Dive Summary:

• The amount America spent per-student on public schools dropped in 2011 for the first time since 1977, when the Census Bureau began collecting annual data.
• The amount spent per-student in 2011 by the 50 states and District of Columbia was $10,560, less than a 1% drop from 2010, and total expenditures dropped for the second year in a row by 1.1% to $595.1 billion.
• Policy experts on both sides of the aisle agree that the decline in funding was driven more by the Great Recession's economic realities than any ideological preferences, and many expect funding levels to stabilize and rise--though not dramatically--in the next few years.

From the article:

... "They tried to insulate education spending as best they could … but you just can't protect it 100 percent," said Mike Griffith, school finance consultant for the Education Commission of the States, which provides data and analysis for state education systems. ...