Some background to understand K-12 education spending in CA:
Our per pupil spending ranks us in about the middle as compared to other states.
Yet our average teacher pay is highest or second highest in the nation.
Why is this? Simple, our average class sizes are huge. About 20 years ago, our strong teachers unions had a choice between higher pay accompanied by bigger class sizes, and smaller classes accompanied by more normal teacher paychecks.
They chose the money, to the detriment of the kids.
