School Spending/Performance

Policy Brief: Legislators, the media, and public interest groups are hotly debating Governor Corbett's proposal for deep cuts in state spending for public education in Pennsylvania's 2011/2012 budget. Inevitably, these debates raise the question of whether the state's increased school spending in recent years has made a serious difference in student performance. Public school advocates focus on the improvements in test scores achieved by students in Philadelphia and other districts in the region with historically low student performance. Opponents point out that even after substantial increases in spending, children in too many districts are still performing below the expected standard for their grade level. They conclude that the state has wasted money trying to rescue low-performing schools.

The one indisputable fact is that during the administration of Governor Ed Rendell...

(Click here to view the full report, including recent trends in testing and subsidization)