If North Carolina were a country, our level of taxpayer funding for education would be near the top — but the performance of our public schools would be mediocre.

These are among the findings of a new study by the John Locke Foundation’s education analyst, Dr. Terry Stoops. He looked at spending, student-assignment policies, test scores, and other data for North Carolina as well as for our chief European and Asian competitors.

On school spending, the latest international data are from 2008. North Carolina spent about $9,000 per elementary-school student that year in federal, state, local, and capital funds, and about $11,000 per high-school student. Only a handful of countries spent more. The vast majority of developed countries spent much less.

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