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Of all of the myths promoted by the Cartel in control of our public education system; and believed by the herd of soccer mom (and their emasculated husbands); is the mistaken belief that more spending equals better results.
Now, this is a topic that has been studied to death. Some studies "prove" that of course spending more money will get you better results, while others show that it doesn't.
Like most of these Public Education Myths, a little application of common sense goes a long way. This is why the Cartel has declared a war on common sense. Kill common sense, and you can convince the electorate of anything.
Ask yourself these questions.
When a teacher 2-3 years from retirement gets large salary increases (for the purposes of gaming a higher pension), how does that help "improve education?"
When that teacher retires and the replacement is used to hire three low salary special education "facilitators" to place disruptive or severely handicapped children in a regular classroom, how does that help "improve education?"
When the state increases taxes to paper over a $17 billion shortfall in the Teacher's Retirement System, how does that help "improve education?"
When a connected building contractor is allowed to submit different bids for the same school renovation project; with differences depending on whether a new school building is approved by referendum or not, how does that help "improve education?"
Answer... None of the above will "improve" education. They are actual examples of legal and illegal corruption. To approve taxes at the state or local level to fund this corruption is to lie to yourself. This is psychologically unhealthy.
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The examples above are only the tip of the iceberg, and they are evidence that I'm right about exposing this myth. The fact is that the US spends more than any OECD nation on education and gets much less.
Sooner or later the suburban voters (brainwashed by their union bought PTOs and PTAs) have to realize that the money they are spending isn't getting them what they are paying for.
Now, the excuse most often given when confronted by this incontrovertible evidence of failure is that "schools have to do so much more than they used to."
The only proper response to this nonsense is that this is a lie. Certainly, there are social workers, counselors, and an army of people to administrate the army of over-staffing that are driving "education" costs ever higher.
The sad fact however, is that they aren't DOING ANYTHING to increase the number of neural connections that need to take place in our childrens' heads.
Our children aren't better adjusted, better counseled, or more efficiently taught. They are, in fact, an increasingly functionally illiterate, innumerate, and uncompetitive cadre of complainers.
The fact is you could cut spending on education in the US by a 3rd (from $500 billion to $330 billion or so) and not notice an single reduction in results. It is one of purposes to prove this true in my life time.
- Start with mass firings of Psychologists, Special Education hangers on, Social Workers and Assistant Knob Polishers.
- Get rid of automatic raises for Education Tissue Paper Degrees and "time served".
- Implement Merit Pay
- Provide Education Choice for all disadvantaged students, difficult students, and special needs students by tying all monies to the student, not the ficticious concept of the "district."
Kill the beast. For more data, see the links below.
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US Education Productivity Slumps
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