Shortchanging Poor Schools: California's Hidden Teacher Spending Gap




Listen to the Press Conference held September 14, 2005 (MP3 File)

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The Hidden Gap:


Hidden Gap - California

Dear Friends,

The hidden teacher-spending gap data that you're about to see provoke all sorts of responses, some emotional and uncomfortable. For many, these data are hard to hear. We know that many of our partners and friends, Superintendents, school board members, state and local policymakers, teacher leaders, and educators among them, have worked hard to change the patterns of teacher distribution in their districts, only to have their proposals rejected at the bargaining table or by other constraints.

But we've got to remove the constraints and change these patterns. These reports are not about blaming any one entity or group of individuals for slow progress. Rather, by elevating this issue to public attention, we're trying to do what good advocacy organizations do for good leaders: strengthen their hands by giving them additional information and ammunition to use as they work to change long-standing patterns and practices that run counter to the public interest.

Hopefully, this series will spark some real movement on making sure our best teachers are teaching the kids most dependent on them for learning. If we're serious about closing achievement gaps, we can't continue to turn a blind eye to the glaring inequity in the distribution of teacher talent.

Sincerely,
The Education Trust-West Team

What You’ll Find in These Reports

It's no secret that California fails to provide equal access to instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities, and qualified teachers in public schools. Schools that serve mostly low-income students and students of color receive less of everything than schools that serve their more advantaged peers. But there is an even more insidious inequity that has remained largely invisible, and that is the gap in school spending on teachers. Our Hidden Gap Series seeks to expose those gaps in districts throughout California.

The Education Trust-West reported these district-wide hidden teacher-spending gaps in February 2005 in our report, California's Hidden Teacher-Spending Gap: How State and District Budgeting Practices Shortchange Poor and Minority Students and Their Schools.

Now, in this new series of Hidden Gap reports, we delve deeper and answer the question, "What's going on at my children's school?" This series of reports looks at the impact of the hidden teacher-spending gaps in every school in the state. The series is comprised of 12 district-specific reports that reveal school-level gaps in California's largest school districts, along with a web-based tool that allows access to hidden gap information about every public school in California.

NEW! - A Tale of Two Schools - School Level Hidden Gap Reports by District

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NEW! - Find the Truth: Uncover Your School’s Gap

Click here to find the hidden gap at your school.
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February 2005 Statewide Hidden Gap Report

California's Hidden Teacher-Spending Gap: How State and District Budgeting Practices Shortchange Poor and Minority Students and Their Schools (pdf)