Public School Enrollment Has Grown, Funding Has Declined. Here’s Why That Matters.

What’s more American than the yellow school bus?

The promise of a good public education is a fiercely protected pillar of the American dream. However, education budgets have seen severe cuts in recent years, and education has become a central issue in contested midterm races this election season.

How has funding for public education fallen? How is this lack of investment impacting American children? And what are the long-term economic costs of failing to make sufficient educational investments today? 

Funding for Public Education

Only about ten percent of total funding for public K-12 education comes from the federal government. The vast majority comes from state and local governments, which chipped in 45.5 percent and 44.5 percent on average, respectively, during the 2012-2013 school year. However, the federal government plays a crucial role in helping schools make ends meet.

Federal investments include Title I funding to address inequality and crucial resources for special education programs. The federal government also provides funding to programs outside of the kindergarten through grade 12 spectrum, including the popular early childhood education program, Head Start, and the Pell grant program for college students.

The graphic on the right from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows how much spending per student has fallen since 2008. A significant majority of states are spending less per student than they were in 2008.

A reduction of tax revenue during the economic downturn and ideologically driven attempts to scale back government services have driven these cuts in some states, but sequestration at the national level and the end of temporary stimulus spending have significantly worsened the situation.

The Impacts on Communities and Jobs

The number of teachers and education staff – including librarians, counselors, and teaching aides – has fallen since 2008, even as public school enrollment has grown by 1.5 percent. A survey conducted by the School Superintendents Association found that more than half of schools nationwide had laid off teachers ahead of the 2013-14 school year.

Laying off teachers not only reduces staff capacity at schools, it also reduces economic activity. Unemployed teachers don’t spend their paychecks to support local businesses, and their families’ reduced income generates fewer tax dollars, putting even more pressure on state and local government budgets. This chain reaction played a role in slowing the recovery and continues to put a drag on economic growth.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the public education jobs gap is close to 377,000. In other words, if funding for public education had not been stunted by the recession and spending had kept up with the growing number of students, there would be 377,000 more public school teachers on the job today. Having more teachers would reduce class sizes, free up staffing resources, and increase the availability of extracurricular activities.

Our Schools Continue to Age and Deteriorate

Budget austerity has cut services in the present and halted progress on needed improvements for the future. In addition to reducing the number of teachers in America’s classrooms, the recession discouraged needed investments in school infrastructure. The 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) report card gave the country a “D” for school infrastructure. “National spending on school construction has diminished to approximately $10 billion in 2012, about half the level spent prior to the recession, while the condition of school facilities continues to be a significant concern for communities,” according to the ASCE.

Making these investments would ensure all students have access to basic amenities in the classroom, and it would generate approximately 193,000 jobs.

Fewer Investments, Fewer Teachers, Worsening School Conditions Hurt Children

Fewer teachers in the classroom means fewer opportunities for learning, and deteriorating school buildings can increase risks to children’s health and safety. But decreasing investments in public education also delays improvements to school curricula and access to early childhood education.

In a highly competitive global economy, access to universal preschool increases lifetime earnings by giving students a leg up before their first day of kindergarten. Sending a child to preschool costs just under $5,000, but as a result of that education, a middle-class child can earn as much as $45,000 more over the course of his or her lifetime. In addition, a high-quality preschool education has been linked to reductions in criminal behavior, teen pregnancy, and tobacco usage.

As the downturn forced states and local governments to tighten their belts, slots in preschool programs, including Head Start, were eliminated, and there were fewer resources available per child. Nearly 5,000 slots have been lost since 2008, despite temporary upticks under the Recovery Act.

The below chart demonstrates how the number of slots in the Head Start program has plateaued over the course of the last 15 years, failing to keep pace with population increases. The Recovery Act’s temporary increase in funded enrollment is reflected by the separate red bar.

What Would It Take to Get Back on Track?

Underfunding education may seem like an easy way to reduce spending in the short-run, but in the long-run, underinvesting in education can be many times as expensive. Ensuring that education funding returns to pre-recession levels – at the very minimum – is crucial. It would cost approximately $43 billion to bring inflation-adjusted, per-student spending back up to 2008 levels in the 35 states where cuts have occurred, but the payoff would be immense. Such investments would also create jobs in a labor market still plagued by long-term unemployment.

Closing a corporate loophole in the tax code called bonus depreciation, which gives companies a tax break for necessary investments they’d make anyway, would pay for such investments twice over in fiscal year 2015 alone.

We can afford to give our children a high-quality public education, and there are ways to pay for these programs. To get there, our elected officials need to make budget and tax choices that reflect the priorities of the American people: invest in education, invest in infrastructure, and invest in our children’s future and the nation’s economic well-being.

For Further Reading:

One in Three: Interactive Map, Report Show Kids in Danger of Chemical Catastrophes, The Fine Print, 9/30/2014

One Year After Obstructionists Shut Down the Government: Where Are We Now?, The Fine Print, 9/30/2014

Unfinished Business in the 113th Congress: Whose Interests are Your Representatives Working For?, The Fine Print, 9/12/2014

Bill Would Eliminate Child Tax Credit for Many Low-Income Families in 2018, The Fine Print, 8/4/2014