Last year, the good folks at Ed Choice released a working paper, “Priorities of State and Local Governments from 1994 – 2002” that details the priorities of K-12 spending in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
“Public school advocacy organizations, elected officials, and the media routinely make assertions that lead Americans to believe (incorrectly) that K-12 public education has not been a priority in this country,” said Ben Scafidi, report author and professor of economics at Kennesaw State University in Georgia.
“The data presented in this report indicates that these assertions are misleading and are polar opposites from the truth.”
Here’s a link to the report and the state-by-state analysis.