CA cost of everything is above the national median, no surprise dollar spent per pupil is higher. If it were the same that would mean teachers are making significantly less and who knows what other compromises. Prop 13 changed a lot about how schools are funded (local vs state) and has lead to some challenges in certain districts relative to others, and it took decades for education funding to reach parity with pre prop 13 levels.

https://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/op/OP_998JCOP.pdf