Key Findings:
 
1. A senior state education official recently said that public school spending has “declined.” It is actually increasing.
 
2. Public school spending has nearly doubled in ten years, to $18.8 billion.
 
3. Per-student spending has nearly doubled, to $18,000, more than tuition at most private schools.
 
4. Teacher pay and benefits per year now average more than $126,000, up 37 percent.
 
5. Barely half of public school employees are teachers.
 
6. As public school spending and employees increased, the number of students has fallen.

Introduction

A senior state education official recently said that public education spending in Washington state has “declined.” This statement is not true, as understood by most people. On examination it turns out the official was referring to education spending as a share of the state budget as compared to budgets in some other states. No one in the general public would use such a cramped and obscure meaning of “decline.”
 
A true look at spending trends reveals that education spending in Washington state has increased, nearly doubling in ten years, in both absolute and per-student amounts.
 
To provide an accurate and objective report to the public, the following charts use official data about teacher pay and benefits, increases in school funding, and increases in school employment and student enrollment.

Click here to read the Policy Note in full.

*some of the data sourced in the publication requires downloading the full excel spreadsheet hosted through the link on fiscal.wa.gov and unhiding columns to see data older than 2016.