Free Republic

Public school administrators say they need more money. They say they don’t have enough money to provide the classroom instruction required by the state. Administrators could well be right about the need to increase funding for instruction, but they’re dead wrong about needing more money. A study commissioned by the Governor’s Business Council finds annual operating costs increased $11 billion dollars from 1997 to 2004. Only $6 billion of this increase can be accounted for by enrollment growth, inflation, and increased costs associated with a growing population of economically disadvantaged students. Yet public schools spent an additional $5 billion above...