Update: The Washington Post added a correction to the op-ed in question after publication of this op-ed.

The dean of the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education claimed in a December 10 Washington Post op-ed that “public funding for schools has actually decreased since the late 1980s, adjusting for constant dollars.” However, data from the National Center of Education Statistics shows that real per-pupil spending clearly has not decreased since the 1980s. In fact, inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending has actually increased over the last three decades.