[jfnixon]

Underfunding? The US spends more than the OECD average on a per pupil basis. Why do you think the education system is underfunded rather than extremely inefficient?

"The United States spent $12,800 per FTE student at the elementary/secondary level, which was 35 percent higher than the average3 of $9,500 for OECD member countries reporting data."

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp

[mschuster91]

When there is not enough funding to provide kids with a 5-day school week and teachers have to buy supplies for the kids with their OWN money, then the system is underfunded.

I'd be interested if that figure included funding for competitive sports teams.

[AnimalMuppet]

No, it can still be inefficient. It could have plenty of money, and just waste it.

If that's the case, throwing more money at it is not guaranteed to fix the problem. It may just increase the inefficiency.