Back-to-School Blues

By Scott Mayer

I have two children who just started back at public school here in sunny California and I've already got the back-to-school blues. It looks to be another year of adjusted schedules, fundraisers, buying supplies that I thought the school was supposed to provide, and watching teary-eyed teachers getting sent home with pink pieces of paper. Also, it seems like I'm always hearing something to the effect that -- it's because of those budget cuts. And I've been hearing it for years. The problem is that I am having hard time finding these supposed cuts. From what I've been able to discern (using the government's numbers) here and here for starters, it looks like after adjusting for inflation, spending per student nationally has increased almost threefold over the last 40 years (remember: per student spending accounts for population increases). Shouldn't we be getting three times the services (heck, I'd settle for 1½ times) instead of the continued reduction of services? And after reading this Cato piece about the costs being even.... (Read Full Article)