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A brief hunt on the Internet led me to discover that there are 41 federal departments/agencies…just under the letter “A”. There are 15 federal agencies that fall under the management of the president. One of them is the sham known as the U.S. Department of Education.

1. $720 billion (2005): Total estimated annual cost of US public schools
2. $249 billion: Total cost of US public schools in 1990
3. 190%: Increase in cost of US public schools in 15 years
   
4. $9295 (2005) pdf: Average cost per pupil per school year
   
5. $15,155 (2005) pdf page 43: Annual cost per pupil of New Jersey public schools (national high)
   
6. 31 pdf page 43: National mathematics ranking for New Jersey
   
7. 29 pdf page 43: National reading ranking for New Jersey
   
8. 69% (2007) : Students nationwide performing below proficiency in math
   
9. 71% (2007) : Students nationwide performing below proficiency in reading
10. -1% (2007) pdf page 97: Nationwide improvement in reading proficiency since 1996
11. 9%: Federal government’s financial contribution to public education (37% increase since 1990)

My concept on federal spending is pretty easy to comprehend. As a citizen of Minnesota, I think it is a reasonable position to expect that my tax dollars going to Louisiana or South Carolina or Colorado should benefit me somehow. Interstate commerce is something that benefits me. Federal interest in a nationwide recognition in driver’s licenses and marriage is of benefit to me. Educating children in another state is not something that will benefit me.

I’m not a zero-tolerance kind of person when it comes to public schools. Many states are bound to their own Constitutions to provide accessible education for their populace. It is of the interest of a state or locale to have a system for providing education to it’s children for the sake of it’s economy, crime levels and next-generation stability.

But there are three big problems with public education.

The first, as I led in with, is federal involvement. It’s simply not necessary. I discovered something that surprised me while looking up these numbers. As you can see in statistic #1, we spend an impressive amount of money on education. What surprised me is how little we actually spend on the federal level. Of the total of public ed spending across the board, federal taxes pay for about 9% of it. 9% of a lot is still a nice sum of money but you might say, “OttO - 9%? What’s the big deal?”

The big deal is that it means it’s one of several pointless federal spending programs that increases the size and scope and bureaucracy of the federal government. It’s senseless to send my tax dollars to Washington so they can be disseminated back to schools across the country when that money could go directly to schools in my community. Keep in mind that the feds aren’t just assisting with a transaction: they are using this money to buy power in your community. That money has big strings attached to it. It is given out with conditions. Those conditions are subject to change at the will of the feds which then means that a state must choose between accepting those conditions or removing established funding from a supposedly desperately cash-strapped institution. Is there any reason why the states can’t determine their own standards?

Which of course leads directly into the boondoggle that is No Child Left Behind. We can argue about which aspects of it work and which don’t work but do we really need the federal government charging us more and more so bureaucrats in Washington can tell us how our schools are going to operate? In many ways, each state should have it’s own NCLB. But not at the federal level.

The second problem with education is of course the cost. The thing to keep in mind when looking at statistic #4 is that most of this $9300 per pupil is going to shared expenses. It doesn’t cost $9300 for a kid to have a desk, a locker and a textbook. A classroom of 20 students has an average cost of $186,000 per year. Take out the average teacher’s salary of $48,000 and that leaves $139,000 leftover to fund that classroom. Most of that money never touches the classroom and a majority isn’t even for the school itself; take out the school level administrative costs, utilities, building and maintenance costs, libraries and computers and the rest goes to the school district to pay for what is most often bloated and poorly managed bureaucracies.

Every year the schools cry for more money. One would think that a single year could go by without some sort of financial crisis in public schools. Even though the least amount of tax dollars actually goes to the classroom, the first thing the powers-that-be threaten to do in a budget crunch is promise to make the children suffer. No school district ever sets up a referendum to increase funds with the concern that if this request isn’t fulfilled, some administrative department is going to have to suffer or some district employee is going to face a salary-cut. Instead, the threat is to lay-off teachers, increase class sizes, stop providing necessary classroom materials etc. In other words, threaten to harm their very purpose first because that is what will get the tax payer’s attention. This is the epitome of governing through fear and the consensus is that more money does not mean more education:

“…the United States is a world leader in education investment. However, nations that spend far less achieve higher levels of student performance.” (U.S. Department of Education)

And we can further see from statistic #5, #6 and #7 that money does not mean results. New Jersey, having the most expensive public education in the country, should be at or near the top in performance as well. But in reading and math, they are average at best (and average in this regards is not something to be proud of - statistic #8 and #9). District of Columbia boasts the third highest cost-per-pupil in the country and ranks in last place in reading and math. In the context of ever-increasing spending, statistic #10 speaks for itself.

The third big problem, which goes hand-in-hand with the cost problem, is your friendly, neighborhood teachers union. The mafia has nothing on these unions in regards to power, influence and extortion. Unions have destroyed the public education system. One of the most prevailing offenses is the unwaivering job security that unions provide teachers. Two schools of thought here: (1) teachers are public servants dispatched to educate and mold our children and should be held to the highest standards; and (2) failure to achieve this task should be dealt with harshly and swiftly.

Any demand for more tax dollars under threat of harming the classroom/students should include a public display of past performance. When we approved the 10% increase last year, what did we get out of it? Higher graduation rates? More students proficient in math and reading? Students who understand how their government works and have a general grasp of American history? Then where did that 10% increase go? Why should we give you more? Oh right, because if we don’t then our kids are going to pay. Which is interesting - less than half of public school employees are actually teachers; for every teacher employed in a typical school district, there is at least one non-teacher employed. Unions willfully protect their bureaucracy at all costs.

Here’s an idea to address the demand for more money where performance is static if not recessive: here’s the money - now replace the worst 20% of teachers whose income we are paying. But teacher’s unions would never allow this. It only makes sense that in the business of educating kids, those who fail to do so should not be allowed to continue failing. Unions are in essence anti-performance. In fact, it seems counter-productive for a union to want to see a school district succeed. It’s easier to get more money when things are dire. Since unions work feverishly to eliminate or minimize school competition in all of it’s forms, it’s easier to not have to perform.

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If there is one government program that we should expect to work and work within reasonable means, it’s the public education system. It’s time to stop rewarding failure and for people to recognize that the very system we are expected to rely on for one of the most important societal contributions is in it’s current form, an enemy to the kind of common sense and decency we as parents and tax payers should expect.

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