Author(s): Benjamin Scafidi America’s K-12 public education
system has experienced tremendous historical growth in
employment, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s
National Center for Education Statistics. Between fiscal year
(FY) 1950 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students
in the United States increased by 96 percent while the number of
full-time equivalent (FTE) school employees grew 386 percent.
Public schools grew staffing at a rate four times faster than
the increase in students over that time period. Of those
personnel, teachers’ numbers increased 252 percent while
administrators and other staff experienced growth of 702
percent, more than seven times the increase in students. In a
recent Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, Lindsey Burke (2012)
reports that since 1970, the number of students in American
public schools increased by 8 percent while the number of
teachers increased 60 percent and the number of non-teaching
personnel increased 138 percent. That hiring pattern has pe