Posted on 01/18/2006 6:54:15 AM PST by Millee
"Stossel is an idiot who should be fired from ABC and sent back to elementary school to learn journalism." "Stossel is a right-wing extremist ideologue."
The hate mail is coming in to ABC over a TV special I did Friday (1/13). I suggested that public schools had plenty of money but were squandering it, because that's what government monopolies do.
Many such comments came in after the National Education Association (NEA) informed its members about the special and claimed that I have a "documented history of blatant antagonism toward public schools." "Stossel is an idiot who should be fired from ABC and sent back to elementary school to learn journalism." "Stossel is a right-wing extremist ideologue."
Not enough money for education? It's a myth.
The truth is, public schools are rolling in money. If you divide the U.S. Department of Education's figure for total spending on K-12 education by the department's count of K-12 students, it works out to about $10,000 per student.
Think about that! For a class of 25 kids, that's $250,000 per classroom. This doesn't include capital costs. Couldn't you do much better than government schools with $250,000? You could hire several good teachers; I doubt you'd hire many bureaucrats. Government schools, like most monopolies, squander money.
America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money.
In 1985, some of them got their wish. Kansas City, Mo., judge Russell Clark said the city's predominately black schools were not "halfway decent," and he ordered the government to spend billions more. Did the billions improve test scores? Did they hire better teachers, provide better books? Did the students learn anything?
Well, they learned how to waste lots of money.
The bureaucrats renovated school buildings, adding enormous gyms, an Olympic swimming pool, a robotics lab, TV studios, a zoo, a planetarium, and a wildlife sanctuary. They added intense instruction in foreign languages. They spent so much money that when they decided to bring more white kids to the city's schools, they didn't have to resort to busing. Instead, they paid for 120 taxis. Taxis!
What did spending billions more accomplish? The schools got worse. In 2000, five years and $2 billion later, the Kansas City school district failed 11 performance standards and lost its academic accreditation for the first time in the district's history.
A study by two professors at the Hoover Institution a few years ago compared public and Catholic schools in three of New York City's five boroughs. Parochial education outperformed the nation's largest school system "in every instance," they found -- and it did it at less than half the cost per student.
"Everyone has been conned -- you can give public schools all the money in America, and it will not be enough," says Ben Chavis, a former public school principal who now runs the American Indian Charter School in Oakland, Calif. His school spends thousands less per student than Oakland's government-run schools spend.
Chavis saves money by having students help clean the grounds and set up for lunch. "We don't have a full-time janitor," he told me. "We don't have security guards. We don't have computers. We don't have a cafeteria staff." Since Chavis took over four years ago, his school has gone from being among the worst middle schools in Oakland to the one where the kids get the best test scores. "I see my school as a business," he said. "And my students are the shareholders. And the families are the shareholders. I have to provide them with something."
Here in Fla., the Supreme Court just tied the hands of the legislature and the governor, ruling that it's unconstitutional for the State to offer vouchers. How they get that out of the Constitution, you'll never know. But the bottom line is that vouchers are dead in Fla., unless we can change the Constitution (or change the Supreme Court!)
As an aside, the way the Court got it out of the Constitution is this: There is a provision in the Fla. Constitution that guarantees a right to a good public education. So the Supreme Court ruled that offering vouchers is not public education and is therefore prohibited by the Constitution. Utter nonsense, of course, but it shows the extent that these Courts will go to in order to impose their vision of a socialist utopia on Americans.
LOL, if you are abolishing public school, you don't need vouchers :)
Let people keep that portion of their property taxes and let them pay for private or provide their own schooling.
No, but in general a conservative teacher does.
I agree with those who propose radical competition,but that possibility is largely ruled out by political considerations. Fifty years ago, the Catholic schools were numerous and growing, but then the Supreme Court stepped in and forbade government aid to them. That spilled over an prevented government aid to ANY non-government schools. The opposition to vouchers is simply irrational, except that are a threat to the ability of politicians to hand out political pork. Think of it as the same thing as farm subsidies.. or social security. But the chief obstance is that not enough voters are in favor of them.
You obviously have no idea how much residential programs cost. A typical day placement will cost between 50-100k a year and a residential placement will cost between 150k to 250k a year. Obviously, the amounts vary given the cost of living in your area.
I'm not saying that schools don't waste money. I am trying to put some things in perspective. European schools are not bound by the same requirements American schools are. We educate everyone that walks through the door through high school. They have the ability to pick and choose. In Europe, the care of the disabled falls on the health department for education, not the schools.
ping
In June our district closed my daughters' school because they didn't have money. They were going to save $300,000 per year. It was a great school (high test scores, high parental involvemnt, and lots of Christian teachers).
The district then spent 12 million (from another fund) to convert a middle school to an elementary school, and moved the kids from our old school and another school to the converted school.
Then, in September the district found 6 million more dollars so they gave everyone in the district a raise.
Now, my kids are at a huge school that is horrible. I'm seriously looking at homeschooling because one of my daughters reading level is going down this year.
I have never had problems with the teachers, but I have a huge problem with district officials.
I'm not talking about the learning disabled students. They do not add substantially to the budget, it is the other categories.
Want proof? Go to your own school district and ask to see a line item budget. Look for the special education expenditures. In our county, we have 9 residential placements at an average cost of $180k each. That is over 1.6 million a year. We have close to 40 kids in day placements at about 60K a year.
You cannot tell me that those large amounts of money do not have an impact on the "per pupil expenditures."
Corrupt administration. That's it!!
It may sound counterintuitive, but the best way out of this is to build more support for vouchers. If enough voters want them, ways can be found around the courts. The facts have to be got out; people have to be hammered daily by examples of the wastefulness of public education. I know it is hard when the media are ardent believers in the notion that MORE money will fix the schools. Siunds hopeless, but, hey, fifty years ago, anti-smokers had no hope of getting the practce banned. To repeate the cliche, where there's a will there's a way.
Ping!
Stossel responds to the critics.
Special education comes under different funding. My daughter has brain damage, and she benefits from special education services.
Considering how much my husband and I pay in taxes, we certainly paid for her share of therapy.
In addition, my daughter is very smart at math, and will definitely go to college and get a good job paying lots of taxes.
Without therapy, she would not have done this.
Lots of kids with special needs will do well and go to college.
When I was young, I had a friend who was blind. She went on to get a master's degree in speech therapy. She worked with senior citizens for many years. Special education also helped her.
I don't buy it. Until she retired recently, my mother taught these special ed students for many years. I assure you, she wasn't getting paid anywhere near the kind of money you claim people like her cost. In fact, because of union rules, she wasn't allowed to be paid more than any other teacher with the same seniorty.
Your daughter deserves a good education. And it sounds like she got one. But anything done within the confines of her IEP were done on the school budget's dime. (Assuming of course that she had an IEP.)Any county based services were not. She is exactly the kind of kid I was referring to earlier--someone who needs more than the basics to fulfill her potential. Unfortunately, there are others that require large amounts of dollars.
It sounds like she is going to be a great adult. You should have good luck with finding a good college. There are several out there that really work with the disabled to make sure they receive a solid college education.
Yes, but see earlier posts. The cost of their care is handled under the health budget, not the schools. If they are educated at all.
For a class of 25 kids, that's $250,000 per classroom. This doesn't include capital costs. Couldn't you do much better than government schools with $250,000?
That line needs to be repeated over and over again. :-)
Our local school system (MCS) published their budget in (IIRC) 2003, when there was a shortfall of funding. (trying to force a property tax increase.)
The published budget showed where they cut 100 jobs - mostly part time janitorial jobs, and teaching assistants - but continued the bloat of top heavy administration.
The locals - the ones who actually cared enough to read it - were howling about it. But it made plenty of political sense - the top administrators are the ones who pay the NEA dues, and the part-time teaching assistant doesn't.
And school officials wondered why they didn't get a budget increase. LOLOL
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