California entered 2010-11 with a longstanding imbalance between ongoing spending and income. To help close that gap, state policymakers suspended Proposition 98, the minimum funding guarantee for K-12 schools and community colleges. In total, revenues for K-12 schools are down nearly 10% this year compared with 2007-08. Yet more cuts loom as the…

When the concept of charter schools was first implemented in California in 1993, the goal was to allow the modification of existing public schools or the creation of wholly new ones that would be less rule-bound than traditional public schools but more accountable for student achievement. For some charter advocates, simply providing such…

This report provides a roundup of the rather modest set of actions the state Legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger took on education in 2005. It also sets the stage for what those who care about education might expect in the coming year. To provide some structure for addressing a wide breadth of topics, the report is organized into four…

This analysis of charter school performance addresses two critical questions: (1) how does the academic performance of California charter schools differ from that of noncharters; and (2) how does the academic performance of different kinds of charter schools vary? This study examined achievement data for charter and traditional public schools with…

EdSource's annual public education budget report, "School Finance 2006-07: State Leaders Settle Up with Education," offers a comprehensive look at this year's funding decisions for schools, recent budget history, and how the state's schools are funded. In contrast with last year's budget battles, the process for 2006-07 notably lacked…