by Corinne Gregory

Created on: August 04, 2009   Last Updated: August 05, 2009

We've reached a new low: our generation today is the first to have the particular distinction of being less educated than its parents. This is a sad statistic and one that is not likely to improve any time soon.

Too many of our public schools are failing. Recently, Arne Duncan stated that he would like to allocate $4B over the next 5 years to aid 5000 ailing schools in our country. That's near $1M per school. You have to ask: what will we do with this $1M per school THIS time that will result in better outcomes than before? For the past 40 years, we have thrown increasing dollars at our education system, and yet we still see:

* 30% or more of our high school students drop out rather than finish school

* Bullying and other school violence is at epidemic levels. Our children stand a 1-in-4 chance of becoming the victim of some form of school-based violence before they reach high school (source: Dept of Justice, and others)

* The achievement gap between low-income, minority, and non-native students remains high as compared to the achievement of the mainstream majority

* Too many of our students are under-performing as evidenced by testing and assessments

* 36% of students admit to cheating or plagiarising content for an exam or assignment (Josephson Institute, 2009)

But yet, in spite of these statistics, the constant call is for more money. It's not about money. If it were, then when you map "achievement" vs. dollars spent on a educating a pupil for a year, you would expect to see that school districts that spent more money educating students would see a corresponding higher rate of achievement. Yet, that's not what you see. In Washington State, for example, if you map $/student spent vs. 10th grade math scores, the pattern you see resembles buckshot. And, in the other Washington (DC) which allocates over $22,000 each year to educate one student, the results are anything but high.

The real failure is that the real decision makers aren't taking the hard looks at the situation and being willing to try something different. As Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different outcome." We KNOW, for example, that one form of school (charter vs. public vs. private vs. choice) doesn't guarantee a better outcome. Yet the current $4B dollars proposed funding is holding the money hostage unless school districts are willing to consider more charter schools. Paying teachers more doesn't necessarily equate to improved student performance yet again, "merit pay for performance" is one of the current carrots being dangled. Smaller classrooms do not lead to more productive classrooms - one or two unruly students can ruin the learning experience for all - but "smaller classrooms" is held up as one critical factor to better education.

Public education fails when its administrators and leaders are more focused on saving face when they are on doing things that are proven to help the students. Throwing $4B in stimulus funds down the same holes with the hope that somehow things will be different is failing our kids.

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