When have you ever heard a teachers union propose a response to any real or perceived problem that didn’t revolve around wringing more money out of taxpayers?
The answer would be: never. As far as the teachers unions are concerned, there’s nothing wrong with our public education – and it is failing far too many children and families – that can’t be fixed with more taxpayer dollars.
And extracting more money from the public is at the heart of the California Teachers Association’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign.
The Voice of OC reported that the Anaheim Union High School District Board of Education last month voted unanimously to join the “We Can’t Wait” political campaign, which is being waged there by the district’s CTA local, the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association.
“It’s no surprise that public schools are underfunded throughout the state, by the state and by the federal government as well,” the VOC quotes the youthful AUHSD Trustee Jessica Guerrero.
But are they really underfunded?
In a word: no.
On the contrary. During the past decade, per-pupil spending in the state’s public K-12 system has experienced significant and sustained growth, reaching record-high levels by 2022–23.
In 2011–12, per-pupil funding was $7,006.
Today, when you combine state, local and federal funds, it is more than $24,000 per student – well above the national average.
That is tremendous growth. How many California families experienced similar growth in their incomes?
In the AUHSD, the district’s per-pupil expenditure was $20,099 in 2023-2024 – up from $17,736 in 2021–2022.
The number of teachers employed by the AUHSD has barely fluctuated during the past decade, even as student enrollment has declined significantly.
In other words, the AUSHD has more teachers relative to the size of the student body than 10 years ago – and more money per student.
So with all due respect to Trustee Guerrero, the facts do not support the claims of her union allies that California public education is “underfunded.” There’s plenty of money – but our union-dominated K-12 public school system misspends the money. There has certainly been no increase in student achievement commensurate with the steady growth in the vast sums of tax dollars consumed by our sclerotic, bureaucratized, unresponsive system.
If Trustee Guerrero believes her district lacks sufficient funds, she might take a look at the steady increase in non-teaching administrative positions during the reign of Superintendent Michael Matsuda – including his small army of “civic engagement” staff.
Or perhaps re-focus the district on boosting student’s academic achievement levels – which is its job – instead of empire building a system of mini-welfare states (“community schools”).
The CTA doesn’t really object to our wasteful and ineffective public school system, because it feeds off of it. The goal of the CTA and its locals is to maintain the status quo – which they largely – and extract as much money from taxpayers as possible. To that end, the unions are ceaselessly engaged in agitating for ever greater tax revenues while relentlessly opposing any education policies that transfer more power and control to parents and effective, innovative teachers and principals.
The teachers unions – as distinct from their individual members – aren’t particularly perturbed by the failure of the education system they have done so much to shape to provide a quality education to the mass of California’s children. That’s because, as the late Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers once said, students don’t pay union dues.
