How much money to the classroom?

The question of how much local education funds are spent in the classroom in the classroom is always important, and it has become an issue in this year's campaign for Virginia Governor as Republican Bob McDonnell's education plan involves requiring local school districts to spend 65% of funding "in the classroom" and less on overhead and administration. The Washington Post provided an interesting analysis yesterday:

Fact-Checker: How Much Does Virginia Spend on Classrooms?

The McDonnell campaign said it relied on the "latest spending numbers" to examine classroom spending in Virginia, federal instruction expenses from fiscal year 2007. (According to those same figures, public elementary and secondary schools nationwide spent nearly 61 percent of their budgets on instruction in fiscal year 2007; Virginia came in at 61.2 percent.)

But the latest spending numbers from the state, in the form of the superintendent's annual report for fiscal year 2008, shows the state spent 64.8 percent of its budget on instruction. The difference is a somewhat technical disagreement over what constitutes classroom expenses.

For example, federal guidelines say teacher training, library and media services and guidance and social work counselors are "outside the classroom." Virginia includes those services in its classroom funding totals.

McDonnell's release cites Federal F33 forms, which apparently show that the following 16 districts (out of 134 in Virginia) meet his proposed instructional spending threshold:

Hanover County, Bristol City, Shenandoah County, Fluvanna County, Colonial Beach, Smyth County, Norton City, Greene County, Augusta County, Colonial Heights City, Fauquier County, Amherst County, Page County, Roanoke County, Harrisonburg City, and Highland County