Educational study proves taxpayers are paying extraordinary amounts for ordinary results

A revealing study has been released by Big Government showing students' test scores have remained relatively flat through four decades, even though spending has more than doubled.

http://biggovernment.com/acoulson/2010/06/05/the-u-s-economy-needs-fewer-public-school-jobs-not-more/

Note one quite interesting fact in this work: "Over the past forty years, public school employment has risen 10 times faster than public enrollment. There are only 9% more students today, but nearly twice as many public employees. To prove that rolling back this relentless hiring spree by a few years would hurt student achievement, you'd have to show that all these new employees raised achievement in the first place. That would be hard to do...because it never happened."

The increased spending began in 1970....FORTY YEARS AGO. With all the billions of dollars thrown at the educational problems, test scores have barely increased.

Do you see the fallacy in this approach? More money, more staffing, more testing and more mandates are not the answer. How long do we keep repeating mistakes before we realize this theory does not work? How many billions of dollars will Arne Duncan throw at education for no discernible benefits?

We've been able to dodge Race to the Top twice now, let's keep up the pressure so it is finally off the table. Money promised for more federal control, which has not resulted in student achievement, is not the answer. Money given with strings that will create more state debt is not the answer.

Perhaps the Department of Education needs to be disbanded. Think of the money that would be saved...and that money would go directly into the schools, not to a bureaucratic department in Washington. Imagine that...money could be spent on programs and needs of students, not on unions and unnecessary public officials. States cannot afford to fund the Federal Government for mediocre results. Now that's a common sense idea.