Recently, a public school advocacy group used data from the National Education Association’s “Rankings & Estimates” publication to show that “North Carolina always has been a low-investment state when it comes to K-12 education and it remains a low-investment state today.” (Race to the Bottom, p. 4)
Interestingly, NEA researchers warned that their data should not be used to draw broad conclusions:
Of course, no set of tables tells the entire story of a state?s education offerings. Consideration of factors such as a state?s tax system, provisions for other public services, and population characteristics also are needed. Therefore, it is unwise to draw conclusions based solely on individual statistics in this report. Readers are urged to supplement the ranked data with specific information about state and local service activities related to public education. (NEA, “Rankings & Estimates,” December 2009, p. 2)
