Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

If America Spends More Than Most Countries Per Student, Then Why Are Its Schools So Bad?
Business Insider ^ | 01/07/2012 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

Posted on 01/07/2012 2:24:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Spending Per Pupil International

Comparatively speaking, the United States does not starve its education system of revenue. The U.S. is one of the leaders in spending on Education, and yet it's schools are rated "average" by international bodies.  

The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

Worse, out of 34 OECD countries, only 8 have a lower high school graduation rate. The United States' education outcomes most resemble Poland's, a nation that spends less than half on education than the U.S. 

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: education; liberaleducation; nea; spending; useducation; usschools
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-106 next last
To: EGPWS
What we need is zero restrictions on who we choose we want to pay to teach our children without penalties in making that choice.

Correct. Get rid of our Socialist Public Schools. Get the Government and the Taxpayer out of the schooling business. Pay for your own children.

21 posted on 01/07/2012 2:42:09 PM PST by Doe Eyes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I agree with others that it has mainly to do with degradation of the family, and thinking of it as a daycare.

If a student is not too bright with parents who care about their education, they will be trying their best and likely pass regardless.

If a student is very bright but whose parent(s) couldn’t care less about their education, they themselves will start to not care.


22 posted on 01/07/2012 2:42:58 PM PST by PAConservative1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

teachers unions


23 posted on 01/07/2012 2:45:13 PM PST by Temujinshordes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind; wintertime

This is a good posting, because we can see just how fractured the opinion is on this. So far we have the following:

1) One clown blaming the curriculum
2) Next is the NEA
3) Next is the parents
4) Next are laws requiring that brats stay in class
5) Then comes social indoctrination
6) Followed by political correctness
7) The drive for equal results
8) Followed by lack of school choice
9) Federal/State regulations
10) Special ed costs
11) Excessive overhead
12) Teachers (finally, someone getting close)
13) Socialist (i.e., government-run) Public Schools (good answer too)

Unions seem to be the favorite

Thomas Sowell compared our education system with a Hydra. It’s multi-headed and each time you cut off a head, it grows right back and also grows an additional one.


24 posted on 01/07/2012 2:45:13 PM PST by BobL ("Heartless" and "Inhumane" FReepers for Cain - we've HAD ENOUGH)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

WHAT ARE CALL TEACHERS ARE NO MORE THAN COMMUNIST BRAINWASHERING BABYSITTERS!


25 posted on 01/07/2012 2:47:31 PM PST by dalereed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Pet peeve:

American journalists refering to things American as “its”.

America is an “ours”, not “its”.

/rant off


26 posted on 01/07/2012 2:48:16 PM PST by Cringing Negativism Network (ROMNEY / ALINSKY 2012 (sarcasm))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Because we lead the universe in non-teaching personnel.
27 posted on 01/07/2012 2:49:38 PM PST by Cyman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Other countries administer a sound whipping to the bad kids. We let them run the schools.


28 posted on 01/07/2012 2:51:20 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Principled

From the trenches.

I agree....lots of reasons.

For example: We have students who live several miles from our district and yet we are required by federal law (McKinney-Vento) to pay for a taxi cab to deliver and return them daily to their home. They lost their home in the district so moved in with a relative. The law gives them the right to demand a ride to our school though there are some in their new neighborhood.

We had a handicapped student whose parents demanded a lift that would take their son up and down a stairwell (old building). The basement was a locker room and small gym. He was too disabled to use either and only rode it once. Thousands of dollars. “Special Education” is incredibly expensive. Private schools aren’t required to have it.

I have students who are “shadowed” by a single adult as they move through the day.

Only the beginning. I could go on and on. Government mandates in all areas have impacted schools greatly.


29 posted on 01/07/2012 2:51:24 PM PST by Conservateacher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Teachers unions.


30 posted on 01/07/2012 2:51:50 PM PST by Joe Boucher ((FUBO))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL

My formerly homeschooled daughter is in 8th grade. She is doing well. Her art teacher recently contacted parents to tell them:

I am ......, your student’s art teacher this year. In the last weeks of the quarter your student’s are exploring graffiti in the fine arts. They have chosen a concept (Folk Epigraphy, Art, Tagging) for this project and are developing a piece of work that reflect this. Student may use any material/medium to do this project. Your students have decided to work with spray paint. Because I cannot use spray paint in school your student will be doing this project at home. It will be due on the day of the 19th.
I wanted to touch base with you to let you know this is in fact a project, and they are not buying/asking for spray paint to vandalize something :) If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
Thank you!

I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am at the low expectations ... and waste of time this is.


31 posted on 01/07/2012 2:56:17 PM PST by Chickensoup (In the 20th century 200 million people were killed by their own governments.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Because we teach children to socialize instead of giving them independent thinking skills. Not to mention trying point them toward sexuality far too soon and confusing them about the difference between men and women. We are creating all the wrong obsessions with all the liberal propaganda.


32 posted on 01/07/2012 2:57:06 PM PST by formosa (Formosa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Teach crap, get crap for results. Any questions?


33 posted on 01/07/2012 2:58:28 PM PST by Noumenon ("I tell you, gentlemen, we have a problem on our hands." Col. Nicholson-The Bridge on the River Qwai)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

the shols are fine

it’s the kids’ dysfunctional families that suck


34 posted on 01/07/2012 2:58:28 PM PST by silverleaf (Common sense is not so common- Voltaire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego
Some of our big city school systems spend the most per capita, and have some of the worst results.

The increased spending must stop. Those urban schools will not get any better given their students' backgrounds.

Every comment here is correct. Our schools are failing due to unions, low standards, idiotic fad teaching methods, poorly-educated teachers, decreasing parental involvement and too much time spent on social indoctrination.

Not to mention that the lunches suck.

35 posted on 01/07/2012 2:58:46 PM PST by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
'If America Spends More Than Most Countries Per Student,
Then Why Are Its Schools So Bad?'
Simple answer:
  1. The stats are based on the whole of the USA
  2. That means most of the Schools are in the 'Big Cities'.
  3. The 'Big Cities' are all run by Liberal (to outright Leftist) Democrats.
  4. Those Liberal (and Leftist) Democrats are all mentally ill.
  5. Their mental illness prevents them from 'living in reality'.
  6. As such their brains are all in some fantasy utopia that exists only in their sick minds.
  7. In this fantasy world there is no 'right' or 'wrong'. Everyone is equal and 'gets a trophy'.
  8. That trophy makes little Johnny, LaTisha, and Juan very happy.
  9. But the shiny trophy doesn't make them any smarter.
  10. Ergo, they all wind up, Dumber Than Dirt.
It's an easy problem to eventually correct -- get rid of the Psychotic Democrats running the 'Big Cities' and its Schools.
36 posted on 01/07/2012 2:59:08 PM PST by Condor51 (Yo Hoffa, so you want to 'take out conservatives'. Well okay Jr - I'm your Huckleberry)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! </arnoldhorshack>

Because there's little to no connection between amount of money spent and the quality of education?

37 posted on 01/07/2012 2:59:11 PM PST by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: silverleaf

yes, I went to public schol

or was it skewl?


38 posted on 01/07/2012 3:00:45 PM PST by silverleaf (Common sense is not so common- Voltaire)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: BobL

You forget about “No Child Left Behind”. Even before the passage of that, school districts would get problems if the performance of white students was too much higher than the performance of minority students. Raising performance of minority students is hard. Crippling performance of white students is easier.


39 posted on 01/07/2012 3:01:11 PM PST by PapaBear3625 (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Chickensoup

“I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am at the low expectations ... and waste of time this is.”

One of my kid’s teachers, I think in 4th grade was a bird watcher. Many, many, field trips. My kid could literally name every bird in Southeast Texas. Fortunately we only used school for daycare, we took care of educating him (and the others), and he was about 6 years ahead of his grade level by then (which doesn’t mean that much, as grade levels are so watered-down now).

But I did feel sorry for the other parents, who must have felt just like you. And this was a Christian School - and believe me they’ve been brought down (at least some of them) by the demise of the public schools.


40 posted on 01/07/2012 3:02:20 PM PST by BobL ("Heartless" and "Inhumane" FReepers for Cain - we've HAD ENOUGH)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 101-106 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson