The Hoodmaster General puts things into perspective up Rawlee way, reminding us of the state of things circa 1998 AD:

In that year, a Democratic governor and legislature approved a budget that spent an average of about $8,700 per student (in today’s dollars) on North Carolina elementary and secondary education. … To spend $8,700 per student in state, local, and federal dollars was to make a significant investment in public schools. It represented a 16 percent increase in education funding from just five years before, after adjusting for inflation and enrollment growth. … As it happens, $8,700 per pupil is a reasonable low-ball estimate of how much money North Carolina would spend on its public schools if the House Republican budget were to become law. Reportedly the Senate budget will allocate a somewhat-higher amount.

Yes, that would represent a real decline from a peak of about $9,500 in 2007-08.

Note that the peak meshes with the hot check boom years which artificially goosed state and local tax revenue. More:

The problem with North Carolina’s education system is not a lack of funding. It is a lack of productivity. With 16 percent more funding than public schools spent in the mid-1990s, do today’s public schools perform 16 percent better? Not even close. While the state’s math scores have slightly exceeded the national average since the late 1990s, our reading scores and graduation rates remain substandard.

Apply that many times over to CMS — except when CMS compares itself to the worst urban school districts in the nation, then the massive suburban-urban blend district looks “good.”

Now comes the money politics of it all:

Perdue and her allies argue that Republican legislators should renege on their 2010 campaign promise and extend the sales-tax hike now scheduled to expire in July. Democrats point to recent polls showing public support for the sales tax if it saves public schools from massive budget cuts. … f North Carolina voters knew that their public schools spent about $9,000 per student, it is highly unlikely that most would pay hundreds of millions of dollars in sales taxes to keep the figure from falling to $8,700.

That’s why the education establishment, furiously spinning reality in an attempt to pocket more of the taxpayers’ money, avoids any mention of budgetary specifics. Public ignorance is in their interest.

Does that remind you of anything in Mecklenburg County? In effect, we’ve already run completely through the “for the children” gambit with the $70m. to $90m. a year county property tax hike now on the table for discussion. The assumption is that the county must keep CMS whole — or nearly so — from any reduction in state support. That and supply millions in raises and benefits to county staff who remain Harry Jones’ most important and loyal constituency.

What meek opposition there has been to this massive proposed tax hike has come in the form of squawking about how many taxpayers would get hit and how hard. This is an important element, no doubt — and we were warning for years that most county homeowners would face to 10 to 20 percent property tax hikes come October 2011.

But the most important argument against throwing additional revenue towards the current system is that throwing money at education does not work.

It is a concept that the edu-establishment is loathe to consider, let alone accept. The time for doing so is long past.