A vast majority of tax payers think not. The ungrateful bitterclingers. ALG:
A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 72 percent of taxpayers say they are not getting their money’s worth from public schools. How much money are they referring to? Well, the nation as a whole spends about $9,000 per student on the public education system. Of course that number varies state by state.
But what’s more interesting from the poll is that only one in three voters thought that sending more money towards the education system would aid student performance. The rest of the poll takers were either unsure or disagreed altogether that money was the answer to the problems within the public school system.
There are many reasons why parents and taxpayers in general are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the system. States are trimming back spending, and all programs that receive state funding are subject to the cutbacks. Those taxpayers and parents who don’t think enough is spent on education currently are worried students’ performance will take a hit if less money is devoted to the system.
But the majority of taxpayers in the poll say spending isn’t the issue, so what is fueling their dissatisfaction?
“One reason is that voting Americans remember how much better education was when they were in the system and how it cost much less,” says Jon Coupal, president of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association in California. “There is a mentality that education money is being used for things that do not give a good return on investment.”
As dissatisfaction grows within the public education system, so do more opportunities. And with new opportunities available, the status quo no longer suffices.
This has led to many states now offering charter schools or voucher programs for students to attend private schools. Also, the number of parents who opt to home school their children continues to grow as well.
[…]
Research by The Heritage Foundation finds that increased spending on education has not led to better student performance:
“Since 1985, inflation-adjusted federal spending on K-12 education has increased 138 percent. Since the 1960s, real per-pupil federal education expenditures have more than tripled. Meanwhile, academic achievement has languished. Since the 1970s, math achievement has increased slightly, reading achievement has stagnated, and graduation rates have remained at about 73 percent nationally.”
And it looks like more taxpayers are finding those results consistent with their own children’s academic success rates.
Dissatisfaction within the public school system allows states to reevaluate spending, increase competition and boost a child’s academic performance levels. All good things for the many states that are struggling to stay afloat in these hard economic times.
So competition — which promotes ingenuity and drive — is actually beneficial, and not just some testosterone-fueled impulse nefariously institutionalized by the patriarchy to reward those with penises at the expense of those who engage in vertical logic?
I don’t know about that. I’ll have to wait and hear from my vagina next time it decides to go into one of its poignant monologues.
Until then, I see nothing wrong with a single entity run by earnest progressives and their union paymasters providing the curricula and methodology — essentially, shaping and then reinforcing both the content and the tools of epistemology — to the vast majority of America’s children.
I mean, it’s consistent. And fair. What could go possibly go wrong?
I read somewhere that the meme against charter schools is that student performance is often just the same as the school they abandoned.
Of course they don’t want to mention that they get those same-same results at a dramatically lower cost.
We spend more on public primary education per student than any country other than Switzerland.
Do you think we are getting our money’s worth? Innercity schools are drop out factories. Even suburban schools in affluent neighborhoods are producting kids who do not have basic skills for college. Tracking has resulted in about 20% of kids getting a decent education, the rest getting passed through.
Watch Waiting for Superman. It points out that America had the best school systems in the world in the late 60s but now is definitely at the bottom of most industrialized countries. And that film was made by the same guy who made An Inconvienent Truth. Hardly a right winger. It’s big heroes were Charter Schools, but it made very clear the Lex Luthers of this story are the Teachers Unions. But beyond Charter Schools, how about Parochial Schools (getting it done at less than $9000 a student) and better yet home schoolers like Carin (whose kids are out performing all).
The solution is vouchers and competition. And yeah, breaking the teachers unions.
Carin, I meant homeschooled kids in general are out performing all. But I am sure your kids are leading the way.
Geez, Jeff, next I expect you to challenge the constitutionality of a forced, under-penalty-of-law, national retirement program that’s been looted down to the last penny by its managers. Only in order to leave it unfunded to the tune of fifteen trillion bucks.
Why do you hate oldsters, Goldstein? Do the words Social Security mean nothing to you, man?
Abolish the Dept of Ed, now, save billions of dollars a year, and quite a few minds as well…
And here also.
If everyone doesn’t go to public schools, everyone won’t get a trophy!
Why do you hate children?!
My oldest two go to high school now- variety of reasons for that decision- youngest three still at home. I’ve got one guess as to why schools suck so bad .
Parents… Your children are all doing drugs. It is unbelievable how prevalent, and my kids go to a nice school.
People need to do what I do- trust em as far as you can throw them.
Friends, girlfriends? They come to my house. Period.
Yes, eve the star of this team or that.
Do not trust ’em. They’re not ready to handle the real world.
Everyone gets a trophy! Everyone is the best! Nobody is better than anyone else!
Geoffb – he is a good Governor.
“Saying everyone is special is another way of saying nobody is.”
The Incredibles is really a great movie.
That charter school in Harlem (one of the subjects of WFS) took the position: we will take kids in by lottery (so they are just average kids from the worst district in NYC, not cherry picked other than having the gumption to enter the lottery). Everyone of them accepted will be on a college track. And then they work the heck out of them and they manage to get well over 90% of them graduated. Which just shows if you challenge kids and teach them that education is a matter of goal setting, training and hard work, most will rise to the challenge.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/05/adult_baby_national_geographic.html
I am going to guess this one is a Democrat.