Recent studies out of Paul Hill's Center for Reinventing Public Education and Ed Trust-West have revealed the funding inequalities that result from district budget practices, where all school budgets get charged by the district the same amount for a teacher, no matter how much a teacher is paid in actual dollars. As a result, the better schools which tend to attract the more experienced teachers get more money, in effect, than the weaker schools with the least experienced teachers.

California has swiftly responded by passing a law in September that requires districts to report to the public annually on the average salaries paid to teachers at each school. The legislature seemed unconcerned that the public might confuse experience with quality, opting for full transparency on this issue.