[AlexandrB]

Fair enough. I guess I don't know enough about the overall funding picture.

What gives me the impression of underfunding though is that education spending is one of the first things to get cut when there is fiscal crunch. I think this is ass-backwards and a result of optimizing for the short term and ignoring the long-term consequences.

Still if the spending is at record levels...

[yummyfajitas]

Local governments cut education spending first because it is the single biggest category of spending. Added up over the nation, police, fire, prisons, roads and mass transit cost less than half of what education does (at the local level).

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/piechart_2009_US_total