Jordan Campbell

Jun 4, 2024 | reason.org | Aaron Smith |Jordan Campbell

As public schools grapple with historic challenges—enrollment losses, learning recovery, fiscal cliffs, and others—it’s critical to examine the funding trends that will shape the future of K-12 budgets. With federal data from the 2022 school year now available, policymakers can better grasp how the COVID-19 pandemic affected public school budgets and what might lie ahead. Here are four key takeaways from the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest school finance data.

Feb 29, 2024 | reason.org | Aaron Smith |Christian Barnard |Jordan Campbell

Full Study: Public Education at a CrossroadsDetailed Reports for All 50 StatesPublic education is grappling with an unprecedented set of challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For starters, nationwide public school enrollment is down by over 1.2 million students compared with pre-pandemic levels, including losses exceeding 5% in New York, Oregon, and Mississippi.

Feb 29, 2024 | reason.org | Aaron Smith |Jordan Campbell |Christian Barnard

This section of the Public Education at a Crossroads study begins by examining revenue trends and then provides expenditure data for the following spending categories: support services, instruction, employee benefits, capital expenditures, and debt. As noted in an earlier section, nationwide, inflation-adjusted public school revenues grew from $12,852 per student in 2002 to $16,065 per student in 2020.

Feb 29, 2024 | reason.org | Aaron Smith |Jordan Campbell |Christian Barnard

This section of the Public Education at a Crossroads study examines trends in K-12 public school enrollment, staffing levels, and teachers’ salaries. Between 2002 and 2020, U.S. public education enrollment grew by 6.6%, as displayed in Table 13. During this time, enrollment declined in 18 states, with New Hampshire, Vermont, Michigan, and Maine all losing over 12% of their student populations.

Feb 29, 2024 | reason.org | Aaron Smith |Jordan Campbell |Christian Barnard

This section of the Public Education at a Crossroads study examines National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading and math scores for 4th and 8th-grade students. Importantly, NAEP data obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) were reported as decimal values. State rankings and calculated growth scores were determined using these unrounded figures.