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Home Colorado Politics Debunking “49th in education spending” Colorado Fallacy … Once Again

4/29/2008 By Ben 3 Comments

Debunking “49th in education spending” Colorado Fallacy … Once Again

In a story about the new $18 billion state budget signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, a local Fox TV news station reporter stated:

In education spending, the State of Colorado ranks 49th.

Of course, this sentence is suspect from the start, because it doesn’t tell us whether it’s measuring higher education or K-12 education.

If the article is referring to K-12 education, then it wasn’t true two years ago, it wasn’t true last year, and it isn’t true this year, either.

There are two reliable sources for K-12 education funding data. First, Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau show Colorado ranks 36th in “current” per-pupil spending. The lowest possible ranking that could be devised shows Colorado at 47th in spending per $1,000 of personal income. Yet this comparison presumes the richer a state is the more it needs to spend.

The U.S. Department of Education ranks Colorado 35th in “current” per-pupil spending, and 26th in “total” per-pupil spending.

Other sources, like Governing magazine and the National Education Association, consistently have ranked Colorado near the middle in per-pupil K-12 education spending.

My guess is that the reporter was trying to refer to K-12 education, because the scaremongers typically say Colorado ranks 48th in higher education spending, not 49th. Even so, Mark Hillman debunked that claim last year:

Harmonizing with the choir crying poverty for colleges and universities, CFPI ranks Colorado 48th in higher education spending. Governing places us 26th, again right at the middle and just behind California. Moreover, the share of Colorado’s population enrolled in higher ed is well above average, suggesting that we’re getting good value and that affordability isn’t a significant barrier.

The reporter should have listed her source for the 49th claim.

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Education, Fiscal Policy, General Tagged With: 49th, Bill Ritter, Fox 31 News, Governing magazine, higher education, K-12 education, Mark Hillman, National Education Association, statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Education

Trackbacks

  1. Independence Institute: Caldara » There are Some Things $2 Billion Cannot Buy says:
    10/23/2008 at 11:28 am

    […] school districts are hurting for money. We stand at a respectable 26th in education funding, NOT 49th. And even if that were not the case, Ben rightly states, “Most studies show, there’s no […]

  2. Independence Institute: Jon Caldara » Ed Tax Hike Proponents Revive 49th in Spending Lie says:
    7/5/2013 at 2:32 pm

    […] to be 49th in education funding. On his own blog, DeGrow debunked the fallacy in 2007 and in 2008. The Institute’s Ed Is Watching blog stepped up to demolish the myth in 2009, and again in […]

  3. Ed is Watching » Somebody’s Got to Expose the Tax Hikers’ “49th in Education Funding” Deception says:
    7/11/2013 at 12:45 pm

    […] to be 49th in education funding. On his own blog, DeGrow debunked the fallacy in 2007 and in 2008. The Institute’s Ed Is Watching blog stepped up to demolish the myth in 2009, and again in […]

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Ben DeGrow
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