Education Vs. Education Funding

The Wall Street Journal has a good article dealing with the complete disconnect between more money for education and the performance of education. Here are some interesting facts,


...whatever the problem with education, it's not caused by any unwillingness to throw more money at it. Between 1997 and 2002, state and local governments increased K-12 spending by 39%. Even after adjusting for inflation and growth in pupil enrollment, real spending was up nearly 17%. And it went up in every state, even those with strict tax and spending limits.


When we cross-referenced spending increases with the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading scores, we found virtually no link between spending and performance.


According to these same tests, fewer than a third of fourth-graders are proficient in reading, math, science or American history.

The results are a direct refutation of the We Need More Spending chorus. Even a quick glance shows that the results are all over the map: Some states show improvements despite lower spending increases while others spend more yet make no dent in their scores. Surely it's telling that, even after jacking up its education spending by 46%, the top-spending District of Columbia improved its scores by no more than Florida, which is at the bottom of the spending chart but has been at the forefront of reforms allowing choice and demanding accountability.


The real problem is that, notwithstanding the $370 billion the states spend each year on K-12 public education, it remains a rare American monopoly. This election year we are going to hear candidates calling for all manner of new education spending. The question so few of them--Republicans included--are addressing is this: Is there any other part of American life that would receive tens of billions of more dollars if it kept showing no improvement in performance?


Once again, on such a central issue for Hispanics in particular, an issue that unlocks the key to getting out of poverty itself, it is the conservative philosophy that offers true reform. Instead of the same old "more money" solution that has kept us in failing schools for so long.

Comments

  1. Hispanic Pundit » Why Rehnquist Was Good For MinoritiesSeptember 14, 2005 at 6:01 PM

    [...] So Nebur could have Brown, in fact, throw in Lyndon Johnson’s supposed “War On Poverty”, those were billions and billions of dollars completely wasted, and throw in Bill Clinton’s billions to education, another failed attempt, he can keep all of that. I, on the other hand, am concentrating on the big prize. As history has shown, government is not the solution to minority problems, this is essentially why Brown failed, why LBJ’s “war on poverty” failed, and this is also why Bill Clinton’s large increase in educational funding did very little, to almost nothing, to improve the test scores. No, government is not the solution, government is the problem, and vouchers addresses the problem at its core. [...]

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