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Sponsor cites decades of rising education spending and flat NAEP scores to justify ending federal role
Summary
Leader Zachary argued that inflation-adjusted per-pupil K–12 spending has roughly tripled since the 1970s while long-term NAEP reading and math scores remain flat, using those claims to argue the Department of Education hasn't delivered results.
Leader Zachary told the committee that "inflation adjusted K through 12 spending per pupil has roughly tripled since the 19 seventies, yet NAEP long term reading and math scores for 17 year olds are flat and at the same level since the 19 seventies." He said the department had expanded federal control without improving student outcomes and described it as "a bureaucracy without results."
Regent McKenzie pressed back on that framing, arguing long-term price and wage changes complicate simple comparisons: "So to pull numbers and say that things have tripled... it sounds good, but it's not relevant." She said more context is needed to evaluate whether increased spending has appropriately translated into program improvements or whether comparisons misstate real purchasing power.
The committee did not resolve the empirical dispute in this hearing; members asked for focus on the resolution text and said the proposed task force would be an appropriate venue to examine data and operational details.
