As our economy declines, I think more and more attention will be paid to this issue. While there are certainly schools and districts that are truly "underfunded," the majority of them, however, are under-utlizing the funding they have.

I've been a huge advocate of improving efficiencies at the school and classroom level, and this is going to become increasingl important. One of the main areas of waste in our present educational system is due to the inordinate amount of time wasted in the classroom because of disruption and student management issues. This problem can be sucking away as much as 30-50% or more of productive teaching time, which, while it isn't obvious, has tremendous financial implications.

Moreover, if we can't afford to build more classrooms to achieve the "smaller classroom" objectives that are the goal of many states these days, we'll have to learn to do more with larger student populations.

And, the reality is, even if you don't have a child in the public school system, you are still affected because of taxes. So, while you're happy you're homeschooling, your tax dollars are leaking out all over because schools don't address areas where efficiency could, and must improve.

When you look at data over and over again that shows NO correlation between dollars spent per student and academic achievement, you quickly realize it isn't about the money.

While I agree that some school spending seems wasteful, I want to point out that you can't just take a "per student allocation" and think all the money goes into the one classroom. There are many, many more people and equipment "behind the scenes." You've got to pay building costs, including utilities and maintenance, plus administrative and support people, whether it's the school nurse, librarian, speech therapist, etc. and you've got general supplies like library books and overhead projectors and those sorts of items.
What I do find appalling is that in some school districts, they allocate a lot of money for legal representation, to fight against parents who might request special ed services for their child, when it would be cheaper for them, and better for all the students, to offer quality programs in the first place...that IS a travesty in public education!

I would gather to say that one should look at spending at the state and local level. We can look at what a district spends per pupil but you also have to take into consideration local property taxe revenue, the federal government, and other revenue fees. Put that all together and I am sure you will see that annual expenditures per pupil is much higher. Look at local school budgets, are we getting what we pay for should be the question. Are there areas in which we can find alternatives or make cuts in unnecessary spending? I am sure there are.
So in my opinion it's not a question of how much we have to spend per pupil but rather how we are spending that money. Is it for the best interrest of the child or the administration?
Sure, some states offer school choice but the catch-22 here in Illinois is that most schools will not accept students from failing schools so we really do not have a choice unless we pay extra via taxes in neighboring districts to attend a better school or higher fees for private school. Some do not have the luxury of homeschooling our kids, For us there is no "real" choice.