Patrick McSweeney


 

Rethinking Education Policy

 

The problem with Virginia schools isn't a lack of money -- it's the rigid, bureaucratic policies that dictate how the money is being spent. 


 

To no one’s surprise, the Virginia Education Association, which objects to being called what it is — a teacher’s union -- urged the Virginia General Assembly to raise teachers’ salaries, increase their retirement benefits, require private school teachers involved in publicly funded preschool programs to have a bachelor’s degree as well as specialized training, and to kill any legislation that would authorize tuition tax credits or vouchers for private schools.

 

Sure sounds like a list of union demands.

 

The teachers’ union proceeds on the assumption that simply spending more money on public schools produces a better educated student. The facts regarding educational performance, as reported by reputable organizations with no ax to grind, suggest otherwise.

 

Our own Census Bureau has noted that states with the highest rates of per-student spending have relatively low graduation rates. The Bureau’s statistics showed no direct relationship between the total amount of spending and student achievement.

 

Recently, the chairman of a committee established jointly by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine wrote that “the U.S. educational system is failing in precisely those areas that underpin our competitiveness: science, engineering and mathematics.” His committee recommended a renewed focus on fundamentals.

 

The respected Program for International Student Assessment reported that students in the U.S. were actually scoring lower now than they were in 2000. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities concluded that an insufficient number of U.S. students pursue degrees in math and science because of “poor teacher quality at the K-12 level and inadequate high school preparation in math and science.”

 

Although more Americans are graduating from colleges and universities, a declining percentage of them have the skills needed to comprehend routine data, according to an adult literacy assessment conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics and published in December.

 

The assessment found that “only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book or extrapolate from it.” Many in education said they were stunned by the these findings.

 

These recent statistics should prompt legislators to take a more careful approach to education than they have for the last two decades. The test should not be whether we increase aggregate spending for education, but rather how effective our education policies are and how wisely we spend taxpayer funds.

 

Unfortunately, the General Assembly has declined to reexamine the methodology for appropriating money for K-12 programs that was developed for it in the 1980s by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Whatever the reasons for adopting that methodology, the evidence is overwhelming that it no longer serves the Commonwealth well.

 

Virginia’s approach to funding the Standards of Quality is fundamentally flawed. It is driven by the input-oriented spending patterns of local school districts, which ratchet upward annually without any demonstrated linkage to student performance. This “black box” methodology involves complex calculations that discourage true alternative analyses and systematic evaluation of costs.

 

Reconsideration of the Standards of Quality and the current methodology for funding them involves political risk, but the risk to Virginia, its economy and the future of Virginia students compels the legislature to challenge the assumptions underlying that methodology.

 

The teachers’ union is a powerful political force that will resist any reexamination. Parents, taxpayers and educators who are motivated by something more noble than self interest should demand bold action at the legislative session that begins in a few days.

 

If we see business as usual on education at this session, we can assume that our elected officials aren’t serious about improving student achievement.

 

-- January 30, 2005

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Information

 

McSweeney & Crump

11 South Twelfth Street
Richmond, VA 23219
(804) 783-6802

pmcsweeney@

   mcbump.com

 

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