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Enrollment in California’s public schools has decreased by 7% (about 429,000 students) over the past decade. While some of the decline is due to families leaving the state, charter schools are thriving, now enrolling approximately 12.5% of students, up from 9% in 2014–15. Furthermore, over 51,000 students are homeschooled, a figure that has doubled in the last ten years.
Meanwhile, California inflation-adjusted education spending has risen by 78.6% since 2002. The state currently spends $25,941 per student, ranking it sixth nationwide. However, most students perform poorly, with only 28% of 8th-graders proficient in reading.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is the poster child for everything wrong in the state. Student attendance was 747,000 in the 2003-2004 school year, but has now dropped to 390,000. Despite this decrease, district spending has continued nonetheless, fueled by excessive administrative waste, questionable capital projects, and misplaced priorities. Consequently, LAUSD is projected to have a $191 million deficit by 2027-28 if current spending levels persist. As a result, the board is considering $150 million in cuts to the central office.
What impact has all of LAUSD’s spending had on student success?
None. According to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, just 21% of LAUSD 8th-grade students are proficient in reading, and 19% are proficient in math.
Los Angeles also has the unfortunate reputation of being the child abuse capital of the world, surpassing 370 cases in just the first few months of this year. The district has approved up to $250 million to settle claims, many related to older cases triggered by recent legislative changes such as Assembly Bill 218, which created a legal window allowing adults to sue over childhood sexual abuse from decades ago, overwhelming many school districts across the state.
With costs soaring for the sexual misconduct cases, the Los Angeles school board has approved $250 million in bonds—on top of the $500 million already authorized less than a year ago—to compensate victims. The total cost is expected to exceed $1 billion and will be paid out of the district’s general fund over at least a decade.
On Feb. 25, LAUSD took another hit when the FBI raided the home and office of district Superintendent Alberto Carvalho as part of an expanding investigation into a $6 million deal between the nation’s second-largest school system and a failed artificial intelligence startup, which had engaged in various criminal activities. Carvalho was subsequently placed on paid administrative leave shortly after the raids. As of this writing, his fate remains undetermined.
And just for good measure, the 1776 Project Foundation is suing LAUSD, claiming the district discriminates against white students by allocating more resources to schools where at least 70% of students are nonwhite.
When it comes to struggling school districts, Los Angeles is hardly unique, however.
Most recently, after months of protests and rallies, the fears of more than 500 local teachers, counselors, and other faculty members became a reality when the Long Beach Unified School District announced they would be laid off at the end of the current school year.
In mid-February, the Sacramento City Unified School District voted to eliminate every position in the district office, adding another 300 potential layoffs to job cuts approved earlier this year. But the district said not all the layoffs have been finalized.
In Oakland, the school board voted on February 25 to eliminate 421 positions, with 144 other positions set to have reduced hours.
Six school districts in Sonoma County are facing financial difficulties due to declining enrollment and insufficient revenue to cover rising expenses.
The teachers’ unions are making things worse. The California Teachers Association and many of its local affiliates have been in a collective snit since the beginning of the year, and thousands of teachers have either walked off the job or voted to strike in the past few months.
West Contra Costa teachers went on strike in December, and San Francisco teachers did the same in February. Teachers in Oakland, Dublin, West Sacramento, Twin Rivers, and Natomas have voted overwhelmingly to give their union the authority to strike. In Berkeley, Soquel, and other districts, teachers are rallying and are likely to follow suit.
Teachers in San Diego, Oakland, San Diego Woodland, Apple Valley, Duarte, and Madera planned to strike in recent months but reached agreements at the last minute.
On Jan. 31, 94% of teachers in the United Teachers of Los Angeles, the largest teachers union in the state, voted to authorize a strike after months of stalled contract negotiations between the union and the Los Angeles Unified School District. UTLA’s demands include a pay raise, smaller class sizes, additional support for immigrant students, more counselors, funding for classroom supplies, and a long list of items the union considers essential.
The rise in strike activity is a statewide effort by the California Teachers Association to boost salaries and benefits and attract public attention.
“All these districts going out on strike—it’s not a coincidence at all. Everywhere in the state, there are people with unmet needs. The conditions have been ripe for a long time,” said David Goldberg, CTA’s president.
Let’s take a step back and look at some facts about one of the union’s top priorities: teacher pay.
After 10 years on the job, a teacher in California earns over $100,000 annually. But what’s often overlooked is that total compensation is much higher when generous health care and pension benefits are included. For instance, the average teacher in LAUSD received total pay of $102,000 and benefits of $35,652 in 2024.
It is also unacknowledged that full-time public school teachers work considerably fewer hours each year than private sector workers, including time spent on lesson planning, test construction, grading, providing extra assistance to students, coaching, and more.
As I mentioned last week, California has the highest income, gas, and sales taxes in the U.S., as well as the highest poverty and unemployment rates. Add a disastrous education system to the state’s already long list of failures.
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Larry Sand is a retired 28-year classroom teacher who served as president of the nonprofit California Teachers Empowerment Network from 2006 to 2025. He now focuses on raising awareness of our failing education system.
