Education in America–We Just Need to Spend More Money

March/06/2017 9:17AM
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Do you get tired of seeing these.  Sent by teachers, unions, spouses of teachers, retired teachers, and other bleeding heart liberals? These are to convince you and me that money is the root of our educational problem in this country. Tug at your heartstrings. No one does it better than teachers and the NEA, unless it’s farmers. 

So, is money the problem? No, its poor teachers protected by unions, incompetent administrators who are overpaid and have no clue how to run a business like a school, bloated pensions funds, waste, and a process that works much like it did 100 years ago.

The world has passed us by and this drivel sold to us by the media and the NEA is why. Try some facts for a change. Maybe, just maybe, you will decide we need Trump to revise the educational system with to Betsy DeVos making enemies with the perpetrators of this scam and doing what’s right for your kids and my grandkids.

classroomLet’s see if we can round up a few facts.

 The Great broke state of Illinois spent $13,077 per student in 2015, the latest date when census data is available. The state has the highest property tax in the nation and the most generous pension system in the nation. Illinois ranks 8th from the top on spending per student. Where does Illinois rank on test scores?:

#30 – Illinois

Average percent of students at or above proficient: 34.8 percent Percent of students at or above proficient in:

  • Grade 4 Math: 37 percent
  • Grade 4 Reading: 35 percent
  • Grade 8 Math: 32 percent
  • Grade 8 Reading: 35 percent

 Let’s look at the bigger picture. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released the results of its 2015 global rankings on student performance in mathematics, reading, and science, on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA. The PISA is a worldwide exam administered every three years that measures 15-year-olds in 72 countries. About 540,000 students took the exam in 2015. The US saw an 11-point drop in average score for math, while remaining relatively flat in reading and science. PISA 2015 average scores V2 Business Insider

How does the US rate in spending per student?:

The most recent OECD study — from 2014 using 2011 data — shows that the United States spends $12,731 per student on secondary education. Four countries — Austria, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland — spend more. Those same countries are also the only ones that spend more than the United States per student on primary schools.

CountrySecondary per-pupil spending
Austria$13,607
Luxembourg$16,182
Norway$13,939
Switzerland$15,891
United States$12,731
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Comment (1)

  1. Doug Gordon says:
    March 6, 2017 at 11:06 am

    Well, some might argue all four of the higher spending countries scored higher on the PISA than the US on math, so if we spent more we could expect to move up. That would be a false argument, but I can hear ’em using it.

    Maybe if we got back to teaching there really is a right answer to math problems and how you feel about how you developed your looney answer doesn’t really matter, aka kick Common Coe math teaching over the cliff, we might improve.

    Of course, I refer to myself as the chemist they hire who can do math, so I’m prejudiced.

    Reply

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