Headline: Taxpayers should expect more from public schools

A new report from the Education Law Center, a national group backed by teachers’ unions, is liable to generate excitement among advocates for spending more on Kentucky’s public schools. But lawmakers and local boards of education should look carefully at how schools are spending the money they already receive before asking taxpayers for more.

The ELC report, which ranks and grades states based on their level of public school spending, gives Kentucky a “D” and ranks it 35 th among the 50 states.

However, this is an improvement since ELC previously ranked Kentucky in 38 th place. Additionally, when the size of the state’s economy is factored in, the ELC report actually finds Kentucky ranked a much higher 18 th in the nation in terms of education spending.

This is because Kentucky has steadily increased its spending on public education to an inflation-adjusted record of $18,522 per student. A large portion of those dollars come from local property taxes, which create a lot of variance in spending across districts.

Locally, the Warren County Schools spend an average of $15,786 per student, while the Bowling Green Independent schools spend a whopping $21,247 per student, nearly as much as the state’s largest district, the Jefferson County Schools.

So where does all that money go? Classroom teachers might easily wonder this themselves since Kentucky teacher salaries have actually declined over recent years when adjusted for inflation.

Kentucky’s education financing system lacks the kind of transparency that lets the public accurately see how much money is spent at the individual school level, a problem lawmakers should remedy. What do know is that many of those new dollars went to fund educators’ pensions and increased health care costs, basic operating expenses for any enterprise.

New spending also funded a 55% increase since 1990 in the number of administrators and other staff members not directly involved in the instruction of children. I’m sure many of those individuals are working hard, but districts should seek evidence that every dollar spent is actually contributing to student learning.

And that brings us to the biggest problem with rankings of education spending like those generated by the Education Law Center. There is little correlation between how much states spend on education and how much students achieve academically.

In fact, the ELC report gives Florida an “F” and ranks it 5 th from the bottom in terms of public school spending, but Florida’s students are among the highest performing in the country. Florida operates a highly efficient K-12 education system. Meanwhile, a recent analysis by the
Heritage Foundation found Kentucky, where less than half of students are proficient in reading and math, is one of the worst states in terms of student learning for dollars spent.

We know what it takes to improve student achievement: a robust accountability system; consistent, improvement-focused leaders; safe, well-ordered classrooms; rigorous expectations; a strong curriculum well delivered; assessments that help teachers adjust instruction based on
student progress; and positive relationships with families that position parents as the primary educators of their children.

These are not expensive techniques, and Kentucky taxpayers should insist on better outcomes before they offer more money to government-run schools.

— Gary Houchens, PhD, is professor in the School of Leadership and Professional Studies and director of the educational leadership doctoral program at Western Kentucky