U.S. K-12 Education, By the Numbers
It is difficult to grasp the full complexity of our American education system. While many families understand that access to education is essential for improved lifetime outcomes, the challenges inherent in our national system seem insurmountable. Ours is a complicated education landscape. The great size and diversity of our K-12 schools adds to the complexity. There are additional challenges at the student, teacher, family, and school level. To get a better understanding of the full scope of our K-12 education system it is useful to consider some key facts and figures.
A total of 50.7 million students attended U.S. public schools in 2018 (National Center for Education Statistics 2021). There were an additional 6 million students in private schools and 3.3 million students in charter schools (Riser-Kositsky 2019). These figures do not include increasing numbers of home-school students. The continued flow of young migrant children into the United States adds to these growing numbers as well. In 2015 almost a quarter of students in K-12 public schools were from immigrant families, which has increased from seven percent in 1980 and 11 percent in 1990 (Camarota, Griffith and Zeigler 2017). That percentage has likely increased. There are an average of 527 students in each public school, although this varies, with suburban schools having the highest enrollment at 656 students on average (Riser-Kositsky 2019). Urban and suburban schools alike have increasingly diverse student populations. Although, the increasing diversity of suburban schools presents a unique challenge for those communities.
Both city and suburban schools have experienced significant demographic shifts in recent years. In 2018, roughly 31 percent of public-schools had minority student representation that was above 75 percent (National Center for Education Statistics 2021). Majority-minority school districts are proliferating across the United States. In fact, the 2015–2016 school year represents the first time in U.S. history when most public-school students were from minority groups. The shifting demographics of the student body, however, is not reflected in school faculty and administration. In 2018, 79.3%of teachers were white (Riser-Kositsky 2019). These demographic shifts could portend challenges for teachers and school communities, as they adapt to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student body (Maxwell 2014). Both the diversity and size of the U.S. student population adds layers of complexity to the issue of school reform as different groups seek different outcomes among students. Current debate in the United States centers around the idea of culturally inclusive education. Families are at odds about how culture and history is taught in the classroom. Demographic shifts are likely to exacerbate some of this issues.
It is also true that “as districts have become more racially and ethnically diverse, they’ve also become poorer” (Maxwell 2014). Families can raise socioeconomic status through education, however, low-income students often struggle to succeed academically due to immediate unmet needs. This is a particular challenge for the United States, which has a significant portion of impoverished youth. Although there are attempts to address this issue. The United States spends a significant amount on education. Almost 735 billion dollars were spent on public elementary and secondary school students in the 2017–2018 school year, which averages out to $13,679 spent per student (Riser-Kositsky 2019). The United States spends more per student than many other OECD nations. For 2017, the United States had the fourth highest expenditures per student, which was only less than Luxembourg at $21,900, Austria at $15,600 and Norway at $15,600 (Institute of Education Sciences — National Center for Education Statistics 2021).
Nevertheless, these outsize expenditures contrast sharply with the enormous needs among U.S. K-12 students. The United States has one of the highest rates of child poverty among developed nations at 20.2 percent, with Denmark closer to the norm at under four percent for their child poverty rate (Wilson and Schieder 2018). The United States remains an outlier on child poverty which is, unfortunately, not offset by education expenditures. The United States does not make significant investment in children. We do not target child poverty effectively. Studies substantiate the fact that “the relative child poverty rate tends to be lower in countries that choose to invest more of their national income in programs that alleviate poverty and material hardship” for families (Wilson and Schieder 2018). The United States has made great strides in decreasing retirement age poverty using public expenditures like social security. Similar efforts may be needed for the youth population. This is a missed opportunity in education. A focus on families, and closing income gaps at home, could potentially affect broad academic achievement in U.S. schools. The United States seeks to close the achievement gap for low-income students via expenditures in the school. However, this is an insufficient remedy for families. Students exist within families, and the outsize investment in education, has little impact on the family structure, so the issue remains. The United States needs to target poverty directly within families if it plans to effectively close the achievement gap in education.
