According to a 2017 nationwide study titled “Back to the Staffing Surge” by Dr. Benjamin Scafidi at Kennesaw State University, Ohio has enjoyed a 26% increase in spending per student from 1992 to 2014 when adjusted for inflation.
Put another way, in 2014 Ohio public school students had 26% more real resources spent on their education compared to students in 1992. During that same period, however, the average Ohio teacher’s salary has remained flat when adjusted for inflation. This of course begs the question, where did all that money go?
The answer is a huge hiring binge of non-teachers. From 1992 to 2015 Ohio has seen a 3% decrease in public student enrollment, and the number of actual teachers hired has gone up by about about 3%, but the number of non-teachers hired has gone up a whopping 56%. Had administrators simply limited the number of additional non-teachers hired to match pace with student enrollment, Ohio would have saved $3.25 Billion.
All this might be justified if it meant kids were benefiting from this big staffing increase, but the data show otherwise. Despite the large investment in additional personnel, student achievement outcomes did not improve. From 1992 to 2012 the National Assessment for Education Progress (NAEP) long-term trend for 17 year olds remained flat, and graduation rates during the same period only increased slightly from 74% to 76%.
