This is missing the forest for the trees. The cost of almost everything government related is going up because the amount of money going to pensions is reachin

This is missing the forest for the trees. The cost of almost everything government related is going up because the amount of money going to pensions is reaching its peak (the rate of increase was quite high for the last 15 years, that rate is starting to taper off significantly, and will pretty much flat line in 15 more years). When a huge portion of your education spending is going to pay people that aren't working - you either need to funnel more money into it or cut. When the economy isn't great (for the ordinary person), the ordinary person is going to choose cuts - and then they'll align their thinking to justify their choice. Education is largely funded at the local level through property taxes which are rarely (never?) progressive. If given the choice, I'm sure a lot more people would vote to make the Bill Gateses of the world pay more for education. It's not an option, so they're choosing cuts instead. If it was an option, I'm sure you'd see a lot more ordinary people suddenly caring about the education of the poor.