America spends a lot more on schools than on police

In international terms, our funding for both is very average. From the grief and horror of the Uvalde school shooting came cries to defund the police. However, as Matthew Yglesias argues, this arises from a common misunderstanding about the scale of law enforcement relative to other important causes like education. And while Uvalde does need to tackle serious issues with its local law enforcement, taking funding away from the police force will have a marginal difference on overall school safety.