Astonishing Spending Per Student

Recently a neighbor + reader suggested a chart and I found its source on Cato Institute's site

https://www.cato.org/blog/new-k-12-productivity-chart

The original source of the data was collected and analyzed by education scholar Dr. Andrew J. Coulson in his research paper "State Education Trends Academic Performance and Spending over the Past 40 Years" from 1970 - 2012.

To illustrate how much the spending on each student over past 13 years, I add two data points from Loudoun County Public School budget data of 2013 and 2025. Dollar amount is adjusted to inflation, namely $1.00 in 2012 worths $1.40 today in 2025.

Roughly we can say that we spend 244% more per student than in 1970, inflation adjusted.

LCPS	FY2012	FY2012 - Inflation adjusted	FY2025	Change
Per Student	$10,833	$15,166	$21,793	44%