“You all know the facts.  There are fewer dollars in the public school system today than there’s ever been…”

– Gov. Beverly Perdue, March 19, 2012 press conference

We are still waiting for the NC Department of Public Instruction to report local, federal, and capital revenues/expenditures for the current school year, so I assume that Gov. Perdue is referencing total state expenditures on K-12 public schools.

According to NC DPI statistics, state public school appropriations for the current school year totaled $7.5 billion.  A year before, state appropriations reached $7.15 billion.  (See Highlights 2012, p. 2 below)  In other words, there were fewer dollars in the public school system during the 2010-11 school year than the 2011-12 school year.