Baseline in Education Spending Should Have Per Student Spending Rising With Per Capita GDP

The NYT had a piece documenting the drop in inflation-adjusted spending per student nationally and in many of the states that have been seeing strikes and protests by teachers. The analysis is very useful, but a figure at the top of the piece may have given readers a misleading impression.

The figure shows nationwide inflation-adjusted spending per pupil since 1970. It shows a steady rise until the Great Recession, then a fall with the downturn and a partial recovery in the last few years. It...