The “irrational and complex” K-12 school system is failing millions of California’s students. That is, according to a Stanford-sponsored study, until the way schools are funded and managed is completely revamped.

A recent report from the Stanford Institute for Research on Education Policy & Practice (IREPP), a group led by Education Associate Prof. Susanna Loeb, indicated that the structural problems inherent in the finance and government system of California schools are so entrenched that only a large-scale commitment to change is likely to have any effect.

“The conclusion of the report is that California is in real trouble,” Loeb said. She explained that California students are neither “performing well relative to other states” nor “learning what they need to learn to be successful later on in the labor market.”

Loeb said that one of the biggest problems with the state’s education system is inequity in the way money gets distributed to schools.

“The finance system [is] irrational in that very similar districts receive quite different dollars per pupil and the differences across districts are not treated coherently,” she said in an email to The Daily. “We are aiming for students in poverty to have similar achievements to the current achievements of students from high-income families.”

“Getting Down to Facts” aggregates 22 studies conducted by 32 institutions over an 18-month period from September 2005 to March 2007. The report was designed to analyze the state of California’s school finance and governance systems and the extent to which additional resources are necessary for California’s students to meet expected levels of success.

Though the report did not make specific policy recommendations, it did identify four major areas for improvement that could provide short term results. However, Loeb said, “politically, they may not be easy to implement.”

The first called for giving local administrators more autonomy by relaxing restrictions and rules. The second focused on changing the way teachers are hired, paid and fired — suggesting that administrators should have “more flexibility to dismiss teachers who [aren’t] effective.”

The nonpartisan approach of “Getting Down to Facts” allowed the report to “provide information to California so that we could get a common understanding from which to move forward and create a better policy,” according to Loeb.

The studies — which were released March 14 and 15 — provoked reactions from the politicians who commissioned them.

California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell released a statement emphasizing the importance of a “holistic approach” to improving the school system, as opposed to “piecemeal reform.” Governor Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, emphasized the need to “focus on critical school reform before discussion about any more resources.”

According to the Web site Californiaprogressreport.com, a self-described progressive discussion forum, the results of “Getting Down to Facts” may not actually affect this year’s budget and educational policies, since the state’s budget must be adopted in the next three months.