How can public schools say they are underfunded?
August 08, 2010
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the per-student operating cost of Michigan’s public schools nearly quadrupled from 1960 to 2007, from $2,991 in 1960 to $11,337 in 2007, as measured in 2007 dollars. Therefore, insinuations by the school establishment that its funding has undergone some dramatic decline in recent years should be taken with a large grain of salt. (These per-pupil operational expenses do not include school buildings and other capital spending.)
Here in mid-Michigan public schools maintain that they've lost funding during the past several years.
Click on the link above and read these stats from the Mackinac Center about how public school funding has risen from $2,991 per pupil in 1960 to $11,337 in 2007. And this is measured in 2007 dollars.
What's the story? Are public schools and public school teachers just whining or does the Mackinac Center have it wrong?