A new report highlights inequities and inadequacies in school spending nationwide.
The study is the third in a series of reports led by Bruce Baker, an associate professor of education at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. It looks at four main indicators of equity and adequacy: level of funding, funding for higher- versus lower-poverty school districts, percent of state gross domestic product devoted to schools, and public versus private school enrollment.
The authors find that school funding flatlined between 2010 and 2011, with about half the states making cuts and 14 spending less on schools in 2011 than in 2007, even without adjusting for inflation. The highest-spending state, Wyoming, funded schools at $17,397 per pupil, a rate more than 2 times higher than that of next-door-neighbor Idaho, which spent $6,753 per pupil, less than any other state.
