Locally speaking, what our communities spend on education is a pretty everyday topic, especially if you either have kids in school or are a teacher, changes are that you keep an eye on the school budgets and voting options. But its also interesting to take a look at education spending on a much larger level. This handy infographic below takes a look at the US education spending as compared with eleven other countries – what is the annual spending vs. what are the educational outcomes. Does the amount of money spent correlate at all to better educational outcomes? Keep reading to learn more.
Spending vs. Outcomes: Does Money Make A Difference?
- The US leads in spending by a LOT – $809.6B per year. The next largest spender is Japan at $160.5B. That’s a pretty huge gap!
- That translates to $7,743 per student in the US
- Finland spends only $10B per year (and is the fifth largest spender per student) but has a 100% literacy rate and the highest rank of math and science scores.
- Australia’s students spend the longest amount of time in school – 21 years.
At roughly $15,000 per student, Madison spends about twice the United States national average.
The recent expert review concluded that the Madison schools have the resources to address the achievement gap.