We know little about how to improve the cost-effectiveness of K‒12 spending, and our ignorance is not likely to diminish under the status quo. Paul Hill, of the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, succinctly summarizes our situation:
Money is used so loosely in public education—in ways that few understand and that lack plausible connections to student learning—that no one can say how much money, if used optimally, would be enough. Accounting systems make it impossible to track how much is spent on a particular child or school, and hide the costs of programs and teacher contracts.
