MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2026
Let's take a look at the record: Are California's public schools some sort of uniquely bad? A person might have received that impression from what this unnamed gentleman said:
...[NAME WITHHELD] Fawns Over ‘Authentic’ Spencer Pratt in Podcast Appearance
[...]
During one especially warm moment, [NAME WITHHELD] expressed his frustration over education in California, assigning blame to teachers’ unions, before asking Pratt for his answer to the problem.
“We spend a lot more trying to educate a kid in this state and do worse than places that spend way less. And part of that is because the teachers’ union is so strong,” he said.
“Are you–there’s a great question for you, Mr. Candidate. Are you strong enough to buck the unions?”
All in all, it sounded like Cali was really struggling. Skillfully, we ordered the analysts to go take a look at the record.
The youngsters examined the data. They returned with these average scores in reading and math from the most recent NAEP:
Average scores, Grade 8 Reading: 2024 Naep
California / United States
White kids: 269.15 / 265.85
Black kids: 246.97 / 242.58
Hispanic kids: 242.50 / 244.52
Asian kids: 281.70 / 279.62
Two or more races: 267.29 / 261.42
Average scores, Grade 8 Math: 2024 Naep
California / United States
White kids: 287.22 / 284.46
Black kids: 252.43 / 250.83
Hispanic kids: 253.47 / 257.39
Asian kids: 307.22 / 304.64
Two or more races: 288.51 / 276.61
For all Naep data, just click here. From there, you're on your own!
The differences here aren't enormous. By a very rough rules of thumb, ten points on the Naep scale is often said to correspond (very roughly) to one academic year.
The differences aren't huge. But California's white, Black and Asian kids slightly outperformed their counterparts nationwide. California's Hispanic kids slightly underperformed their nationwide peers.
Regarding spending, the World Population Review has California ranked 14th highest among the fifty states in per pupil spending. Now for the rest of the story:
Cali ranks only 33rd highest among the fifty states in per pupil spending as a percentage of taxpayer income.
Plenty of money is almost surely being imperfectly spent, in California and elsewhere. That said, are some other states doing much better while spending much less?
Given the history of such competitions, we're very, very, very slow to sign on to "miracle" stories. (Over the course of the past fifty years, the experts have tended to be the last ones to know.)
That said, Cali's kids are scoring roughly like the nation's kids overall. The statewide per pupil spending lags far behind that of big spenders like New York, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut.
Everyone knows all about public schools. It has ever been thus!
"almost surely"
ReplyDeleteLOL!
CA is the 4th largest economy in the world, it's educational system is not perfect nor the best, but it obviously is doing just fine.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletegood news
Trump administration plans to drop DOJ’s $1.8B ‘lawfare’ fund, reports say
Go take a flying fuck you fascist freak, You didn’t say peep about this fucking criminal conspiracy till now
DeleteThe idea that CA spends more but low-spending states outperform it has been a right wing talking point forever. It used to be based on misleading test scores on the SAT, where Southern states had far higher averages because (1) those Southern states take the ACT not the ACT, so those taking the SAT are self-selected because they intend to apply to places such as Stanford and Berkeley, and (2) only the top students in the South wind up taking the SAT because they do not need it to get into Eastern and Southern schools, whereas all students in CA take the SAT. Some high schools require them to take it, while anyone intending to apply to the UC or CalState systems will be taking it.
ReplyDeleteSo a small sliver of the top Southern students are taking the SAT and their average is being compared to the average for the entire college-going senior class in CA, including students heading for less competitive schools. It is not a fair comparison but the right has promoted that kind of data for decades, and apparently is still saying the same things.
Somerby says he automatically disbelieves academic miracles, but that isn't the kind of swindle being played here. He should be looking behind the data to see where the means come from and how the groups being compared are formed. That is basic to using statistics, something Somerby has never seemed adept at doing.
typo correction: take the ACT not the SAT (taken predominantly by those applying to Western schools including CA colleges)
DeleteIt is always amusing when a know-nothing maligns an expert as "always the last to know". Somerby has no background in education other than as an elementary and middle school teacher.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, it isn't that CA has uniformly worse schools than anywhere else, but that it has far larger numbers of non-English speaking students and disadvantaged minority students in its largest urban areas and these groups have lower means and tend to bring the overall average down. CA is much more bilingual, multicultural and diverse than many other states. That CA is doing well despite these challenges speaks well for its schools.
I get very tired of Somerby's negativity toward schools. I get it that he didn't respect his pupils or his colleagues when he was in the classroom himself, but most teachers know more about child development, history and goals of modern education, and how to deliver curriculum effectively than Somerby ever learned via Teach for America. I am glad every day that he decided to change his career path when the Vietnam war ended because he made way for someone better qualified to deal with the challenging kids in Baltimore's inner city. If anyone shouldn't be a teacher, it is a guy like Somerby with his bad attitude and lack of education or training.
A poorly qualified teacher is exactly the kind of person who would despise teachers unions. After all, they are trying to improve outcomes for students and maintain high standards for their profession.
Delete"(Over the course of the past fifty years, the experts have tended to be the last ones to know.)"
ReplyDeleteKnow what? (Not an expert.)
Why did Somerby leave Bill Maher's name out of his headline?
ReplyDeleteThe idea that teacher's unions are too powerful and that they are bad for education is a long-standing right wing talking point too. Why is Maher feeding it as a softball to Pratt? Maher has no kids and no experience himself with the CA public schools. He went to high school in NJ and college at Cornell, in Ithaca NY. He has no kids. Why is he peddling right wing memes?
Pratt is a Donald Trump wanabee running for LA mayor. Electing him would be a disaster, but I doubt there are enough rednecks to pull it off without Russia funding, but why is Maher helping him?
And why is Somerby shielding Bill Maher from the consequences of his own stupidity? Pratt is stupider than Lauren Boebert. He would destroy the system Los Angeles has created for dealing with earthquakes and fires, diversity in a school district where children speak 130 different languages, where "Around 44% of the district's students are designated as English Learners or fluent in multiple languages." He will be ineffective and out of step in a place where Kamala Harris got 64% of the vote and Donald Trump got only 31% (worse than his current favorability rating nationwide). Someone like Pratt does not belong as Mayor of Los Angeles, so why is Maher promoting him?
Teacher's unions are important to the success of CA schools because they care about students, have the expertise to help them, and because they have no ulterior motives the way politicians and bureaucrats, no competing goals or interests, the way Pratt obviously does. Democrats tend to have a history of supporting labor and do not see students and teachers in competition with each other but as allies, the way teachers themselves do. It is odd that Somerby does not see that. I find myself wondering whether he has understood any of those Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie songs he has been quoting over the decades.
Republicans are allied with business, not communities. Maher does not seem to belong to any Los Angeles community. He identifies with 20-somethings in youth culture. These too are people without a stake in family or neighborhoods.
DeletePratt is a TV star who attended private school K-12 and USC (University of Southern California) an expensive private university frequently referred to as the University for Spoiled Children. Like Trump, he has no background in administration and no experience running any organization.
Pratt was arrested and jailed in Costa Rica on September 11, 2010, while attempting to board an aircraft with hunting weapons. He was released and banned from re-entering the country.
He and his wife (also a movie/TV celebrity) lost their Pacific Palisades home and sued the City of LA and the Dept of Water and Power, as people do when they need to blame someone for a natural disaster. They then went to Washington DC to talk Bondi into launching an investigation into Newsom and Mayor Bass. This made him the perfect MAGA cat's paw.
While I sympathize with the loss of his house, he has moved to Santa Barbara, an expensive area, indicating that his lifestyle has not suffered. Living in LA doesn't seem to qualify him for Los Angeles Mayor, in my opinion, given that his rebuilding plans are indefinite.
Newsom had nothing to do with the LA fire, and neither did Bass. Capitalizing off a disaster that affected so many people adversely (without movie star status to comfort them) will not sit well with the general voting public. He is coming across as a whiny diaper-baby, like Trump, and I think both parties are losing patience with that kind of guy.
But he is thriving on the attention while the Republicans use him to make hay in the upcoming elections.
Typo correction: not living in LA doesn't seem to disqualify him to run for Mayor of Los Angeles. He is living far outside LA.
DeleteSomerby is a deceptive guy, but why would he think we wouldn't immediately look it up, given the quote?
Delete"“Are you–there’s a great question for you, Mr. Candidate. Are you strong enough to buck the unions?”
ReplyDeleteThus Bill Maher aligns himself with an idiot who thinks that the way to improve public schools is to starve them by giving them less money to work with.
If Pratt "bucks" the teachers union, how will the schools cope with the cutbacks of funding from the now dissolved Dept of Education (such as funding for special ed and students with disabilities)? Are schools supposed to absorb that loss while cutting teacher pay? This is a complex topic that doesn't deserve slogans in place of real solutions.
DeleteSomerby should know better.
Somerby can kiss my ass
DeleteI lived in CA my whole life and never heard anyone native call the state "Cali". That name came on the scene with a real housewives reality show and is mainly used by people outside the state. To me, it signals that someone knows jackshit about California.
ReplyDeleteI find Somerby's use of "Cali" disrespectful to CA and those who live there.
DeleteFirst Somerby complains about CA test scores. Then he quotes Bill Maher suggesting that Pratt (Republican candidate for LA Mayor) needs to stand up to the teacher's union. How are these two compatible? Cutting pay for teachers tends to cause the better ones to go somewhere else, which reduces quality of education, especially for students who need the most help.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Somerby not see the contradiction? Is he too busy fawning over Bill Maher (NAME WITHHELD)? Somerby himself keeps saying that he considers positive results (which he calls "miracles") to be bogus, the more positive the more doubt. We call that a double-bind. If CA schools do well, they are bogus and must be doubted. It they do poorly, then they are inept or corrupt and must be blamed. Somerby sounds frustrated because CA schools fall somewhere in-between and thus must be accepted as at least semi-competent. But Maher wants to feed the teacher's union to the MAGA machine and see what is left after they are DOGED to death.
Both Somerby and Maher have presented themselves as sort of liberal. Today's essay calls that into serious doubt. No one in CA who calls themselves liberal is against unions or teachers, much less thinks schooling is too expensive for our kids to receive what they need to do well in life. CA is, after all, a blue state. This noisy asshole Pratt is not going to win the LA Mayor's race because he is too MAGA to be anything but a caricature of what Angelenos despise.
Why is NAME WITHHELD in all caps the way Donald J. Trump spells his name in his Truth Social screeds? I think bill maher doesn't even deserve to have his name capitalized. He deserves to be referred to as ASSHOLE.
DeleteNAEP scores are not necessarily the best way to evaluate school quality. How do NAEP scores measure cost effectiveness? For one thing, not all students are tested -- language learners are generally excluded, as are special ed students. It matters what the size of the school population is. This is a poor way of evaluating the question, showing that Somerby has spent no time thinking about the topic and even less time researching it. Back to his NAEP scores, apparently the only stat he is familiar with.
ReplyDelete