Walters: Californians finally get a guide to deciphering state’s school data dashboard

After becoming governor the second time in 2011, Jerry Brown proposed a major overhaul of how California finances public education.

The 1978 passage of Proposition 13, an iconic tax limitation measure, had largely shifted school finance from local property taxes to the state. A decade later, voters passed Proposition 98, which dictated how state support would be calculated.

Money was allocated to local schools on the basis of attendance, so much for each pupil, but there were also “categorical aids” ...