Schools lose ground as states face fiscal bind, UW study finds
Taking into account enrollment changes and rising costs, per-pupil spending on K-12 education declined during the past two years in 35 states that educate three-quarters of the nation’s public school students, a study by a researcher at UW–Madison shows.
Andrew Reschovsky, professor of applied economics and public affairs at UW–Madison’s Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, concludes that state budget problems have been shifted down to school districts.
“It was inevitable that education was going to be hit, but I was surprised that 35 of 50 states had real reductions in student spending, because the conventional wisdom is that education is really important and is in many states a high priority,” Reschovsky says.
Nationally, the study shows that real per-pupil spending declined an average of 4 percent from fiscal year 2002 to 2004, with Wisconsin recording a 1.9 percent decline. Massachusetts led the way, with a dip of 14.3 percent.
Reschovsky says that although states nationally increased total school aid by 4.5 percent over the two years, those increases fell short of being able to maintain per-student spending on a real basis when things like enrollment changes, inflation, and labor and fringe benefit costs are factored in.
“Even though state aid increased in some states over the past two years, these increases may not have been sufficient to maintain existing levels of education services,” the study notes.
The declines in real spending are particularly difficult for districts in high-poverty areas, Reschovsky found.
“These aid reductions will place many school districts, especially those with high concentrations of poor and special education students, in a very difficult position,” Reschovsky says. “To the extent that additional spending is needed in order to improve education quality, these districts will face the politically difficult task of raising property taxes.”
Reschovsky says the decline in real spending comes at a difficult time for school districts, as they gear up to meet the demands of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which will require more spending on testing and standards.
“This is potentially worrisome, because we are in an environment where we are asking them to do more with less,” he says. “We can’t do what industry has done. We can’t turn to technology as a savior. We haven’t seen good substitutes for teachers in the classroom.”
Reschovsky’s says that whether school districts in states that have reduced real per-pupil spending will be able to maintain educational quality will depend on their willingness to increase local resources for schools. He points out that local funding sources, generally from the property tax, are far less recession-prone that traditional state funding sources such as income, sales and corporate taxes.
But the study concluded that in the 10 states with the largest percentage reductions in real per-pupil spending during the past two years, state resources would have to increase between 4.5 percent and 21 percent to maintain a constant level of support for schools.
Among those 10 states, the average required increase in local support would have to be 13.6 percent.
Tags: research