Comments on Thoughts on Education Policy: More on School Expenditures Over Time

I suppose it all depends on what questions you are...

2008-05-04T09:12:00.000-05:00

I suppose it all depends on what questions you are asking of the data, but several of those questions would require including (at least) college and post-graduate spending as part of "spending on education."

Also, one thing I have noticed is that many colleges now offer remedial courses and remedial programs. In effect, just about every community college (and a lot of four-year colleges) say, "We don't care how little skills and knowledge you left high school with. We have programs to get you up to speed." Should those expenditures be counted as K-12?

As far as I can tell it supposed to represent the ...

2008-05-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

As far as I can tell it supposed to represent the total budget of all K-12 schools in the United States divided by the number of students.

This needs some re-analysis though, which I should be able to get around to soon.

Oops! That should be "in your numerator."

2008-05-03T10:58:00.000-05:00

Oops! That should be "in your numerator."

I too am surprised there is not some upward trend....

2008-05-03T10:57:00.000-05:00

I too am surprised there is not some upward trend. So I'm curious just exactly what is in your denominator.

Does it include everything you would have to budget for if you were to start a school? Does it include building cost (either building new or renting)? Does it include teacher retirement costs, or just present pay?

Is it 1-12? K-12? K-12 plus college? K-12 plus college and post-graduate? K-12 plus college and post-graduate and other educational expenditures (beauty school, Head Start, etc.)?

oh, and thank you!

2008-04-24T15:05:00.001-05:00

oh, and thank you!

Rachel - I'm looking into it, but I'm in the middl...

2008-04-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

Rachel - I'm looking into it, but I'm in the middle of finals week so it might take a while

teacher - the data, as I understand it, is all education spending by all governments. It's definitely not just federal education spending, since that's only a tiny fraction of total expenditures and the figure for the final year is about 10K per pupil. That said, I think I have to make some adjustments to this chart, but it might take me a little while.

This is definitely some interesting information. M...

2008-04-24T14:59:00.000-05:00

This is definitely some interesting information. My only question is if this data is strictly FEDERAL spending as a part of GDP or does it also include state spending.

I am actually one of those radical people who would like to seriously look into getting rid of the US Dept. of Education as the Founders (I believe rightly so) looked at education as being a STATE/LOCAL issue.

GREAT post and blog!!

I said at the beginning of the post that I was ...

2008-04-19T14:49:00.000-05:00
I said at the beginning of the post that I was surprised when I saw that it was flat. I was surprised because I was under the distinct impression that countries tended to spend a larger share of GDP on education as they become wealthier.

I'd be interested to see international statistics on that. Clearly nations spend more on education as they get wealthier, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the spending rose less fast than overall wealth, at least basic literacy was fairly widespread.