On June 10, House GOP Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-MI) looked Loudoun County Schools Superintendent Aaron Spence in the eye at a congressional hearing and called him weak, pathetic, and a man she was grateful never taught her children — after his district suspended boys for complaining about a locker room filming incident rather than addressing the student who did the filming.K-12 public school spending crossed $1 trillion in fiscal 2024 — a first in American history. Fourth-grade reading proficiency is not significantly different from 1992, the first year the National Assessment of Educational Progress tested reading. Outcomes in all four NAEP subjects were worse in 2024 than in 2003. New York spends more than $30,000 per student and achieves 31% proficiency. D.C. spends $31,887 per pupil and scores below national averages. Spending and results move in opposite directions.The reason is administrative capture. Since 1950, non-teaching and administrative positions grew 702% against a 96% rise in students. A 2025 peer-reviewed study found that union density drives administrative expansion, not instructional hiring. Inflation-adjusted teacher pay fell 6.1% from 2002 to 2022 while the bureaucracy grew. Loudoun’s superintendent’s base salary was $375,000 in 2023, and it has grown since. That’s not a funding shortage — it’s a misallocation, protected by the $28 million in 2024 political donations from the National Education Association and the American Federation for Teachers.
The bureaucracy grew 702%. Reading scores didn’t move an inch
Public schools now spend over $1 trillion a year, yet reading scores haven’t budged since 1992. The problem isn't money. It’s who's spending it.
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