Nation’s per-pupil K-12 funding fell for second consecutive year in 2012

The Washington Post reports:

After more than a decade of increases in per-pupil funding for K-12 public schools, the nation’s per-pupil spending dropped in 2012 for the second year in a row, according to data released Thursday by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Schools across the country spent an average of $10,667 per student in fiscal year 2012, a decline of 2.8 percent compared to the year before, adjusting for inflation. Thirty-seven states saw per-pupil expenditures decline at least 1 percent, and some states saw much larger slides.

Per-pupil spending climbed steadily by at least 1 percent per year between 1996 and 2008, when the nation began to feel the effects of the recession. Spending flattened out between 2008 and 2010, and then in 2011 fell for the first time in 15 years.


In the world of school finance, the two-year funding drop is “big news,” said Stephen Cornman, project director of the national school finance survey or the National Center for Education Statistics.

We can only dream this is the beginning of the end of public education. We know, it's just a dream.