Chronic Disinvestment in K-12 Schools

Americans all over the country asking why public school teachers are not paid enough to support their families, why students are using dilapidated textbooks, and why students are attending crumbling schools. The answer to these questions is that, on the whole, far too many states have systematically disinvested in K-12 funding in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession. These cuts affect school inputs, from teacher salaries to student resources; they also have significant impacts on critical outcomes such as student achievement.

This issue brief presents data on the chronic underinvestment in schools since the Great Recession.

In the decade-long recovery that has followed the recession, only a handful of states have returned to pre-recession levels of spending. The majority continue to spend less on education than they did 10 years ago.