“Gaping Holes” In State K-12 Spending Tracking
July 15, 2019
“Where, exactly, do those billions of dollars taxpayers annually spend for schools go?” asks Daarel Burnette in Education Week. “In most states, policymakers have no idea.” So instead they “give lawmakers a receipt that includes a summation of broad spending categories, a breakout of average salaries, and maybe a mention of whether spending is up or down.” And now, states’ “inability to track spending accurately was on full display this year as they attempted to answer a national call to spend more on schools and raise stagnant teacher pay, comply with a looming fiscal transparency rule under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act to break out school spending amounts, and work with state legislatures to replace decades-old state funding formulas.” But researchers insist more granular and timely data is necessary to “show where states can make cost savings and show where districts need more money.”