With state and federal revenues crashing in the “great recession,” proponents of transforming America’s awful education system have a powerful new weapon. Better yet, it is a double-edged sword that cuts in our favor in two powerful ways.
To illustrate, let’s look at the graph to the right. (Thank you, Cato Institute.)
Here’s what it means:
First, it utterly destroys the argument that they need more money. They’ve had scads of money spent on education, and their results are flat (and that’s generous, when you consider how state standards and texts have been generally dumbed-down over the decades).
Second, it is now easy to illustrate that the “Government/Education Complex” has played a large role in the massive budget crises facing many states. Indeed, if the costs had only stayed even with test scores, the recession may not even have occurred, as households would have much more cash on hand, instead of renting their houses from the school district.
If someone asks you for the solution to the education problem, just tell them we need to fund children, not districts.
