Student Outcomes Not Improving Despite Huge increases in Education Spending

Student Outcomes Not Improving Despite Huge increases in Education Spending

As the Kansas Legislature decides just how many hundreds of millions of dollars more to give to K-12 education, keep this in mind: using history as a guide, all that money will not improve student outcomes.

Sources: KSDE, NAEP, BLS CPI Midwest Urban Cities

The graphics are a testament to that. Combining per pupil spending, employment and enrollment data from KSDE with NAEP reading and math scores it is clear that despite significant increases in spending – a rate nearly double that of inflation – student achievement has been flat as a western Kansas landscape. There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case it only needs to be worth six: More money does not improve outcomes. Going back to 2000 – the earliest reliable outcome data is available – reading and math scores are virtually unchanged, even though per pupil spending over that period has increased by over two-thirds.

This information and much, much more on spending and outcomes is available at Kansas Policy Institute’s latest education Fact Book.