The California School System Ranks Near the Bottom in the United States and is a Startling Example of the Dumbing-Down of the American Child by NWO Elites.

The California school system is suffering from a dual crisis: one of quality and one of equality. Every day, thousands of children go to school but do not have qualified teachers, a safe school environment or access to a quality curriculum.

While California's overall system of education ranks near the bottom of all states, many problems are far worse for low-income students, students of color, and immigrant students learning English.

Over the past decade, efforts to improve California's school system have been guided by a simple formula based on standards, test scores, and so-called 'accountability,' but unfortunately, this system does nothing to identify and fix these problems.

The current California system has 'accountability' requirements that use test scores to blame students for not doing better, rather than providing them the necessary resources and opportunities for them to learn what is being tested. True accountability gathers information about children and their schools and uses it to help children learn.

Schools with the highest numbers of Latino/a and African American students and students from families who are poor, have the biggest shortages of textbooks, the lowest numbers of qualified teachers, and attend the state's most overcrowded and run-down schools.

The California school system has a current accountability system that falls short because the people it holds most responsible are the students and the teachers, who have little control over learning opportunities that really matter. For example, teachers can't correct overcrowded schools, and students can't insist on being taught by teachers who are fully credentialed.

Just as students need opportunities to learn, teachers also need opportunities to teach: they don't have basic tools such as books, labs, libraries, clean facilities, and healthy working conditions. For the past twenty-five years, the California school system has slid to the bottom rank of all the states.

PROPOSITION 13

Many people mark the start of this decline with the passage of 'Proposition 13,' the property tax measure that limited funds to most schools and provided even less money to schools that needed it most. The school system and policymakers have tried to work with limited funds, piecemeal reforms and educational fads.

Well intentioned interventions

These well-intentioned interventions (class size reduction, curriculum revisions, test-based accountability, etc.) have been too little, too late, and loaded with unintended consequences that often make the problems even worse.

While local mismanagement may be part of the problem, many issues cannot be solved locally. Solving local mismanagement problems requires that state officials hold districts accountable for making sure that educational resources get to the classrooms and desktops of students. It also requires intervention when local problems are detected, yet the state has no reliable way of monitoring or correcting these problems.

A Separate and Unequal school system

The California school system has a separate and unequal system of education in which poor students, students of color, and English language learners do not have access to the same educational resources, teachers, textbooks, and facilities as their wealthier and white peers.

Such fundamental opportunities to learn are critical for learning and for future educational success. These unfair learning conditions in K-12 education contribute to inequalities in access to higher education and skilled occupations.

The cost of this education crisis is that today's students will be unprepared for productive citizenship, higher learning, and high-skilled work. California's challenge is to respond with bold and comprehensive actions to solve this crisis.