Spending on schools has fallen by more than £400 million since 2010, according to analysis commissioned by Scottish Labour.
Research conducted by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Spice) found that local authority education spending dropped from £5.3 billion in 2009/10 to £4.9 billion in 2017/18, the party said.
Education spokesman Iain Gray accused the SNP of failing to protect key public services from "Tory austerity".
Mr Gray said: "Protecting education spending should have been a priority for the SNP when the Tories came to power - instead there has been more than £400 million worth of cuts since 2010.
"No wonder we are seeing soaring class sizes, overworked teachers and a stubborn attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils. No amount of sloganeering from the Nationalists can hide the fact that they have not stood up for Scotland's schools.
"Labour would take a different path, making the richest pay their fair share so we can invest in our schools and deliver a better deal for teachers, parents and pupils."
A Scottish Government spokesman said the most recent provisional out-turn results show they have increased real terms overall funding to councils.
He added: "We are committing £750 million during the course of this Parliament to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap and ensure every child in Scotland has an equal chance to succeed - including another £120 million Pupil Equity Funding direct to schools this year.
"Local authorities are directly responsible for setting school budgets and the latest figures show that local authority spend on education increased from £4.95 billion in 2015-16 to £5.07 billion in 2016-17 - a real-terms increase of 0.3%.
"Councils can choose to use their powers to increase council tax, by up to 3%, to increase funds at their disposal to support local services."
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