Mark Twain popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Be that as it may, the following are raw statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics which is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing education data. These are just the numbers. You may draw your own conclusions.
South Carolina K-12 statistics comparing school year ending 2000 to school year ending 2009 –
7.7% – Increase in total enrollment
9.84% – Increase in total teachers
2.04% – Decrease in student/teacher ratio
3.03% – Increase in drop out rate (9th – 12th grade)
23.71% – Increase in total diplomas granted
50.54% – Increase in total expenditure per student
56.56% – Increase in total salaries
68.61% – Increase in total expenditures
For more information, please use the CCD Build a Table tool at http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionID=4