[Vision2020] Education spending

[Robert Probasco]

More spending is not answer
By Rod Paige, US Secretary of Education.


No idea in politics has hurt children more than the false and misleading
idea that the quality of education is determined by how much we spend. 

For three decades, our nation and our political parties have debated and
contentiously fought over the issue of money in education. But the facts
are simple: What determines a child's future isn't how much is spent, but
how wisely that money is spent.

If there is no accountability, or schools use unproven fads for
instruction, it doesn't matter how much money is thrown at a problem; it
will be wasted. 

Worse, wasteful spending and the debates about money have masked the
problem.

More than 35 years after Congress passed the first Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, public school spending per pupil has more than
doubled — even when adjusted for inflation — from $3,331 in 1965-66 to
$8,194 in 2000-2001.

In fact, the federal government has spent more than $321 billion on
education programs since 1965. Every year, spending on K-12 education by
all levels of government exceeds $400 billion.

Yet, citizens must ask, what have we gotten for all this? 

Fewer than a third of fourth-graders can read proficiently, according to
the National Assessment of Educational Progress. That trend has been
stagnant for two decades.

No, the problem isn't — and never has been — money alone. This is just
the most tired of all excuses.

As a recent Americans for Better Education survey shows, 66% of
registered voters believe that high standards and accountability are more
important to improving our schools than increased funding. 

[snip]

Posted 1/9/2003 8:04 PM  
 
read the entire article at: 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-01-09-oppose_x.htm
-- 
  Robert Probasco
  rcprobasco@fastmail.fm

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