Re: A policy that all Republicans can get behind

Jeffrey Scott Linder wrote:
> 
> 
> School funding is skyrocketing, well above inflation and other
> mandates.
> 
> http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_19_56/ai_n13675424
> 
> The truth is that, between 1960 and 2000, after-inflation education
> spending more than tripled.  Harvard's Caroline Hoxby has found that
> real, inflation-adjusted spending grew from $5,900 per pupil in 1982
> to more than $9,200 in 2000. In its most recent figures, the
> Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates
> that current U.S. education spending is over $10,800 per child.
> 
> In fact, some may be surprised to learn that the U.S. ranks at the top
> of the international charts when it comes to education spending. In
> 2000, the most recent year for which international comparisons are
> available, the OECD found that the United States spent significantly
> more per child than any other industrial democracy, including those
> famous for their generous social programs. In primary education, on a
> per-pupil basis, the United States spent 66 percent more than Germany,
> 56 percent more than France, 27 percent more than Japan, 80 percent
> more than the United Kingdom, 62 percent more than Finland, 62 percent
> more than Belgium, and 122 percent more than South Korea. At the
> secondary-school level, the figures are similar, with the U.S.
> outpacing Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and South Korea,
> among others, by more than 40 percent per pupil.
> 
> Despite all this spending, the U.S. ranked 15th among the 31 countries
> that participated in the OECD's 2000 Program for International Student
> *****sment reading exam. Ireland, Iceland, and New Zealand were among
> the nations that outperformed the U.S. while spending far less per
> pupil. The results in math are equally disquieting: In the
> international 1999 TIMSS study, which *****sed mathematics and science
> achievement at the eighth-grade level, the U.S. ranked 19th out of 38
> countries.

Obviously the more you spend on education the worse the results.  What a
blow to capitalism.

But seriously, I'm not sure what you think this means or proves.  How
does the cost of health insurance for staff and faculty (and even
children) get figured into the above?  Does anywhere spend as much on
high school football coaches as Texas?  Then there's school breakfast
and lunch programs.  How many of those countries charge major social
welfare programs to their schools?  Come back when you've got some
analysis that won't fit on a bumper sticker.

--Jeff

-- 
The struggle with evil by means of violence
is the same as an attempt to stop a cloud,
in order that there may be no rain. -Leo Tolstoy