In California, under the new funding formula, all property taxes collected for public education is redistributed based on certain metrics.
For example..if there are more children on free meals, that school gets more funds from Sacramento. If there are more students whose parents are non English speaking immigrants, the school gets a bigger share of the funds for extra teachers etc.
For example: Fremont in the Bay Area who has a higher income and educated demographic spends around $9000/student while Oakland which has a lower income demographic spends 14k/student.
So good Area = higher property taxes = good public schools is no longer valid. Good schools are in regions where affluent parents are able to send their kids to private tutoring classes. The schools have crumbling infrastructure because 85% of their school budgets go to wages and salaries.
It’s not really simple as it seems. CA is more complicated and we are one of the highest taxes in the state anyways.
Most of CA’s woes would be alleviated if we had a good public transport system. Not like the high speed rail system but even public
Infra and inter city fast public transport improvements.
We are not connected enough. The taxes are not being efficiently used for the benefit of the entire state. High Tax payers often get the least benefit. I think there is some societal responsibility for the wealthy to bear the needs of the weaker sections , but it’s veered a little too far to the left especially since it’s about virtue signaling now rather than accountability. I think the public would trust the govt if there were more transparency and accountability. My 2c.
For example..if there are more children on free meals, that school gets more funds from Sacramento. If there are more students whose parents are non English speaking immigrants, the school gets a bigger share of the funds for extra teachers etc.
For example: Fremont in the Bay Area who has a higher income and educated demographic spends around $9000/student while Oakland which has a lower income demographic spends 14k/student.
So good Area = higher property taxes = good public schools is no longer valid. Good schools are in regions where affluent parents are able to send their kids to private tutoring classes. The schools have crumbling infrastructure because 85% of their school budgets go to wages and salaries.
It’s not really simple as it seems. CA is more complicated and we are one of the highest taxes in the state anyways.
Most of CA’s woes would be alleviated if we had a good public transport system. Not like the high speed rail system but even public Infra and inter city fast public transport improvements.
We are not connected enough. The taxes are not being efficiently used for the benefit of the entire state. High Tax payers often get the least benefit. I think there is some societal responsibility for the wealthy to bear the needs of the weaker sections , but it’s veered a little too far to the left especially since it’s about virtue signaling now rather than accountability. I think the public would trust the govt if there were more transparency and accountability. My 2c.