From 2000 to 2009, New York schools added “14,746 teachers and 8,655 nonteaching professionals” even as enrollment fell 121,280.
Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch pointed out in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this year that federal stimulus aid had come with strings that prevent states from economizing in areas such as education and health care.
“The federal stimulus has led states to increase overall spending in these core areas,” he wrote, “which in effect has only raised the height of the cliff from which state spending will fall if stimulus funds evaporate.”
And evaporate they will, sooner or later.