Ed Dept Official: US Ed Spending Now in ‘Full Recovery’ After Recession
May 16, 2019
By: Amelia Harper
Source: Education Dive
In the 2015-16 school years, seven years after the recession caused major hits to school districts’ budgets, more real dollars were invested in Pre-K through 12 than before the recession, Stephen Cornman, a statistician with the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, noted after examining a new analysis released this month that confirms an earlier report released in December. After four years of consecutive spending cuts beginning in 2009-10, overall school spending increased for the next three years to reach those levels, according to the Hechinger Report.
Per-pupil spending levels vary widely across the nation and, as of the 2015-16 school year, there still remained a 3.5% funding gap between allocations for students in wealthier and poorer districts nationwide. But a look at data within each state shows a different story.