California Schools

    California has the second highest school enrollment in the country after Texas. With a high enrollment, comes a high teacher count, and California is no exception. California has over 306,000 teachers, which is the highest number of “Full-time Equivalent” teachers in the nation.

In 2004, California set a goal that 100% of students be taught by qualified teachers by the 2005-06 school year. “Qualified teachers” include teachers who have been certified by the state of California, have at least a bachelor’s degree, and have a working knowledge of all core subjects, including Reading, English, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

Last year, California spent $62 billion on K-12 education, or more than $10,000 spent per student. However, despite the high spending per student, as of March 2006, 60% of public school students (or 3.8 million) in California are enrolled in Title I schools—schools that receive federal funding for low-income students. Federal law allows parents of students in Title I schools to transfer their students to other public schools in a particular district that scored higher.

California also has the highest Hispanic student population, with 46.7% of students being Hispanic. The Hispanic population is followed by Caucasian students (at not quite 33%).

No Child Left Behind results for the 2005-06 school year are available on California’s Department of Education website (http://www.cde.ca.gov).