Federal Education Funding
Table 8.1
235
Federal Funds for Elementary and Secondary Education, 1970–2012
Year
Amount (billions)
Federal Government Share of Funding (percentage)
1970
$3.2
8.0
1972
4.4
8.9
1974
4.9
8.5
1976
6.3
8.9
1978
7.7
9.4
1980
9.5
9.8
1982
8.2
7.4
1984
8.6
6.8
1986
9.9
6.7
1988
10.7
6.3
1990
12.7
6.1
1994
18.3
7.1
1996
22.1
6.8
2000
27.0
7.3
2002
33.1
7.9
2005
44.8
9.2
2009
56.7
9.6
2012
59.5
10
Note: As a result of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act in 1981, many programs and funds were shifted among various federal departments; the base of comparison has not been exactly the same since then. Source: “Revenues for Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, by Source of Funds: Selected Years, 1919–20 through 2004–05,” Digest of Education Statistics: 2007 at http://nces.ed.gov/programs /digest/d07/tables/dt07_162.asp; Mark Dixon, Public Education Finance: 2012 (Washington, DC: US Census Bureau, May 2014) at www2.census.gov/govs/school/12f33pub.pdf; and “Percentage Distribution of Public Elementary-Secondary School System Revenue by Source and State,” American FactFinder (May 22, 2014) at http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview .xhtml?pid=SSF_2012_SSF005.US01&prodType=table.
during the Reagan presidency appropriated to support education programs. Gone, too, was the emphasis on block grants as categorical programs began to remerge. A major target for federal dollars that were awarded to the states was the development and implementation of state curriculum standards.34 The trend toward more categorical funding gained momentum as we entered the new millennium. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 focused federal funding on standards, testing, accountability measures, and teacher quality. States were required to refine curriculum standards, develop assessments of the standards in reading and math for grades 3 through 8 and once in high school, and establish an accountability plan. Additionally, school systems had to ensure that all teachers were highly qualified.35
34 Gail L. Sundeman, “The Federal Role in Education: From the Reagan to the Obama Administration,” VUE (Summer 2009) at http://vue.annenberginstitute.org/sites/default/files /issuePDF/VUE24.pdf (February 9, 2015). 35 Pamela Karwasinski and Katharine Shek, “A Guide to the No Child Left Behind Act,” The Center for Public Education (March 15, 2006) at http://www.education.com/reference /article/Ref_guide_No_Child_Left/ (February 9, 2015); and Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, “Issues A-Z: No Child Left Behind,” Education Week (September 19, 2011) at www.edweek.org/ew/issues/no-child-left-behind/.
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