On it's surface that spending looks terrible, but it really needs to be broken down at least urban vs rural and adjusted for very regional costs of living. When

On it's surface that spending looks terrible, but it really needs to be broken down at least urban vs rural and adjusted for very regional costs of living. When you compare against European nations, I would strongly suspect there is much more variation among district or even individual school funding in the US because we base our funding on local taxes and their funding models are more national. There is a lot to fix, and part of it is that for all the money we spend, to little filters down to teacher salaries.