Education

Since 1950, American public schools have experienced a massive "staffing surge," where the number of non-teaching employees has grown dramatically faster than the number of students. In 1950 the average class size was 35 and today that is 16. In 1950 there were 2.36 teachers for every non-teacher working in the schools and today it is one to one. While student enrollment has increased 100% the number of teachers has increased 243% and the number of non-teacher employees has increased by 700%. The result has been that while the cost per student in real dollars has increased the test scores have not. The cost per student has increased from $2,000 in 1950 to $20,000 today using inflation adjusted dollars. Inflation-adjusted K-12 education spending per student has increased dramatically, rising from roughly \(\$1,800\)–\(\$2,300\) in 1950 to over \(\$20,000\) by 2023. This represents a more than 300% increase in real spending per pupil, driven by lower class sizes, higher teacher salaries, and increased special education services. Special education started in 1975 and was not included in the 1950 data. The total spending on K 12 education in 2023 was $947 billion while $39 billion was spent on special education.