Enrollment in the state’s public schools is dropping, as are test scores for state public school students, while spending on public schools increases.

There are 1.5 million students in Pennsylvania’s public schools, 7% fewer than there were in 2019, according to a recent Commonwealth Foundation report. Since 2019, proficiency on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments has dropped 18.8%, while proficiency on the Keystone Exams, given in high school, has declined 21.6%. The policy group, focused on fiscal conservancy in state government, concludes that increasing support for shrinking schools, as has been done for the better part of two decades, hasn’t translated to students learning more proficiently. The foundation calls for more financial and regulatory support for nontraditional public schools at the expense of public schools.

Does that mean the state should write a blank check, or even bigger checks, to nontraditional schools like charters, cyber charters, career and technical education and home schools? That’s one of the lingering debates in Harrisburg as lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro continue negotiations on a new state budget.

We think the debate needs to be reframed. At the same time, anyone can look at the numbers and realize spending more money to provide a lesser education to fewer students makes no sense.

Career and technical education should receive both more state investment and receive more students from local school districts, in our opinion.

Comparing the allure of charter schools, cyber charter schools and home schooling, however, makes us wonder if perhaps the problem is the education complex itself that creates an entire industry in the public school system. Nontraditional schools feel more focused on student learning, while the educational complex that forms around public schools drives up costs while struggling to meet the standards created by that same educational complex.

We have invested heavily in buildings and programs in public schools. There is too much infrastructure and prior investment in public education to throw the baby out with the bathwater. One answer to the spending and performance problems in the public school system may lie simply in stripping away the administrative bloat that has been created over the years and focusing, more simply, on preparing students for life after high school.