Shon Week 5 - School Funding Faux

Day to day, I hear students complain about school funding, but do you actually know how your schools are funded? 

In California: Proposition 98 guarantees a minimum amount of funding → distributed to school districts as per the LCFF (local control funding formula) which is adjusted by the statewide COLA (cost of living adjustment) → additional concentration grants are awarded based on the percentage of unduplicated students (unhoused youth, english language learners, etc.) → portion of a cities property taxes are also allocated to help fund schools


If you are wondering about FUSD's funding situation, Fremont receives base funding from the LCFF, but has an unduplicated student concentration of 38.8% which is under the state's 55% threshold, as well as property taxes not being high enough leaves Fremont schools in a funding purgatory. Stretching this money to serve 43 school sites becomes a difficult task. 


This is obviously a gross simplification of how schools are funded in California, but each state has various forms of funding formula. One thing in common is that 49 states out of 50 rely on local property taxes to fund schools. The issue comes when property taxes are based on property value. During the era of Jim Crow residential redlining, a discriminatory mortgage lending practice towards minority neighborhoods, reducing the property value over time. This leaves neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by minorities with on average poorly funded schools. Read this link for further statistics. Although, while this still remains an issue, state funding formulas like the LCFF have largely fixed the issue. Yet, the issue still remains in some states and areas, and its larger scars have not been addressed. 


America was founded on the premise of equality, but a stark contradiction is made through repeated abuse to people of minorities. Jim Crow laws, anti-LGBTQ laws, and other discriminatory policies have restricted the "unalienable rights" granted to all American people. School funding is just an example of how discriminatory policies played a role in the larger workings of our government. Fair school funding is just one of many ways Americans can heal the wounds of its past, making sure everyone has a fair shot at a quality education.


Comments

  1. Sanshray VakkalagaddaOctober 27, 2026 at 9:32 PM

    Hello Shon! I appreciate you discussing a topic that, as you called out, many students talk about without actually knowing what they are talking about: school funding. Your breakdown of the funding system was done very well, and I now understand the system on a high level thanks to you! With an outrageously high cost of living in the bay area, it is unbelievable that our school district does not receive enough funding from our property taxes. On top of that, our state spends more per student than the national average. I wonder how terribly schools outside of California with lower spending per student are run, considering that our school district, located in an area with a cost of living so high many of our teachers commute from different cities, is barely providing sufficient resources for all of our students.

    Redlining policies still affecting the US today exposes the US’s current trend toward falling backward to its historically racist and discriminatory roots. Fortunately, in California, minorities and youth who require extra accommodations are being accounted for and receiving on average higher spending per student. This is a step in the right direction, and I hope to see this trend continue as we continue our educational journey and as many of the children in the country do as well.

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