Claim: "This is the facts. You all know the facts. There are fewer dollars in the public school system today than there's ever been."
Speaker: Gov. Bev Perdue at a press conference Monday at the state Capitol
What the record shows: Total spending on K-12 that includes state, federal and local money has not been calculated and won't be available until the school year ends. Last year's total was $11.9 billion. But "ever" is a long time, and you don't have to go back too far to find years when total school spending was below $9 billion. Total spending in the 2001-2002 budget was $8.5 billion. Adjusted for inflation, that's like spending $10.8 billion in 2011.
Clarification: A spokesman for Perdue said she was referring to state spending on education as a percentage of the budget in the 2011-13 cycle.
This year, the state is spending 37.9 percent of its budget on K-12 schools. It was lower last year, at 37.4 percent, and in 2008-09, at 37.7 percent. Next year, K-12 spending is at 37.3 percent of the total, the lowest percentage going back to at least 1969-70.
Education spending as a percentage of the total budget has been declining fairly steadily for decades. In 1969-70, the state spent 52.5 percent of its budget on K-12 schools.
Ruling: Perdue's claim from her news conference is false. However, the clarification provided by her staff is partly true. Next year's budgeted K-12 spending, as a percentage of the budget, would be the lowest in 40 years and perhaps the lowest in modern N.C. history.
--Staff writer Lynn Bonner
Comments
Medicaid spending
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 12:44 — annie0623While I understand that a few tenths of a percent of a state budget is a lot of money, the fact that that the percentage of the budget on education is even in the same ballpark figure percentage-wise is a miracle. Do you know why? It's because of residents' growing reliance on Medicaid, the free health care program provided for teh state's poor residents. I don't even live in NC, but I am going to suggest that your researchers look at how the share of health care (specifically Medicaid spending) has evolved over the last forty years. I imagine back when education spending was over 50 percent of the state's budget, there weren't many people getting free health care paid for by the state government. I am from Florida specifically, and roughly one third of our budget goes to education spending and remains the largest share of spending in our budget. However, Medicaid spending has approached taking the lion's share of the budget as costs continue to soar. We've made reforms that have luckily kept spending somewhat at bay, but it's certainly something to consider.