The connection between school spending and educational outcomes is tenuous

See Teachers on Strike: The AFT and NEA don’t have students’ best interests at heart any more than the UAW has those of auto buyers by Jason L. Riley of The WSJ.

"So far the strikes and protests have been a red-state phenomenon, and liberals are having fun with that fact. Some see it as more evidence of left-wing enthusiasm in an election year. Others say it proves that Republicans, with their focus on cutting taxes and shrinking government, have gone too far. But both parties like to brag about how much money they spend on schools, and polling shows that most voters seem to buy the union line that more funding will improve outcomes in the classroom. Federal education spending, like federal spending in general, exploded under President Obama, but it didn’t exactly suffer under George W. Bush."

"The problem is less how much money is being spent than the way those dollars are being allocated. It isn’t hard to understand why politicians love to highlight education outlays. It helps them win votes and ward off union agitators. But the connection between school spending and educational outcomes is tenuous. The Cato Institute reports that between 2000 and 2015, which is the most recent year for which federal data is available, total spending per pupil at the state level rose, on average, by an inflation-adjusted 18%. During this period, it fell in Arizona while rising in Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia. Yet on 2015 federal standardized exams, Arizona made more progress than any other state.

New York, by contrast, boasts the highest spending per pupil and teacher pay in the country, but you wouldn’t know it from the test results. The most recent federal assessment, released earlier this month, ranked New York 27th in fourth-grade reading and 36th in fourth-grade math. Among eighth-graders, the state ranks 32nd in reading and 25th in math. Union leaders insist that these comparisons are meaningless. But if you’re a low-income family stuck in a crummy school, or a taxpayer wondering how your dollars are being spent, such comparisons may be the only ones that matter."