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By Esther Wickham | The Center Square
Spending more taxpayer dollars doesn’t make kids smarter, according to experts.
As K-12 test scores and student proficiency rates continue to decline nationwide, education experts question whether increased education funding is improving student outcomes or merely contributing to inefficiencies within the public school system.
National Assessment of Educational Progress data released in 2024 show that the average reading score for 12th-grade students fell three points since 2019 and is 10 points lower than the first assessment in 1992. Average math scores for 12th graders have also declined by three points since 2019.
Critics argue the issue is not a lack of funding, but how education dollars are being spent
“We don’t have an education funding problem. We have an education spending problem,” Ryan Walters, CEO of Teacher Freedom Alliance, told The Center Square.
Walters said increased funding has often gone toward administrative bloat rather than students and teachers. He said schools should be raising academic standards, improving accountability and implementing school choice programs to give parents more control over their children’s education.
“School choice is a huge factor in this. We need that universally across the country so that if schools are low performing and they don’t want to shape up, parents should be able to take their kids somewhere else,” Walters said.
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