Trends in Educational Funding - Public Financial Support Of Education

How willing are we to tax ourselves to pay for education? Fairly willing, according to the chart. Revenues per elementary/secondary student generally rose between 1930 and 1997. There was a leveling-off period in the early 1980s, a time of recession, and funding per pupil increased only about 0.14% annually in the 1990s. Per capita personal income rose at a faster rate than per-pupil expenditures. In 1930, revenue per student equaled 11% of per capita personal income. In 1997, the figure was 24%.

Michael F. Addonizio⁵ describes a "nearly 100-fold increase" in education spending between 1890 and 1990, "more than triple the growth of the U.S. gross national product (GNP) over this period, with K-12 public school expenditures increasing from less than 1 percent of GNP in 1890 to 3.4 percent in 1990."

Fervent antitax sentiment led in 1978 to the passage of Proposition 13 in California. This was just the beginning of a national revolt against the high property taxes that were a major source of school funding. Public support for education funding remains high, however, and other sources of school revenue were found (discussed later in this chapter).

The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago reports that support for education rose to the top of America's priority list in the 1990s. Support for education continues even though the number of families with school-aged children (under 18) fell from 55% of 1972 households to 38% of 1998 households. In 1973 and 1975, education spending ranked sixth out of 11 in Americans' list of spending priorities.

According to NORC, women (69%), African-Americans (81%) and the college-educated (67%) are most likely to support increases in education spending.⁶ According to the General Accounting Office, people in poor communities are generally more willing than are wealthy people to tax themselves at high rates to finance education; their problem is an inadequate tax base.

People opposed to increases in education spending include senior citizens on fixed incomes who no longer have children in the system, people who oppose tax increases of any kind, and a sizeable number of people who believe it would simply be folly to pour any more money into poorly managed school systems.

Sources: Chart: NCES, The Condition of Education 2000, Table 62-1. Digest of Education Statistics 1999 and 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov. May 2, 2002. National Education Association, Legislative Action Center, "School Modernization." Online. Available: http://www.nea.org/lac/modern/. May 2, 2002. "Dramatic shifts in spending priorities favor education." The University of Chicago News Office. 17 August 1999. Online. Available: http://wwwnews.uchicago.edu/releases/99/990817.spending.shtml. May 6, 2002. Michael F. Addonizio, "New Revenues for Public Schools: Alternatives to Broad-Based Taxes." Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99. May 6, 2002. Frank Johnson, "Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1998-99. Online. Available: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2002/. May 8, 2002.