It’s a common theme in the news media: Education needs more money. Always.
Yet we’re spending more than ever, and spending more per pupil than any other country, yet we have mediocre results compared to the rest of the world, and our learning within the US has declined over the last 40 years.
Bottom line: the problem isn’t spending.
In keeping with that storyline, a recent Washington Post article about higher education reports:
To the alarm of many educators, nearly every state has cut funding to public colleges and universities since the 2008 financial crisis. Adjusted for inflation, states spent $5.7 billion less on public higher education last year than in 2008, even though they were educating more than 800,000 additional students, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
The Post limited its field of view to state funding of public colleges and universities, but a broader outlook reveals a very different picture.