Education

Public schools have long been a favorite example of  those who exhort us to "invest"  for The Common Good. "Invest" is a euphemism for "spend". "It's in the public interest", they assure us. It's for the kids!

Is there really a link between school spending & student achievement? (see here)

The United States is a big-time spender on education. Total expenditures for public elementary and secondary education alone are about $700 billion for 2015-16 (National Center for Education Statistics ). In constant dollars per pupil expenditures went from $9,073 in 1989/1990 to about 12,850 in 2019/2020.

What does this investment buy us? Nothing. Achievement trends 1966 - 2016 :

• Verbal scholastic scores dropped from 543 to 494.

• Math scholastic scores remained about the same 516 to 508.

 (National Center for Education Statistics)

And how does the U.S. compare internationally?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, "The evidence suggests, in general, that students from the United States have fared quite poorly on these assessments, with their scores lagging behind those of students from other developed countries."

See The History And Results Of America's Disastrous Public School System

Even positive official reports can't be trusted. Click here for one example.

Do you want more? Click here.

Click here to find out more about public schools in New York.

So, if the kids don't benefit, how can this massive, ever growing "investment"  be so confidently declared  a "common good"? 

If the kids don't benefit from all those regulations and all that tax and spend, just whose common good is the money for?  

How can the pervasive notion that the government works for us because the government is of, by, for the people explain these schools? Do "we the people" want expensive under-performing schools we are forced to send so many of our children to? If not, why do they exist?... and whom do they really exist for?

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