Tough Times for an Education Budget Hawk

The author, an advocate for fiscal responsibility in education spending, expresses concern over current trends in public finance. They argue that increased education spending, often framed as a smart investment, frequently leads to bureaucratic bloat and inefficiency rather than improved student outcomes. This perspective, previously articulated in works like "Common Sense School Reform" and "Stretching the School Dollar," is challenged by the current political climate where significant borrowed funds are directed towards benefits for older populations. The author contrasts this with past fiscal prudence, citing the Greenspan Commission's Social Security reforms in the early 1980s and the budget surpluses achieved in the 1990s under a Democratic White House and Republican Congress. However, subsequent events such as the Iraq War, the Great Recession, and the Covid-19 pandemic have led to substantial tax cuts and increased government outlays. This has resulted in significant structural deficits and a quadrupling of the national debt from $9 trillion in 2007 to $36 trillion in 2025. In the preceding year, the federal government's total spending reached $7.1 trillion, with $4.4 trillion allocated to individual benefits, 62 percent of which went to...