2018 teacher protests had limited impact on state ed funding

Last year’s teacher strikes, protests and walkouts have resulted in some increases in state education funding, but finance levels have not returned to pre-recession levels, according to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) analysis released Wednesday.Spending for K-12 schools has increased in Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia — four of the 12 states that saw deep budget cuts to education over the past decade, as well as statewide teacher protests in 2018. The increases range from a low of 3% in West Virginia and North Carolina to 9% in Arizona and 19% in Oklahoma. However, in Kentucky — another state where teachers protested last year — funding has remained flat, dipping by less than 1%. And even in states where spending on schools has increased, lawmakers are turning to revenue sources that may not be sustainable, such as cigarette and gasoline taxes or cuts in other parts of the state budget. “While the funding hikes enacted in teacher-protest states last year allowed for teacher pay increases and other improvements, those gains may be reversed in coming years unless the states take additional steps to boost their school funding,” Michael Leachman, senior director of state fiscal research at CBPP, and Eric Figueroa, a senior policy analyst, wrote in the report. The researchers reviewed state budget documents, as well as U.S. Census Bureau data, on per-pupil funding at the state and local level.