DESE 'Preliminary Report' Shows School Spending, Not Results

Writer, David Mancuso, at Contrarian Boston, recently got hold of a preliminary consultant report, mandated by the legislature, that he says seems to show that $23.7 billion spent on k-12 education in 2023 alone, produced few if any tangible results.

The Report, "A Study of SOA & ESSER Spending in Massachusetts" will be out in its entirety in June but Mancuso speculated that the preliminary report was a way to essentially sneak out the findings with minimal visibility.

Findings include that:

• Across all funding streams, school districts and Charter schools in Massachusetts
  spent the most on Teachers and Health Insurance categories.
• Teacher Salaries, Operations and Maintenance, Instructional Materials, and Other Teaching Services saw the largest dollar increases.
• Instructional Materials and Professional Development saw the largest percentage increases from FY19-FY23

Mancuso stated that "the total absence of any mention of student outcomes does not appear to be an accident."

The preliminary report can be found here.