With extra billions rolling in, isn't it time to demand better results?

The California Teachers Association spent the past couple of years blasting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for shortchanging public schools, but now a San Francisco Chronicle article details the degree to which the state's public schools are flush with cash. Don't expect any apologies to the governor, or any effort to return the excess cash to taxpayers. In the world of public schools, teachers unions and Sacramento legislators, the only thing wrong with the state's schools is – can we say it in unison – they don't have enough money to do their job.

"California schools are in line for a $6 billion windfall over the next five years, and interest groups are already lining up to get their share, promoting ideas like improving high schools, paying teachers more, and helping urban districts with severely declining enrollment," the Chronicle reported.

We're not sure how paying teachers more across the board will fix the state's broken school system, but as the article said, "interest groups are already lining up to get their share." Notice also how the article pointed to demands for more money for districts with declining enrollments. Silly us, we thought that districts with increasing enrollment ought to get more money, not those that serve fewer and fewer students each year.

The source of the windfall? State revenue continues to increase, and the school funding formula is tied to a percentage of the state's budget. And, of course, enrollments keep declining. The article notes that "children of baby boomers are exiting the 5-to-17 age groups, fewer people are moving into the state, and there has been a decline recently in the state's birthrate."

Meanwhile, California voters just approved a $10.4 billion bond to pay for school facilities, and the governor – as part of his kinder, gentler, more liberal image – keeps promising even more funding for the public school system. Currently, California spends more than $11,000 a year on average per student (including all forms of government funding) and California public school teachers, on average, are the highest paid in the nation.

The schools are in perpetual crisis, and the siren song always is the same: Give us more! But the schools never get much better, even as the dollar amounts hit record levels. Even people educated in California's public schools ought to at some point realize that maybe, just maybe, there is more to the formula than increasing tax dollars to the same bureaucracies spending money on the same misplaced priorities.

Perhaps now that it's obvious that schools have a windfall, policymakers should start looking at substantive reforms. Even Democratic Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, told the Chronicle as much: "The emphasis on reform and change should be significant. We don't want to use all this money to maintain the status quo. But it is hard because everyone has a vested interest."

True words, indeed. So, what kind of reforms should Californians insist upon? "With the present system, you can't help but spend it wrong," said Lance Izumi, director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute. He calls for a "different financing system that gives incentives for the system to improve." For instance, he pointed to former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan's idea that public funds should follow the student, not just go to the institution. That way, the schools would have an incentive to offer programs that students and parents want. Mr. Izumi also calls for performance pay for teachers. Instead of just giving all teachers more money, only those who do a good job should benefit. And, of course, more money should be directed toward educational choice – charter schools and vouchers.

Only in a government monopoly system would the ideas of choice, accountability and better pay for better performance be considered radical. With the school system flush with cash, we'll have a chance to see if California's leaders have as much sense as they have money.