Bulging class sizes, stagnant salaries, fewer teachers and limited supplies of everything from books to copy paper: That is what the reduction in per-pupil state funding looks like in thousands of classrooms around the country since the Great Recession — despite a much vaunted economic recovery.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in December issued a report that found at least 31 states not only have failed to restore funding since the end of the Great Recession in June 2009 but have continued to make cuts in K–12 education, despite the rebound in state revenues that has accompanied the economic recovery. According to the center’s analysis, 15 states have cut school aid by 10 percent or more per student between the 2007–08 school year and the 2013–14 school year, the latest year for which student enrollment figures are available.

The three states that have reduced per-student school aid the most — Arizona, Alabama and Idaho — are all led by Republican governors and have right-to-work laws that forbid public-employee unions from collecting “fair share” fees from nonmembers covered by union contracts. These states do not have a strong teachers union like the UFT to vigorously fight for greater state investment in public education.

Arizona has the worst school funding record of the 50 states. “Twenty-three percent of our budget has been cut since 2008,” said Joe Thomas, the vice president of the Arizona Education Association. “No private business could do that and still satisfy customers.”

Arizona class sizes are growing and basic school supplies — notebooks, pens, math manipulatives and even copy paper — are scant. “If teachers go over a certain number of copies, they have to purchase their own copy paper,” he said.

Thomas said there has been a surge of teacher retirements “because they can’t do the work anymore under these conditions — not because they have 30 years on the job.” Now, he said, 1,200 classrooms in Arizona do not have certified teachers. “When teachers leave, positions are left vacant,” he said.

The issue has hit home for Thomas: his son is one of 33 students in his 5th-grade class and has had four teachers in the past two years.

The loss of school aid is not for lack of state funds: Arizona reported a $325 million surplus last year, according to Arizona Public Media, but Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has said he wants to spend it on border security and to cut taxes, despite a poll that found 72 percent of registered voters want the money spent on education.

Alabama has cut per-student spending by 21.4 percent since 2008. In September, www.al.com reported that the state Legislature voted to transfer $100 million from the state’s education budget into the general fund to help plug a $200 million deficit.

While about 60 percent of the state’s schools qualify for Title I funding based on the number of students living in poverty, Alabama spends a paltry $8,755 per pupil (compared to $19,818 in New York State, according to U.S Census Bureau data reported in June).

Denise L. Berkhalter, the director of public relations for the Alabama Association of School Boards, said Alabama’s teachers have received only one pay raise — of 2 percent — since 2008.

“Teachers spend money out of their own paycheck to purchase common classroom materials such as copy paper, markers and glue,” Berkhalter said. “Between 2008 and 2015, five consecutive graduating classes attended all four years of high school without the state Legislature contributing any funding toward the purchase of new library books.”

In Idaho, per-student spending has dropped nearly 17 percent below 2008 levels.

Beth Oppenheimer, the executive director of the nonprofit Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, says Idaho is one of only six states that have not invested any state funds in prekindergarten or Head Start. Idaho only funds half-day kindergarten, she said, and there’s no legal requirement for children to attend school before the age of 8.

“When I speak to school officials at the school board association, I’m always met with ‘Where’s the money coming from?’” Oppenheimer said. “Our response is that it’s not our intent to rob Peter to pay Paul. I don’t want pre-K to take money away from already-starving K–12. The money is there — it’s about priorities.”