African Americans and Latinos historically have lower educational attainment, achievement, and wages compared to whites. Narrowing education gaps between minorities and whites should narrow wage gaps. This report analyzes whether California's education gap improvement between minorities and whites led to a parallel reduction in wage gaps. The report finds that the educational attainment and achievement of California's minority youth improved significantly from the 1970s to 1988.

This report discusses the importance of forecasting revenues and expenditures for public sector planning and budgeting. It highlights three characteristics of California's recent experience. First, K-12 funding rose 91% from 1980 to 1989, but real revenue growth was tempered by inflation. Second, California relies more on state revenues for K-12 education than the rest of the US. Third, California's "effort" in raising K-12 revenues in 1986 was lower than the US average, and revenue efforts for both schools and other public functions are below the national average.