Seen a lot of stuff accounting for Florida Gov. DeSantis’ spending on teacher salaries as buying labor peace with a critical state-level Democratic constituency, but remember Dubya’s domestic policy also relied on education grants with “No Child Left Behind”.

I think a key thing is state/federal education funding is effectively a subsidy to (Republican-voting) exurbs, which face operating AND construction costs without mature property tax rolls, from (Democrat-voting) established centers of wealth