Obama: Not enough spending on schools

Andrew J. Coulson notes that President Barack Obama says we’re not spending enough on schools and presents evidence of just how much we are spending on schools. His article is Obama Jobs Plan to Push More K-12 Bloat?

Take a look at the chart that Coulson prepared, showing the growth rate of public school employment compared to the growth in students.

Changes in public school employment and enrollment.

Considering that personnel costs are the largest portion of school spending, it’s pretty hard to make the case that we haven’t been spending on schools. Coulson’s article also compares the trend in student achievement compared to spending.

Looking at the numbers a different way, I computed the ratio of staff to students, with the following result: There are many more teachers and staff for each student.

K-12 Education Staff Per Student Ratio