Is Increasing Education Spending Really Good News?

Dan Lips / January 29, 2010

We received an email today from Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “By now, I expect you’ve heard the good news,” the Secretary wrote. “…at a time when most government spending is frozen, the President proposed a significant increase in discretionary spending for education in his fiscal year 2011 budget.”

We were tempted to respond: What makes you think we’d think this is good news?

Secretary Duncan’s email offered a sneak-peak of the highlights of the Obama administration’s 2011 budget for education: “a massive increase in student aid” ($156 billion for 2011), a $4 billion increase for K-12 education programs, and new funding ($9.3 billion over 10 years) for a new federal preschool program.

But is this really good news for American students and taxpayers? Past experiences suggest the answer is negative: (more…)