Searching for Budget Cuts

The Left frequently accuses the Right of pursuing phantoms. Nevertheless, the political Left has pursued a few elusive targets of its own, particularly on the academic side.

For example, one shibboleth that the professoriate clings to is the notion that government spending on education has gone down.  I was in the audience at the Modern Language Association in Philadelphia in 2006 when Scott Jashick of InsideHigerEd.com  advised the English professors in attendance: “Stop saying government funding of education has gone down. It isn’t true. The mix of federal and state funding has changed.”

Maybe Jaschik should have given this guidance to philosophy professors as well. In a recent article in the Daily Kos that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) academe blog reposted, University of Central Florida philosophy professor Bruce  B. Janz took issue with the sunshine state’s governor’s assertion that “The cost of obtaining a four-year degree has more than doubled since 1975 in inflation-adjusted dollars.”

“Indeed,” Janz writes. “And government support has dropped at least that much during that time.” Really?

“A big jump in federal spending for grants is limiting the effect of tuition increases—at least for those students who qualify,” Beckie Supiano reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2010. “The federal government spent $41.3-billion on grant aid for undergraduate and graduate students in 2009-10, the most recent year for which data are available, according to one of two reports released Thursday by the College Board.”

“That’s up from $25.2-billion the year before, an increase of about 72 percent, or $16.1-billion in constant dollars.” Constant dollars are a measurement of prices that economists and statisticians use to factor out inflation.

Janz goes on to claim that “Well, there’s also been a decline in funding in primary and secondary education, along with misguided testing and accreditation processes.”

“Dropping levels of skill can be closely correlated to dropping levels of support.”

Actually, “Total education funding has increased substantially in recent years at all levels of government, even when accounting for enrollment increases and inflation,” according to the U. S. Department of Education.

Total Expenditures per Pupil (for Fall Enrollment)

“By the end of the 2004-05 school year, national K-12 education spending will have increased an estimated 105 percent since 1991-92; 58 percent since 1996-97; and 40 percent since 1998-99. On a per-pupil basis and adjusted for inflation, public school funding increased: 24 percent from 1991-92 through 2001-02 (the last year for which such data are available); 19 percent from 1996-97 through 2001-02; and 10 percent from 1998-99 through 2001-02.

 

 

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.

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