell what it was measuring/comparing. Maybe you can explain it to us, although I tend to distrust studies from the education establishment.
But yes, it showed CA to be far from the worst in the nation. I still maintain that we are not getting our money’s worth, and your comment about per pupil spending being low for CA is indeed colaborated by other studies. So how can CA teachers be highest paid (or nearly so), while per pupil spending is far from highest? Big classes are one answer (as you point out), but also wasteful layers of bureaucracy in school administrators, nonsensical rules, high building costs (unionized labor), and countless other inefficiencies unique to California.
Administrative bloat is a valid complaint of teachers. Administrators are wildly overpaid, and have their own unions to fight for their piece of the pie.[/quote]
Click on the state, and it shows what it’s measuring. A couple dozen different items.
I think a more likely conclusion on how CA can pay among the highest teacher salaries with among the lowest per capita total spending is that CA public education does not have bloated admin costs. A bigger percentage of education dollars are going to pay teachers, not all those other things. If all those other costs were high, then per capita spending would also be high. It’s not.
