"Look, I'll give you your billions for education, but no more photo-ops. Those damn FReepers are already giving me hell for spending more than LBJ."
Posted on 09/21/2003 7:28:25 AM PDT by Gothmog
There was disturbing new evidence released last week that when it comes to education, throwing money at the system just isn't working.
A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that although the United States spends more money on education than all other major industrialized nations, the math and reading test scores of our students simply don't measure up.
``There are countries which don't get the bang for the bucks, and the U.S. is one of them,'' said Barry McGaw, education director for the organization.
It's not exactly stop-the-presses kind of news. But still, there are politicians and teachers unions that have remained in denial, and that hasn't served the needs of this nation's students, who deserve better.
According to the study, the United States spent $10,240 per student in 2000. The average among the 25 nations included in the report was $6,361. Yet the performance of U.S. 15-year-olds on math and reading tests was below the middle of the pack - 14th, behind, among many others, Britain, France, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
Those nations spend far more modest amounts on primary and secondary education (in the average range), but their 15-year-olds scored much higher than U.S. students.
``These results highlight an extremely important truth about our educational system: I think we have become complacent, self-satisfied and often lacking the will to do better,'' said U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige.
If there were any silver lining here it was that fourth-graders did much better in reading tests taken in 2001, a result that tracks Massachusetts' own experience with MCAS tests.
But somewhere, somehow, we're losing kids along the way - and it's not just about pouring more money into failing systems. Now we have yet another report confirming that.
Too often we talk a good game about preparing students for the ``global economy.'' And some schools actually are doing that. But this latest report shows we have a very long way to go to produce students who can compete with our rivals in the industrialized world.
No, but it does buy votes.
That's all that matters.
"Look, I'll give you your billions for education, but no more photo-ops. Those damn FReepers are already giving me hell for spending more than LBJ."
The mechanism is one the educrats will never admit to: the oceans of money in the public kitty simply divert everyone's attention away from doing the education job and toward how best to get their fingers into the pot. Watch how the adherents of interest groups -- sports; handicapped; gifted & talented; sex education; environmentalists; and many more -- scream and rave at one another at school board meetings in the most affluent and heavily-taxed communities, while in poorer districts the meetings could well be held in a library.
Bring per-pupil spending down to $3000 per student per year, and suddenly a lot of expensive nonsense will go by the boards. Bring teacher salaries down to $30,000 per year -- plenty for nine months' work that can be done by someone who graduated in the bottom quintile of her college class, as most holders of education degrees do -- and we'll see only teachers who have an active interest in teaching. It's the extrinsic rewards, the opulence of the system, and the incentives and latitude those things create for involvements -- nay, for passions and crusades! -- other than basic education that guarantee the failure of our schools.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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