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发帖数: 19398 | 1 The nation’s per-pupil spending on K-12 public schools dropped in 2013 for
the third year in a row, reversing more than a decade of funding increases,
according to federal data released Wednesday.
Spending continued to vary widely across the country, from a low of $6,432
per student in Utah to a high of $20,530 per student in the District of
Columbia. The biggest spenders were largely clustered in the Northeast,
while the lowest were in the West and Southeast.
The national average was $10,763, down 0.6 percent compared with 2012,
adjusting for inflation.
That decline was less dramatic than the 3 percent drop the year before, but
it shows that, in many places, funding for public education has not
rebounded as the economy recovered from the Great Recession.
Twenty states saw per-pupil spending decline by 1 percent or more in the
2012-2013 school year, and some saw much larger decreases. In Oregon and
West Virginia, per-pupil spending fell more than 4 percent, and it dropped
more than 3 percent in Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana and Rhode Island.
Nationally, per-pupil spending climbed steadily by at least 1 percent per
year from 1996 to 2008, when the nation began to feel the effects of the
housing market crash and, subsequently, the recession. Spending hit a
plateau and then fell more than 1 percent in 2011.
[From 2015: Nation’s K-12 per-pupil spending falls again]
Per-pupil spending is “the gold standard in school finance,” said Stephen
Cornman, of the National Center for Education Statistics, which produced the
analysis. The three-year decline after such a long period of rising
expenditures is “significant,” he said.
The new federal data were released on the heels of a report by the nonprofit
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showing that state governments in at
least 31 states are contributing less to public education than they did in
2008, before the recession.
“Our country’s future depends crucially on the quality of its schools, yet
rather than raising K-12 funding to support proven reforms such as hiring
and retaining excellent teachers, reducing class sizes, and expanding access
to high-quality early education, many states have headed in the opposite
direction,” the nonprofit’s report said. “These cuts weaken schools’
capacity to develop the intelligence and creativity of the next generation
of workers and entrepreneurs.”
State funding accounts for about 45 percent of schools’ revenue, and it
declined two-tenths of a percent in 2013 compared with the year before,
according to the new federal data. Federal spending on education dropped
more dramatically — by nearly 10 percent — as the last of the federal
economic stimulus dollars dried up.
In contrast, local governments ponied up nearly 1 percent more for education
in 2013 than in 2012. But in most states, local governments depend on
property taxes to raise money for education, which means that poor
communities have less wherewithal than affluent ones to fill budget holes.
The National Center for Education Statistics also released spending figures
Wednesday for the 100 largest school districts in the nation. The numbers
ranged from $5,539 per pupil in Utah’s Alpine School District to $20,331 in
New York City. After New York, the highest-spending large districts were in
Boston, Philadelphia and Anchorage.
Four of the 11 highest-spending large districts were in the Washington area,
reflecting the region’s relative wealth and high cost of living.
Montgomery County was ranked fifth, spending $15,080 per student; Howard
County was seventh, at $14,884; Prince George’s County was ninth, at $14,
101; and Fairfax County was 11th, at $13,670.
Baltimore City schools ranked sixth, spending $15,050 per student. The D.C.
school system is not among the nation’s 100 largest.
Below is a list of per-pupil spending by state, from highest to lowest:
District of Columbia $20,530
New York $19,529
New Jersey $18,523
Alaska $18,217
Connecticut $17,321
Vermont $17,286
Wyoming $15,815
Massachusetts $15,321
Rhode Island $14,889
Maryland $14,086
New Hampshire $14,050
Delaware $13,653
Pennsylvania $13,445
Maine $12,655
Illinois $12,443
Hawaii $11,743
Nebraska $11,743
North Dakota $11,615
Ohio $11,276
West Virginia $11,257
Wisconsin $11,186
Minnesota $11,065
Virginia $10,960
Montana $10,662
Louisiana $10,539
Michigan $10,515
Iowa $10,291
Kansas $10,011
Washington $9,714
Missouri $9,702
Arkansas $9,538
South Carolina $9,444
Indiana $9,421
Kentucky $9,274
California $9,258
Oregon $9,183
New Mexico $9,164
Georgia $9,121
Alabama $8,773
Colorado $8,693
South Dakota $8,630
Florida $8,623
Tennessee $8,588
North Carolina $8,342
Texas $8,261
Mississippi $8,117
Nevada $8,026
Oklahoma $7,914
Arizona $7,495
Idaho $6,761
Utah $6,432 |
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