Free Republic

Over the last decade the various teachers unions across the country have expanded their operations into the courtroom. Unions have threatened, and even successfully litigated, "adequacy" lawsuits across the country, to force states to increase funds to K-12 education. On Tuesday, Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association, threatened such an adequacy lawsuit. But what exactly is "adequate" funding? The National Center for Education Statistics reports that during the 1959-60 school year, Nevada spent $430 per pupil. By the 1999-2000 school year, Nevada was spending $6,145 per pupil. After adjusting for inflation, Nevada spent about 146 percent more...

Public school finance is a world where relatively arbitrary accounting categories are regularly deployed to give parents and taxpayers overly modest impressions of existing spending. In reality: 1. In Nevada, the true spending amount on K-12 education during the 2008-09 school year averaged $13,052 per pupil. 2. Per-pupil expenditures during that period ranged from a low of $10,889 in Churchill County to a high of $49,551 in Eureka County. 3. Although the Clark County School District officially reports per-pupil spending for the 2008-09 school year will be $7,175, the actual true cost per pupil will be $13,387. 4. Only 34...