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Heritage Foundation
How Escalating Education Spending Is Killing Crucial Reform
By Lindsey Burke
October 15, 2012 

Abstract: In August 2012, the White House released the report “Investing in Our Future: Returning Teachers to the Classroom” to bolster President Obama’s call for massive new education spending. The report suggests that, absent an enormous infusion of more tax dollars, the nation’s public schools will lose teachers and programs, damaging American education. This claim ignores the fact that over the past 40 years, both teaching and non-teaching positions in public schools have increased at far greater rates than student enrollment. And, of all education jobs, teachers make up only half. Heritage Foundation education policy expert Lindsey Burke explains how another federal education bailout will act as a disincentive for state and local leaders to implement necessary reforms—and keeps taxpayers on the hook for funding policies of dubious value. 

The Obama Administration has proposed spending $60 billion on new education programs—in addition to its budget request of nearly $70 billion for fiscal year (FY) 2013 for the U.S. Department of Education. Part of the proposal includes $25 billion specifically to “provide support for hundreds of thousands of education jobs” in order to “keep teachers in the classroom.”[1] 

In August, the White House released the report “Investing in Our Future: Returning Teachers to the Classroom” to bolster President Barack Obama’s call for the $25 billion in new federal spending. The report suggests that, absent a massive new infusion of federal spending, the nation’s public schools will face reductions in teaching staff, increases in class size, and a loss of education programs.[2] 

However, teaching and non-teaching staff positions in public schools across the country have increased at far greater rates than student enrollment over the past four decades. From 1970 to 2010, student enrollment increased by a modest 7.8 percent, while the number of public-school teachers increased by 60 percent. During the same time, non-teaching staff positions increased by 138 percent, and total staffing grew by 84 percent. Teachers now comprise just half of all public-education employees. 

Instead of putting taxpayers on the hook for more federal spending, school districts should trim bureaucracy and work on long-term reform options for better targeting taxpayer resources. 

Read the rest of the article, with charts, at the Heritage Foundation


 
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