January 18, 2012 4:03PM # Would an Extra $27 Billion Improve CA Public School Performance? By [Andrew J. Coulson](https://www.cato.org/people/andrew-coulson) --- SHARE As I explain in an op-ed in today’s [*Orange County Register*](http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/billion-336160-sat-spending.html), that’s not a theoretical question. After adjusting for inflation and enrollment growth, CA spent $27 billion more on K‑12 public schooling in 2010 than it did when Jerry Brown was first elected governor back in 1974. SAT scores fell over that period (see chart below). ![Media Name: Cato-Coulson-CA-school-spending-and-SAT-scores.gif](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/Cato-Coulson-CA-school-spending-and-SAT-scores.gif?itok=R0nOxiHM) And if a $27 billion spending boost was associated with a decline in SAT scores, why would anyone expect Governor Brown’s proposal to raise another $7 billion in education taxes to do any good? Note that the above version of the chart includes an extra two years of (estimated) spending data from the [Brown administration’s current budget document](http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/pdf/BudgetSummary/Kthru12Education.pdf), compared to the version than ran in the OCR. I’d left off those years because I didn’t want to include estimates, only concrete figures, but I’ve already been asked about them so I include them here. The picture’s the same either way. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).