John Stossel writes about what most conservatives have suspected for some time. Schools don't need more money. They already have too much.
Naturally, instead of considering his facts and suggestions, people have opted out of discourse to name-call. Big surprise there.
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.
He continues with illustrations of squandered funds and poorer performances. It's amazing how liberals so often try to model Europe, except in this department. Many European countries who outscore our students have much less funding available to them. We've known that for years.
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.
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.
I just wish President Bush would wise up in this area and stop throwing money at the problem. The expansion of government in education under his administration is one of the biggest mistakes he's made. Has it helped at all? Not that I can see.
Which is another reason we educate our children at home.
Posted by: Larry at January 18, 2006 03:02 PM
