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CIAO DATE: 06/04
Soaring School Spending
On The Issues
April 2004
Frederick M. Hess
Abstract
The United States currently spends a good deal more on education per student than most industrialized nations, yet testing shows that achievement has not kept pace with spending. Nevertheless, school administrators continue to press for greater federal spending and claim that reforms cannot be implemented otherwise.
The Bush administration has recently come under fire for insufficient education spending. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) has been savage on the subject, and Democratic candidates have attacked the No Child Left Behind Act as an "unfunded mandate." Presidential hopeful John Kerry declares in his book, A Call to Service, that the Bush administration has "undermin[ed] education funding as part of a larger strategy of directing every available school dollar toward tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."
In a surprising turn of events, the Bush team has responded not by calling for more responsible and efficacious education spending but by bragging about its generosity and berating states for leaving $6 billion in federal education aid unspent.
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