Failing our schools - and our children.
Walk into any locally-owned small business and tell them they're not earning enough money. Then tell them to do better - while you take money out of thier budget.
It doesn't work. Yet the GOP - who you'd think has enough business majors to understand that - wants to take more money from public schools.
I do not think public schools do everything right - we homeschool one of our children. I do think public schools should be there for every child. In America, we are supposed to be able to succeed through education. Yet the GOP wants to cripple that education in the places where they need the most help.
Simply adding money to school budgets isn't the solution - we need to determine why these schools have problems. But just like any business, slashing the budget is only going to make the problem worse.
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The problem is for the last 20 years the schools have been getting more, and more, and more money. The schools are not successful businesses which have survived over years. The schools are public institutions.
There are several typical responses whenever a parent, the media, or a politician say "There are serious problems with education." The typical responses are: 1) No, there isn't a problem. 2) Someone else contributed or caused this problem. 3) The schools need more money.
Thomas Sowell reports in "Inside American Education" that in the 1980s the per-pupil expenditures rose by 29%, in the 1970s, it rose by 27%, and in the 1960s it rose by 50%. (Inside American Education, page 12) The numbers I've seen for the last fifteen years just continue this trend.
We have thrown a ton of money at education, and the results have gotten worse.
Money is not the answer.
Henry, did you notice that the trend was LESS money being spent as time went by?
Further, I wonder if Sowell factored in inflation. Or if he took into consideration the integration that had to go on during the 60s... and subsequent improvement of substandard "black" schools since they'd suddenly be serving white students. Or the need to buy computers during the 80's and 90's - an expensive proposition, to be sure.
At any rate, the numbers and evidence that you give undermine your entire argument. I hope you realized that.
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