Boudreaux Educates Kristof on … Education

One of the recurring memes among/from the Left is that we are never spending enough on public government schools, and that the more we spend the better. And further, any decrease in spending is analogous to a crime against humanity.
As usual, Mr. Nicholas Kristof follows suit with his recent column: Our Broken Escalator. His points read like a checklist from a Leftist user-manual. And also as usual, Dr. Boudreaux rebuts it with simple clarity and facts.

The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without
a mother's care, shall be in state institutions.
 -- Karl Marx

Given all of this discussion, it seems fair to ask what kind of return on “investment” (I use that term very loosely here) are we getting for our money in public schools? Important note: do not confuse a call to cut spending on public schools with a call to cut spending on education. They are two different things, often two very different things. So, let’s look at the data, over the last 40 years, how has increased spending on government schooling paid-off?