Finance

There are two major problems to the current structure of funding. One is that over the past 20 years CA has shifted from demand-driven to supply-side funding. This is the result of the shift to categorical funding. As a result, school budgets are not driven by need, but by funds available to them. Such a system creates serious inefficiencies. A second problem is that school funding has become even more unpredictable and unstable in spite of Prop. 98. 

Schools need more discretion over funding. They need a base that is adequate to provide quality education services and they need to augment funds with local sources. The concept of a district power equalizing mechanism might be an appropriate method of accomplishing that without penalizing less wealthy districts.  Any funding mechanism has to be based on concepts of adequacy, predictability, and stability.