Education Funding

School Cuts: A Question of American Values?

By Anthony Rebora — July 18, 2011 1 min read
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New York Times human rights columnist Nicholas Kristof drops in on “his beloved old high school in Yamhill, Ore.,” and finds it beleaguered by budget cuts. The experience prompts him to contemplate the decline of America’s belief in the importance of broad, public education and to question government spending priorities:

How is it that we can afford to double our military budget since 9/11, can afford the carried-interest tax loophole for billionaires, can afford billions of dollars in givebacks to oil and gas companies, yet can't afford to invest in our kids' futures?

UPDATE 7/19: Calling Kristof’s piece “uninformed,” a Hayekian economic blogger counters that school spending, in historical terms, has actually “increased dramatically.”

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.