Education in the USA:Growth in Education Spending Slowed in 2009

The New York Times

By WINNIE HU and ROBERT GEBELOFF

Published: May 25, 2011

The nation’s overall education spending grew at a slower pace in 2009 than at any other time in more than a decade, amid deepening state fiscal woes and flatter tax revenues, according to new census figures released Wednesday.

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Scaling Back

Public school districts spent an average of $10,499 per student on elementary and secondary education in the 2009 fiscal year, up 2.3 percent from 2008. In contrast, spending rose by 6.1 percent and 5.8 percent in the two years before that.

“I think they are responding to economic and political realities,” said Robert N. Lowry Jr., deputy director of theNew York State Council of School Superintendents. “There’s been this recognition that times are different.”

Total revenues devoted to education — which include money from federal, state and local sources — rose to $590.9 billion in 2009, or 1.5 percent more than the year before. Of that amount, state revenues accounted for $276.2 billion (46.7 percent); local revenues, $258.9 billion (43.8 percent), and federal revenues, $55.9 billion (9.5 percent).

The report showed that spending slowed as a direct result of big cuts in education aid in some states after years of near constant growth. In total, such aid fell 1.7 percent to $276 billion, with the largest cuts in Florida, Michigan and California.

Meanwhile, local tax revenue continued to grow, but at a slower rate than in past years; property taxes accounted for about two-thirds of that revenue.

The report does not cover most of the $100 billion in federal stimulus money distributed to schools beginning in spring 2009, though federal aid did increase by $8.8 billion during the period.

New York led the nation once again in overall spending, at $18,126 per student, with school officials pointing to high personnel costs and a large number of state education mandates, among other factors, that push up the cost of education in the state.

Washington, D.C., ranked second, with spending rising 12.4 percent over the previous year — the largest increase in the nation — to $16,408. The next three highest-spending states were New Jersey ($16,271), Arkansas ($15,552) and Vermont ($15,175).

At the other end of the scale, Utah spent the least per student, at $6,356, preceded by Idaho ($7,092), Arizona ($7,813), Oklahoma ($7,885), and Tennessee ($7,897).

Safiya Jafari Simmons, a spokeswoman for the Washington school system, said that “education is a much higher priority in D.C. than it has been in the past decade” and “as such, it is no surprise that we are putting more money into education.”

In New Jersey, the acting education commissioner, Christopher D. Cerf, said the state’s own calculation of education spending was even higher than that done by the Census Bureau, just under $18,000 per student.

Mr. Cerf said the amount of money is less important than whether it is being spent effectively.

“The measure we should be looking at is how successful we are at graduating all of our students college- and career-ready,” Mr. Cerf said. “I think that is something that is not a function only of dollars, but much more importantly, of policies and practices that drive achievement.”

Employee benefits, including pensions and health care, continued to be the fastest-growing cost in education, increasing at twice the rate of salaries, according to the figures. For instance, benefits accounted for 22 cents of every $1 spent on schools in 2009, compared with 17 cents in 2002.