WITH THE BABY BOOM generation reaching school age in the 1950s, the need for more teachers, more books, and more school buildings increased in the United States. So had the need for education funds. By 1960 the nation's bill for schools stood at about $15.5 billion, with new projects to help educate poor and minority students promising to send the total even higher. In the 1970s and 1980s educators pointed out the need for computers in classrooms, better pay for teachers, programs to help children with special needs, and improved school security. By 1993 total education costs, public and private, for the nation topped $490 billion.

People accepted those rising costs, believing they were necessary for better schools. But when education did not appear to improve—test scores remained level or dropped, high school graduates failed to qualify for jobs—people realized...