Shots Across The Bow

We need to Spend More on Education!

Isn't that what we keep hearing? I know I hear it from the left all the time. "We aren't spending enough! We need to raise more money! If we want world class schools and world class students, it's going to cost!"

There's a slight problem there, lefty. It seems we already spend more per child than anybody else in the world, and we're only getting fair to middlin' results.

Among more than 25 industrialized nations, no country spends more public and private money to educate each student than the United States, according to an annual review by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

But American 15-year-olds scored in the middle of the pack in math, reading and science in 2000, and the nation's high-school graduation rate was below the world average in 2001.

Why ever could that be, I wonder?

We are spending more already. The same article states that spending on education increased by 11 billiob dollars during the Bush Presidency. Why aren't we seeing better performance?

Could it be that simply throwing money at a problem does not actually solve the problem? Could it be that we actually need a plan, you know, that thing where you define the problem, design a solution, and set benchmarks to measure your progress towards achieving that solution?

Naah, we need more classrooms, more psych evals for the kids, more programs to boost their self esteem.

Posted by Rich at September 17, 2003 2:37 PM | TrackBack