American K-12 public education spending reached $1 trillion for the first time in 2024.
But what are students getting for that money?
While spending grew by 56% since 2013, reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as “the nation’s report card” — declined. Over the next decade, national student enrollment is projected to decline by 5.5%, around 2.7 million students.
There are some bright spots. According to the Georgetown University Edunomics Lab, students in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia have seen some recent gains, with Mississippi leading in reading improvement.
However, most states with increased education budgets have not improved student outcomes, and some have even experienced declines.
What they have done is hire staff. A lot of staff.
K-12 staff grew from 5.9 million in 2014 to 6.6 million in 2024, even as schools served about 1 million fewer students. This disconnect between spending and enrollment has resulted in situations such as a Chicago school with 28 staff members for 27 students.
There’s also a Memphis charter school that was renewed despite having only 14 students enrolled — it may have helped that the principal is marriedto the Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent, who is responsible for charter renewal — and 112 New York City schools projected to enroll fewer than 150 students, effectively creating micro schools and raising per-pupil spending to approximately $42,000.