For the last few months, I’ve been contemplating putting together a video to explain how education finance works in California. It is an incredibly complex topic, and requires a bit of history and context setting. Doing this was partly inspired by a series of presentations done by SCEF, talks by Joe Simitian on the topic, as well as the CCS Meeting which I wrote about in January.
Well, now the first version of that video is done and posted online. Although my graphics are a bit primitive and the audio isn’t perfect, I think it does a good job capturing the history of California school finance, how it works now, some of the structural problems that tie our hands, and what we can do about it. It’s a little long — 40 minutes — but if you can take some time, I encourage you to take a look (it’s divided into chapters, so it can be viewed in multiple sessions).
Click here to get to the video. Let me know what you think!
One update. Due to the passage of Proposition 25 on November 2, 2010, the California State Legislature will no longer need a 2/3 supermajority vote to pass a budget. It will still need a 2/3 vote to raise taxes, however. But in any case, I will eventually need to update the video to reflect this fact.
I have been wanting to understand how public education funding works for quite some time now, but did not quite know where to begin. This presentation is succinct, clear and held me captive for 39.17 straight minutes. Thank you for making this remarkable presentation!
An additional update. I have updated and re-produced the video. It now shorter (30 min) and has the latest data represented.
I found your video while taking the Next Ten state budget quiz. Really, really clear, sane, and NOT Boring. You can write. Where did you learn?
Excellent presentation, Seth. Thanks for taking the time to produce this.