For the first day of school, James Wigderson:

A new study by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) shows that increasing school funding may not help school performance, and increased spending on administration may actually lower student achievement.

“When it comes to spending on K-12 public schools, Wisconsin is at the point of diminishing returns and just does not receive a return on investment for children,” said Will Flanders, the research director for WILL. “The state should look at other options—such as increasing competition through choice and charter schools, both of which are drastically underfunded compared to their public schools.”

The study by WILL, Money for Nothing: The Relationship Between Various Types of School Funding and Academic Outcomes, looked at the relationship between test scores and the number of non-teachers in a school district, per pupil spending in a district, and teacher pay. The results suggest that more funding for public schools will not improve pupil performance.

“As other studies have shown, there is no statistically significant relationship between overall per student spending and test scores,” the organization said in a release on Tuesday. “In fact, when proper control variables are included, school districts that spend more per student have lower academic proficiency in both math and English.”

The study also found:

Teacher pay has kept up with inflation, with average pay for teachers similar to teacher pay six years ago when accounting for inflation. There is also no statistically significant relationship between teacher pay and student test scores.

The average school district’s employees are 40.4 percent non-teacher. The study also found 101 districts have at least 50 percent of non-teachers making up their employees. School administrators make on average 305 percent of the average teacher in their district.

Districts with a higher percentage of non-teachers have lower proficiency rates than districts with a higher percentage of teachers.

All 12,919 Democratic candidates for governor, despite the 12 percent increase in school spending since the first Walker budget and the 21-percent increase since Gov. James Doyle’s last budget, claim schools need more money, including the person supposedly in charge of state schools, Tony Evers, of whom RightWisconsin writes:

Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Evers, a probable Democratic candidate for governor, sent out a fundraising email attempting to play to his supposed strength, school funding:

Our schools need help. Because of Scott Walker’s ongoing budget squabbles and his proposal to give billions of our tax dollars to a foreign corporation, our public school funding is in near constant jeopardy.

As an educator, Tony Evers believes our kids should be the first and last concerns of Wisconsin’s leadership, not political pawns.

Click here to add your name to Tony’s petition to support public school funding across Wisconsin >>

Scott Walker has slashed funding for public education year after year to further his radical political agenda. In 2012, Walker cut $782 million from public schools — and our public education system has never fully recovered.

Today — even after adjusting for inflation — state funding for public education remains lower than it was 10 years ago.

That’s unacceptable. Wisconsin’s kids are being denied a 21st century education because Scott Walker is playing political games.

As an educator, Tony understands that good schools are the key to creating good jobs and the skilled workforce our state needs to bring new employers to Wisconsin.

With your support, we can improve Wisconsin’s public schools and allow our kids to maximize their potential.

Thanks for making your voice heard.

One, let’s point out the obvious that the Foxconn deal is being received enthusiastically by UW System President Ray Cross, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, and the state’s technical colleges because they know the boon to education that a Foxconn LCD manufacturing facility would be. Evers supposedly oversees public education in Wisconsin (although looking at Milwaukee it’s hard to believe anyone is in charge). Shouldn’t he be able to see the educational benefit of Foxconn coming to Wisconsin, too?

Two, it’s funny how Democrats rail against foreigners when they want to bash Republicans. We’ll just take a page out of the Democratic playbook: What difference does it make whether a company receiving a subsidy from the state is foreign or not? That’s just a dog whistle to Evers’ supporters that it’s okay to dislike Asians. In the days after the violence in Charlottesville, Evers’ campaign to keep Wisconsin free of Asian manufacturers is racist and it’s wrong.

But a recurring problem with Evers is how he uses funny math. Evers claims that the state’s public schools have never recovered from the funding cut in 2012. That would be ignoring the change in state law, Act 10, that occurred at the same time. That law, which has saved taxpayers over $5 billion, allowed school districts to make up for the cuts by saving on teacher health plans and benefits. If school districts actually used the savings allowed under Act 10, the money that was cut by the state was made up in the benefit cost savings.

Before Act 10, in the days of Democratic Governor Jim Doyle’s tax-and-spend policies, school districts couldn’t keep up financially. Milwaukee Public Schools was going to lay off over 500 teachers before a federal teacher bailout prevented it.

Act 10 changed that.

Despite the success of Act 10 in helping the state’s public schools, Evers continues to criticize the law. He blames it for a teacher shortage even though research shows that Act 10 is not the cause. In fact, the teacher shortage is a bigger problem in other states that do not have a law like Act 10.

But even if we don’t include the savings from Act 10, Dr. Will Flanders of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty points out (again) in response to Evers’ email that school districts have caught up:

It is true that spending was cut in 2012 as a response to the end of federal stimulus. The state had a massive hole in its budget, and all parts of state government took a hit. However, the vast majority of those cuts have been restored. Nominally, spending is more today than ten years ago.  Moreover, under the proposals of the Senate and Governor regarding per pupil aid, spending is likely to be at the highest level in the history of the state even after inflation adjustments by 2019.

Instead of running for governor, perhaps Evers should go back to school.