A theme we've seen repeated over and over the past several years is that failure seems to get rewarded by politicians.

We've seen the use of government bailouts at the federal level, and, now, California Gov. Jerry Brown wants rewarding failure to become the state's new policy for fixing our public education system.

Brown told the Los Angeles Times that he wants to redirect state spending to low-income and non-English-speaking students. "The reality is, in some places students don't enjoy the same opportunities that people have in other places. ... This is a way to balance some of life's chances.

"I want to align more closely the money schools receive with the problems that teachers encounter. ... When somebody's teaching in Compton, it's a much bigger challenge than teaching in Beverly Hills."

There's only one problem with Gov. Brown's plan: We're already doing it, and it is not working.

According to the California Department of Education, the Compton Unified School District spent $10,586 per student in 2010.

To put that number in perspective, Fullerton Joint Union High spent $8,766, Arcadia Unified shelled out $7,542 and Manhattan Beach Unified was frugal at $7,467 per pupil. The statewide average was $8,452.

It's a myth that we're funding districts like Compton on the cheap.

And what's worse is that, despite spending more than $2,000 above the state average in Compton, the district ranks in the bottom 25 percent on the state's Academic Performance Index.