If you guessed Nevada, you are right!
According to the Education Justice Center, Nevada ranks among the very worst state in supporting the education of its children adequately and equitably.
Because the state distributes aid unfairly and fails to use a reasonable amount of its economic capacity to support its public schools, Nevada’s funding system ranks among the worst in the U.S.
The State needs to design and implement a new school funding system that provides the opportunity to learn to all students.
On the National Report Card, the state receives an “F” in funding distribution, which measures the extent to which the state’s funding system is structured so that higher poverty districts receive more aid than lower poverty districts. In Nevada, the pattern is actually regressive with higher poverty districts receiving, on average, only about 69 cents for each dollar their wealthier counterparts receive. Such a skewed funding system thwarts efforts to improve achievement and close achievement gaps.
Nevada receives another “F” for state fiscal effort, measured as the proportion of the state’s economic productivity that is spent on education. Nevada’s ranking dropped this year. Furthermore, the state’s overall funding levels are below average compared to other states, when adjusted for regional wages, economies of scale, and other factors.
Nevada will need to increase “effort” if it is to improve funding distribution and raise the overall funding level enough to support student achievement. For example, the state funds only a few small pilot programs for students learning English, even though 19% of Nevada students are English learners.
Legislators recently voted a $1.3 billion subsidy to lure a Tesla battery factory to the state. But nothing for the children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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Probably not the surprise it might be given:
“Sales tax revenue made up about 27 percent of Nevada’s $3.2 billion in revenue last fiscal year, according to the state. Gambling taxes brought in about 21 percent of the total, while the rest came from payroll, mining and other taxes. Nevada does not have an income tax.
“States that are more dependent on income tax are less exposed to the eroding tax revenue, the report found, because they tend to capture more money from the increasingly wealthy top tier of earners. But revenue for those states can swing more drastically because the wealth of the highest earners is more concentrated in the volatile stock market.
“Roughly 70 percent of economic activity comes from consumer spending. But consumers have become increasingly reluctant to spend, as median incomes have barely increased over three decades and remain lower than they were in 2007 when the Great Recession began. Median household incomes, adjusted for inflation, climbed 5.1 percent from 1979 to 2012, according to Census data.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/15/report-wealth-gap-hurts-nevada-tax-revenue-growth/
Once again, it is wealth / poverty that is behind the gap though here it is between states rather than various components of the population.
Double or nothing anyone?
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Pennsylvania can’t be far behind. And our (thankfully outgoing) governor has handed out tax breaks to the tracking industry and a couple billion to Shell alone. But we can’t afford education.
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Why only one guess? I could have gone through a dozen or more before getting to Nevada. It’s a fierce competition.
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Nevada is known for its gambling. Guess this fits right in with that mentality.
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Since the government has funded the study of the inequities, you would think they would be smart enough to understand that the current funding system is unfair, especially, as they point out, in high poverty areas where more money should be spent. They should follow their own reasoning and work to address the disparities while sending more resources into high poverty areas. Testing will do nothing to erase the funding gap, and in fact, it only exacerbates the problem.
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Texas was competing with Nevada for the battery factory.
Texas is funding our schools in an illegal way. And poorly.
They won’t fix anything until they are sued! Repeatedly sued. 😦
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One problem who will enforce any type of judgement against them?
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Nevada used to fund near the top – and our scores were at the top too.
Now we fund near or at the bottom – and our scores are in the gutter.
Instead of increasing funding – this leads the powerful people to list 51 schools they will take over? Really?
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