A common defense of poor public K-12 schools in America is their lack of enough funding. Liberal groups like The Center for American Progress routinely put out videos like this one denouncing the “underfunding of K-12 schools” that call for more and more money to be spent.
You may not know this, but I do remember hearing the expression. The underfunding schoolsIt’s like my head explodes. It’s not that I hate public schools or kids; both of my children attended public schools. The implausible notion that schools are starved of resources is what gets me mad. In public schools, the tax income per student is increasing. Nationally, 24 percentInflation has been a major factor in the decline over the past 20 years.
My home in New York has seen real per pupil revenue increase by an astounding 68 percent since 2002. The Empire State’s public schools are spending more than ever before. $130,000 for each child. That’s It is more than twice as high as the national average. This doesn’t include $16 Billion that New York got in additional federal and state COVID-19 funding.
New York’s public schools, however, are just as awful as the Mets or the Jets. With only about a third of students reaching grade level, it is not surprising that they remain so terrible. Math and reading for eighth gradeThey are widely considered to be the standard in judging school success based on their National Assessment of Educational Progress scores (NAEP). These scores aren’t significantly different from those of 20 years ago.
In reality, $30,000 per year is more than enough to discredit the claim of progressives and unions that schools will be fixed with more money. The rest of the nation has not seen an increase in their score due to more money. NAEP claims that any minor math or reading improvements made to students between the 1960s and 2000s for those aged 9 and 13, have been flattened by the time they turn 13. The same results are getting more expensive.
All of these are not mysteries. It is difficult to find a connection between higher spending and better outcomes, regardless of whether you are comparing U.S. States with other countries.
New York’s new funds have not been used to reform how or when things are taught. Based on A reportAccording to my colleagues at Reason Foundation (which published this website), teacher pay is on the rise in New York. They are particularly high when it comes benefits like pensions and health insurance, which has increased by 147 percent. In the United States, 12 states have increased their spending for benefits for teachers by more than 100%. Only three states managed to keep this increase under 10 percent. The cost of things such as administration and support staff have increased by another 24%. Recall: These numbers are adjusted for inflation.
A broken system can be fixed by putting more money in it. It is necessary to create a new revolution. HowEducation is both conceptualized and provided. New York’s public-funded charter schools have been operating for 20 years. This is good because it encourages experimentation and requires accountability. Contrary to conventional public schools which allocate students (and funds) based upon their addresses, charters are not. To stay in business, you must keep and attract students. The start with no money to spend. Even though the charters are more expensive than traditional public schools, they have long wait lists. New York City charters, for example, receive about 20% less money per child than other public schools.
New York caps the number of charters instead of increasing it, as most other states do. The state data shows that there are only 359 charter schools compared with 4,411 public schools. New York has worse statistics It doesn’t permit education savings accounts, tax credit scholarships or vouchers which would enable more families to choose where their children learn.
New York should be focusing on increasing the number and diversity of schools. This is what the nation and New York need to do. Kudos to all 18 states who have expanded or started choice programs. If we do not fundamentally alter our educational system, then it will be difficult to improve the education outcomes of our children. HowThey are educated.
When you look back 20 years, virtually every other service in our lives—from coffee drinks to media to medicine—has gone through multiple revolutions in terms of what’s available and the quality of what’s being offered. Everything becomes more tailored to the user, is more flexible, and sometimes even cheaper. It’s obvious that this is true for things such as food and consumer electronics, but also applies to big-ticket items such as cars. They are much more expensive today than they were 20 years ago (but still cost less inflation-adjusted). Although medical expenses are on the rise, think of how better the choice and quality.
The public K-12 system is one of the few that remains the same today as when our grandparents and parents were there. Only thing that has changed is the cost of education, which keeps on increasing.
Nick Gillespie wrote the lyrics. Regan Taylor produced the video.
Photo Credits: Menetekel, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; JIM RUYMEN/UPI/Newscom; Internet Archive; Mark Hertzberg/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Maryland GovPics, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Jim.henderson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Rick Davis / SplashNews/Newscom; Lev Radin/Sipa USA/Newscom; Richard B. Levine/Newscom; Sportswire/Newscom; All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Music credits: Dani Jalali, Instrumental Version of Baseball via Artlist. The Mind Sweepers Short Version of Rancid Life via Artlist.