In the contentious world of education politics, the need to spend more on public schools stands out as a rare point of agreement. The authors' recent national survey of American adults ("What Americans Think about Their Schools," Fall 2007) found that those who support increased spending on public schools in their district outnumber those who want spending to decrease by a five-to-one margin, and a solid majority (59 percent) of Americans express confidence that spending more on the public schools in their district will increase student learning. Yet while the public's views about spending on education are well known, the same cannot be said about the information on which those views are based. Do Americans have an accurate grasp of how much is currently being spent on public education? This article describes the results of the 2007 Education Next-PEPG Survey which directly addressed this question. In addition to asking Americans whether school spending should be increased, the authors asked them to estimate both per-pupil expenditures in their districts and teacher salaries in their states. They then used data on actual spending and salaries, matched geographically to each respondent's school district or state, to compare the public's perceptions with reality. The results are striking: Americans dramatically underestimate the amount spent on the public schools in their district, even when prompted to consider the full range of uses to which school spending is devoted. They also think that teachers earn, on average, far less than is actually the case. The public's strong preference that more be spent on public schools is based, at least in part, on faulty information. (Contains 2 figures.)