(February 1, 2011) School spending in California steadily increased between the 2003-04 and 2008-09 budget years, while direct classroom expenditures declined, according to an expanded study by Pepperdine University’s Davenport Institute.

The findings come from an analysis of five-year spending patterns in more than 950 public K-12 school districts statewide. The conclusions echo those of the study the Davenport Institute released in June 2010, based on an analysis of 52 public school districts in California.

Joel Fox, president of the Small Business Action Committee,  which helped fund the study.

“Given the results of the recent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll showing the public’s lack of knowledge about education funding, it is important that this study by the Pepperdine University professors gets wide circulation so that we may have an informed debate on budget and tax issues concerning education funding,” said Joel Fox, president of the Small Business Action Committee, which helped fund the study.

The scholars from the Davenport Institute examined how money was spent and especially how that money was allocated. During the five-year period, total school spending per capita (not including capital spending) increased by 24.9 percent, which was far greater than the growth in per capita personal income or inflation.

During the same period, direct classroom expenditures statewide went from 59 percent of total expenditures to 57.8 percent. These statewide totals reflect a very wide variance among individual school districts, whose classroom expenditure ratios ranged from more than 70 percent to less than 45 percent.

Direct classroom expenditures include the following:

• Salaries and benefits of teachers and instructional aides;
• Textbooks and other books;
• Materials and supplies related to instructional functions;
• Professional and consulting services related to instructional functions.

Califonia Foundation for Commerce and Education President Loren Kaye with Steve Frates, professor of Pepperdine University’s Davenport Institute and presented the study.

Over the study period, statewide expenditures for teacher salaries and benefits declined from 50 percent of total statewide spending to 48 percent. In other words, less than half of K-12 operating expenditures in the state were for teacher salaries and benefits.

“It is intriguing to contemplate the lost opportunities this study brings to light. If California had the extra $1.7 billion that went outside the classroom, we might have been able to hire more than 21,000 teachers statewide,” said Loren Kaye, president of the California Foundation for Commerce and Education (CFCE). “This would have increased the number of teachers statewide by more than 7 percent.”

To view the study, click here.