That article was about spending on education, not performance.
"Ed Week survey ranks California 50th in per pupil spending"
I was thinking this... "depressing...Chain link fencing everywhere, scrubby grounds and rundown looking buildings for the most part"... might be caused by cutbacks to education.
B4 Raygun and Prop, we were #1 per student. Buildings were maintained, free sports, field trips; bake sales were something bakeries did to move products.
California's current budget crisis is a lot like watching the bullets in the Matrix movies: one bullet taking 30 years to arrive, but ultimately killing its victim. The bullet is named Proposition 13.
Picture a girl graduating from a respected Los Angeles high school in 1978. She's excelled in drama, was managing editor of the school newspaper, and enjoyed her chorus classes. She studies at the public library and shops at, like, the Galleria! She goes to the nearby park for a free fireworks show every 4th of July. She lives in a three bedroom, 1600 square foot tract house, which her parents bought for $30,000 in 1971. Her teachers have been warning about the dire consequences of Proposition 13, but her dad favors it because it will lower his property taxes. Proposition 13 limits property taxes to 1% of a home's assessed value. Further, the property tax may only be increased 2% each year, unless the property is sold. So, in 1978, her parents' tract house was taxed at $300; in 1979, it was taxed at $306; 1980, $312.12; etc., until the tax doubles to $600 in about 2013.
The girl went to a UC school for college and another UC school for graduate school. In 1988, she bought a house not too far away from, and comparable to, her parents' home, for $200,000. Her property taxes were $2,000. Her parents were still paying about $400 in property taxes even though their home was also worth $200,000.
She tries to visit the local library one weekend, but the library is no longer open on Sundays. Due to budget cuts, it's open 35 hours a week, including four hours on Saturdays and daylight hours only (no more researching until 9 pm!) Thursdays and Fridays.
Thinking about starting a family, she visits her alma mater, which is now in the bottom 11% of all schools statewide. California, as a whole, was ranked one of the best states in the country through the 1970s, but now has fallen to between 48 and 50. The art department is gone -- budget cuts. The chorus teacher and classes are gone -- budget cuts. The student newspaper is gone -- budget cuts. The school is able to assemble a marching band only because it's now a club, not a class, led by student volunteers who hold car washes and bake sales every Saturday. Next year, the volunteers will graduate, and what will happen to the band kids?
However, when she wants to go shopping, she has so many more choices than ever before. Cities that used to depend on property tax money now make it up with sales tax revenue from big box retailers. From her home all the way up Highway 101 to Ventura, where there used to be strawberry fields, is one continuous strip mall of Wal-marts, Targets, Best Buys, Home Depots, and Costcos, punctuated by an occasional auto mall...
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