Smaller California school districts — especially ones in isolated, rural areas — cost taxpayers way more money per student. But as school enrollment declines across the state, closing these small districts could risk upending entire communities, writes CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones.
California has over 1,000 school districts and spends an average of $23,000 per K-12 student. For Orick School in Orick, however, each of its nine students cost about $118,000 a year to educate.
Nestled in northern Humboldt County, Orick School, like other small districts, gets most of its money through grants. Last year it received $774,000 from state and federal government resources, and its budget goes mostly toward salaries, maintaining facilities and transporting students. Its students range from kindergarten to eighth grade and about half are Native American.
To address the issue of under-enrollment and save money, some smaller districts have shuttered, such as Green Point Elementary District in the Klamath Mountains. Last year, it merged with another district when its enrollment dropped to three students.
- Carrie Hahnel, senior associate partner at Bellwether, an education research nonprofit: “Do we need to provide a school in every community? … What if that community barely exists? We guarantee a free public education to every child, but do we guarantee a school in every community?”
But in many ways, Orick School is the community — or at least its central hub. For a town with a population of 300 and an average household income under $39,000 a year, the school is one of the few sources of decent-paying jobs. It also operates a food pantry, gives clothes to families in need and has a washer and dryer so residents can do their laundry.
Consolidating Orick School District with a neighboring district 15 miles south would save on facility costs and eliminate one superintendent’s salary. But that would total to less than $200,000 a year in savings, and the new merged school would also have higher expenses, including transporting students 30 miles round-trip every day.
- Justin Wallace, Orick Elementary School District’s superintendent: “Close the school? It comes up all the time. But I’d say it’s an equity issue. We have families who can’t afford a lot, and this school provides the most consistent setting for our kids. They’re safe, they’re well fed, they’re learning.”
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Other Stories You Should Know
CA’s contribution rate to CHP retirement falls
From CalMatters’ Adam Ashton:
A surge in hiring at the California Highway Patrol had an unexpected benefit for CalPERS, the state’s main worker pension fund: California’s contribution rate toward officers’ retirement plans is edging down a bit.
Next year the state expects to spend 64 cents on CHP pensions for every dollar it pays in CHP wages, down from 69 cents this year.
That might not sound like much — and of course CalPERS is still underfunded by tens of billions of dollars — but it’s a sign the state’s long-term strategy toward paying down pension debts can work.
Newly hired officers must work longer to earn a full retirement and their pensions max out at a lower rate than officers hired before 2013. Officers hired under the less generous formula account for 48% of the CHP’s workforce, up from 39% a year ago.
That trend, along with recent positive investment returns, is bringing down the state’s required contribution rate for CHP pensions. CalPERS anticipates contribution rates for other state workers to decline a bit over the next few years, too — as long as it keeps hitting its investment target.
CA bill would pressure security firms into labor deals
With the World Cup approaching this year, as well as the 2027 Super Bowl in Inglewood and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, private security firms are pushing back against a bill that would force them to have their workers unionize, reports CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow.
The Senate’s public safety committee on Tuesday will consider a proposal that would require companies that want to provide a higher standard of training — including the power to arrest and use-of-force training — to agree to union contracts. The bill would also raise pay for security guards, requiring them to earn at least 30% above California’s $16.90 minimum wage.
Service Employees International Union is sponsoring the bill, and its author, Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, was a former organizer for an SEIU local affiliate that unionized security officers. In the last five years, SEIU and its affiliates have given at least $119,100 to the L.A. Democrat, according to Digital Democracy.
Security firms argue that the measure would eliminate jobs by adding at least $1 billion to their costs each year.
California Voices
Getting rid of late-arriving ballots does not solve California’s slow ballot count, which is really due to the sheer volume of mailed ballots and how the state handles them, write Eric McGhee and Mindy Romero, policy director and senior fellow at Public Policy Institute of California and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC Price School, respectively.
Politically engaged communities report better health, and Congress must reject the SAVE Act because it narrows the electorate by making voting complicated and frightening, write R. David Rebanal and Shaina Sta. Cruz, associate professor of Public Health at San Francisco State University and postdoctoral fellow at the Centers for Violence Prevention at UC Davis, respectively.
Other things worth your time:
CA’s blue armageddon // The Atlantic
Politics is shaken by a new wave of #MeToo reckonings // The 19th
Ordered free, still locked up: CA judges fume as Trump administration holds ICE detainees // Los Angeles Times
CA eases plan to ban most plants within 5 feet of homes in wildfire zones // San Francisco Chronicle
Nearly $200M set aside in CA to update school HVAC systems remains unspent // Los Angeles Daily News
CA’s gas prices push Uber and Lyft drivers off the road // Los Angeles Times
Bay Area construction company illegally polluted river, lawsuit alleges // The Mercury News
How proposed voter ID rules could affect San Joaquin Valley elections // KVPR
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