‘We Have a Spending Problem,’ Lawmakers Told at House Hearing on Struggling Public Schools

WASHINGTON—Since 1950, the number of students in U.S. public schools has doubled, the number of teachers has more than tripled, and non-instructional staff has spiked by more than 700 percent. And yet, the Heritage Foundation director for the Center for Education Policy told federal lawmakers that only 65 cents of every $1 in federal education spending reaches classrooms at a time when math and reading scores across the country continue to plummet. “We don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem,” Lindsey Burke said on Wednesday during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies hearing on K–12 education finance. “It’s time to charter a new course.”...