Twice a year you write a massive property tax check. For most folks living in San Carlos, the idea that our schools are not fully funded is almost unbelievable. How is this possible?
The Citizens for San Carlos Schools offers some sobering statistics on the matter. First, San Carlos schools rank in the top 4% of the districts on the State of California’s standardized tests. However, the San Carlos School District ranks 15th out of the 17 school districts in San Mateo in terms of money spent per student. Below is a table of the per student spending per district:
Portola Valley/$15,513 per student
Woodside/$13,849 per student
Las Lomitas/$13,734 per student
Hillsborough/$13,195 per student
Belmont/$10,018 per student
Menlo Park/9,825 per student
Brisbane/$9,598 per student
Redwood City/$9,054 per student
San Mateo/$8,597 per student
Bayshore/$8,116 per student
San Bruno Park/$8,083 per student
Burlingame/$8,077 per student
Millbrae/$8,035 per student
Ravenswood/$7,995 per student
San Carlos/$7,927 per student
Jefferson/$7,640 per student
Laguna Salada/$7,517 per student
The Citizens for San Carlos Schools states that only $21 of every $100 collected through property taxes actually goes to San Carlos Schools. Below is the division of our property taxes:
27.15% to the County General Fund
21.27% to the San Carlos School District
17.89% to the Sequoia Union High School District
13.27% to the City of San Carlos
7.77% to the San Mateo Junior College
4.04% to the County Education Office
3.95% to the Libraries
2.10% to the Mid Peninsula Open Space District
1.68% to Sequoia Hospital
Many are quick to point out that property values have greatly increased over the past 10 years. So why hasn’t school funding increased as well? Simply put, increases in basic property tax collections do not benefit the SCSD until a certain threshold is reached. The Citizens for San Carlos Schools says that the SCSD may reach this threshold at some point in the future, but it is currently at the mercy of Sacramento.
The Citizens for San Carlos Schools is a group supporting Measure S, which is the Excellence in Education parcel tax which will be on the ballot in November. If passed, this measure will increase the current parcel tax by $75 per year, per parcel. For more information on Measure S, please visit http://yes-on-s.org
* Note: The information in this post is from the Citizens for San Carlos Schools-Yes on Measure S
8 Comments
Does anyone know if the spending per pupil includes the money raised from the Education Foundations or PTA? (For all the schools, not just San Carlos.)
Lisa,
The numbers, for all districts, include all funding that runs through a district’s books. So, for example, funds raised so that a district can pay a literacy associate to help kids learn to read would be included, but funds directly spent by a PTA on a classroom asset (e.g., a computer) wouldn’t be. The key issue is which entity is making an expenditure, a district or a service organization.
In San Carlos’ situation I believe amost all of the Ed Foundation’s monies show up as “local revenue” on the District’s books because the Foundation does not purchase goods or services itself (except for its ordinary costs of doing business — postage, web site fees, office help, etc. — which are quite low).
The PTA situation is a little more complex because sometimes PTAs do purchase goods or services directly, rather than through the District. Consequently, some PTA funds are shown as revenue to the District while some are not.
I hope this helps. Feel free to drop me a line at mark@arcabama.com if you have any other questions.
– Mark Olbert
Trustee, San Carlos School District
Thanks for the additional info Mark!
From the Superintendent’s negotiation note during the last contract:
“It’s worth noting here that most California school districts are funded, in large part, by
money from Sacramento. San Carlos is one of these “revenue limit” districts. Essentially, local property taxes are insufficient to get these districts up to minimum State standards, so Sacramento makes up the difference. San Mateo County is unusual in having a large number of “basic aid” districts which, by virtue of serving highly affluent areas, have more (sometimes far more) money available per student1 than their revenue limit counterparts.
When we flag those districts that are “basic aid” in green, you can see that San Carlos
pays its teachers better than every other revenue limit district in the County (and even
better than a few of the basic aid districts)”
What are the other districts spending money on, if not teachers?
Also, any progress on tracking down the more recent budgets? It’s a bit scary when the push is “our budget is getting cut, we need more taxes” and then the latest budget numbers shown are actually from 3 years ago… I’d like to get fully behind supporting the schools more, but shouldn’t we at least know what the actual budget is and has been recently before we blindly vote yes?
Hi New Taxes,
A fair question. Tracking down these numbers has been a little tough, but I believe they are forthcoming. I ran into a member of the School Board last night and he said that they are working on producing the numbers asap so that we can post them on this site. I should have something shortly. Thanks for your patience.
Bob
Here’s some information I pulled from the District’s annual Budget Book detailing the District’s expected funding for the current school year compared to the previous one:
$K
2007/08 2008/09 $ Chg %
Revenue Limit 15,670 15,868 198 1.3%
Federal 681 630 (51) -7.4%
Other State 3,334 3,069 (265) -7.9%
Other Local 3,010 2,891 (118) -3.9%
Total 22,694 22,459 (236) -1.0%
Avg Daily Attendance 2,770 2,882 112 4.1%
$ / ADA 8,194 7,793 (401) -4.9%
Sorry about the formatting, blogs don’t always handle that kind of thing well.
Bottom line, if the State delivers the budget the Governor offered back in May — which is unlikely — District revenues will drop by 1% while enrollment rises by 4.1%. This would represent nearly a 5% drop in $ per student year over year.
There are also some movements buried in the numbers that are of concern, too. The drop in State revenue was partially masked by an increase in the San Carlos Education Foundation’s contribution. In other words, the drop in State support is greater than what appears in these numbers.
– Mark Olbert
Trustee, San Carlos School Board
p.s. Revenue Limit funding is a combination of local property taxes and State funding.
Average Daily Attendance is enrollment (number of students) adjusted for actual attendance (the District is not paid if a child does not attend school for a day)
How do the 17% of the taxes going to Sequoia High figure into the calculations? What do they spend per student? How does that compare to the other districts you have listed?
Since the allocations were frozen with Prop 13, do we give more per San Carlos high school student to Sequoia than we give per elementary student to the elementary school district?
All,
We are working on a comprehensive posting which will cover the entire impact of Prop 13 on the San Carlos School District and Sequoia Union High School District. We hope to have it for you by the end of the upcoming week. Thanks for your patience.
Bob Bredel