California’s bottom-of-the-barrel pupil-staff ratios

California, which once prided itself on having one of the nation’s finest public school systems, is now ranked at or near the bottom among the states when it comes to the ratio of students to staff. The following chart is based on data from the 2007-08 school year. Since then the schools have seen an $18 billion reduction in annual funding. And, if voters don’t approve Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to extend a set of temporary taxes, which now looks to be dead in the water, the schools could take another huge hit—$4.8 billion in 2011-12, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

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State California Florida New York Texas Students per teacher 20.8 15.8 13.1 14.5 Rank 48 37 9 26 Students per counselor 809.2 433.3 463.1 249.7 Rank 49 30 37 29 Students per librarian 5,038.5 912 876.8 922.8 Rank 50 36 32 37 Students per school administrator 433.1 333.3 294.6 231.7 Rank 47 37 28 9

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core Data, 2007-08/Education Coalition/CUSD Superintendent’s Office