Poverty Rates and Spending on Public Education at the K-12 Level: Is There a Correlation?

Abstract

Many academics and policymakers argue that increases in spending on public education will reduce poverty. The goal of this paper is to evaluate whether increases in current spending on public education at the K-12 level lowers poverty rates in the United States. Using public education expenditure data from government and census Web sites describing cities throughout the U.S., empirical analysis shows a significant negative relationship between spending on public education and the poverty rate. This implies that increases in public education expenditures would lead to decreases to future poverty rates.