Many have been underfunded for much longer than that. It's only after the GFC that we realized how bad it has gotten. When it was only the schools in the poor districts the middle class didn't complain (and didn't care) but as the crisis spread to even upper-middle class districts it was hard to ignore.

Now, overworked parents are blaming overworked school teachers about their underperforming kids.

Does funding correlate with academic results? Many studies say it is not correlated or is negatively correlated.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Adam-Smith-Institute-B...

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/09/does-spendi...

http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/secure/v7n2/datasets....

Some say they are positively correlated.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_...