The Graying of America and Support for Funding the Nation's Schools

Abstract

Surveys spanning more than 35 years show that older Americans are less likely than younger citizens to endorse increased spending on public schools. The conventional explanation for this gen- erational cleavage presumes that citizens' interests change as they approach or transition into retirement-the absence of school-age children and fixed incomes combine to lower their interest in supporting spending increases for public education. We show that the conventional wisdom is incorrect, based on a confusion of age and cohort effects. Cohort-period analysis shows that every cohort becomes more supportive of educational spending, rather than less, as they reach their 60s and 70s. The implica- tions are important, for they suggest that the predicted gray peril to edu- cational spending will not occur. Rather, our results suggest that public support for educational spending will continue its remarkable rise. There is no more enduring political cleavage in America than the generation gap concerning school funding. An examination of national polls spanning more than 35 years shows that older Americans are more likely to endorse lower spending on public schools and less likely to support spending increases. A sample of polls fielded by Harris, Gallup, National Opinion Research Center (NORC), and the Center for Political Studies are summarized in table 1. They show a pattern that we also find in dozens of state and local surveys that have used a wide range of question wordings: by every measure, seniors are consid- erably less supportive of educational spending than younger citizens. This generation gap is evident if the question asks about local spending (Chew 1992), state spending, federal spending (Vinovskis 1993), or spending in general without any government referent in the question (Ponza et al.