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In Silicon Valley, a critical lesson of leadership is that throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve it. Ingenuity and resolve does. Take Californias K-12 education as an example that proves this point yet again. If you’ve lived in California, since 2020, you’ve collectively paid in $653.3 Billion through your income taxes to educate your kids. The results? Terrible. “The latest 2024 NAEP results (released in January 2025) and the most recent per-pupil spending data reveal a significant "efficiency gap" in California’s education system. California currently ranks as one of the highest-spending states in the country, yet its student performance remains below the national average and trails many states that spend significantly less. California spent an estimated $25,941 per student (a 31.5% increase since 2020) but achieved a score of 233, which is 4 points lower than the national public school average of 237. States like Florida ($18,441), Utah ($9,977), and Idaho ($10,246) achieved significantly higher scores (243, 242, and 238 respectively) while spending far less per student than California. California's performance is similar to other high-spending states like New York ($36,976) and New Jersey ($30,267), both of which also struggle to translate record-high funding into top-tier NAEP scores.” Even more concerning is that these results cascade across income levels, locales and races and attempts to change or improve the pedagogical approach were shut down as were AP classes in several places for those few kids who beat this trend.