[pc86]

> I went to the highest funded (amount spent per child) public school in my state, and as far as I am aware it was far behind in terms of curriculum strength compared to what my parents were taught in the Soviet Union at the same age.

This is because just pumping money into failing schools does not magically turn them around. There is little correlation between per capita secondary education spending and student outcomes.

[closeparen]

All else being equal, schools with substantial numbers of special needs students will have much higher expenditure per pupil because they are so disproportionately expensive.

Of course funding per pupil isn't correlated to outcomes. Funding per pupil normalized to their levels of needs and preparedness might be.