If there's one thing we know for certain, it's that we can't fix what's wrong with education in America simply by throwing money at the problem. That's what people keep saying anyway. It sounds like it makes sense, right? "Throwing money" doesn't sound like a good course of action. It sounds reckless, wasteful, and futile.
Here's the odd thing about "throwing money." The phrase only seems to be used when people are talking about education. I've never heard this argument used in any business context. Nobody talks about "throwing money." Instead, we either call it investing (if you have the money) or financing (if you have an initiative that needs funding).
If you do a quick Google search for the phrase "you can't solve the problem by throwing money at it" (and it's variations) you'll see that approximately 60 percent of the time that expression comes up is in reference to education. The remaining 40 percent of instances are divided amongst other areas of the economy. The phrase doesn't usually get tossed around many corporate boardrooms, so the other problems that can't be fixed with money all seem to also be societal problems. Apparently, money is also powerless to make any dent in areas such as homelessness or children living below the poverty line.
In every other venture I can think of, money can be used to create change and to achieve goals. Is it possible that I've discovered an exception to the principles of economics? Is education immune to money? It would be nice if that were true -- a Nobel Prize in economics would look great on my resume. Sadly, I think I've merely stumbled upon a tired and baseless talking point.
What would happen if we really did throw money at the serious shortcomings within the education system? The entire enterprise of public education is so shamefully underfunded, it would be hard to find an area where more funding wouldn't yield a positive return on the investment. It's time to warm up our pitching arms and start throwing some serious cash at the problem.
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if you want to change your life quick get out of MBA school, they are going to teach you such things as throwing money at it, cost reduction at the expense of quality, mega CEO bonuses, and more ignorance.
this article you have written already shows the influence this program has had on your cherished beliefs. it may be too late to change that as now I suspect it has become your paradigm.
deming was able to show that the decline of this nation in wealth and middle class wages started when the MBA programs went full throttle.
bet they are also teaching you the good old pay for performance as a leadership model. dont buy it it is based on ignorance. every MBA program in america believes they can solve for X with this formula. X + (xy) = 8 with x being individual performance and y being the systemic influence on that person's performance.
one only has to look at wall street, big banks, and medical insurance corps to see the effect of MBA on america's decline.
This week a student liberated a netbook signed out by a colleague from the school library for a classroom project.
A new Dell netbook purchased at Best Buy would run approximately $250.00. The education pricing districts have to pay to replace a Dell netbook...$600.00.
Corporate kickbacks, not pensions, are the sinkholes in the education budgets. Let's stop throwing money at corporations.
You obviously lack experience in understanding government spending, and how those funds are distributed to their apportioned locations. Let me explain. Money is never thrown. Most Senators and Representatives can throw about as well as those kids that were selected last for the baseball or softball teams. In other words, about as good as a President throwing out the first pitch in most seasons of Major League Baseball.
Rather, Congress drops money on problems. This is nearly as effective as that large flock of sea gulls that just flew over my car. The problem is the sea gulls are actually cleaner. When Congress leaves its droppings, it actually puts constraints on it. Imagine if those sea gulls demanded that you removed their droppings only in an approved manner, with an approved product, on an approved day of the week. You get the idea. The sea gulls are actually quieter too. They do not squawk anywhere near as loudly or as long as more Congress folk.
I do hear that it is relatively easy to distract both sea gulls and Congress. But, I am not sure that whole "Alka-Seltzer" thing works with Congress. If it did, I'd eagerly try it out. Perhaps Mentos and Soda might work on them .... Hmmmmm.
I think the vast majority of our so-called education reform issues are related to the lack of adequate funding, not because of bad teaching or pensions or testing. How do I know? Because a note from my kids' school district's Superintendent--a district, btw, that's facing a potential $3.6 million shortfall for the next academic year due to state budget dysfunction in our legislature--claims that our state is spending less today on a per student basis (adjusted for inflation) for K-12 education than we did during the Great Depression.
Let me repeat that: WE ARE SPENDING LESS TODAY FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION THAN WE DID DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Our district in particular is spending only about $7000 annually per student, which would put us somewhere near the bottom of the average spent in each of the 50 states.
If that doesn't make your blood boil, I don't know what will. We have got to stop swallowing the "do more with less" line we keep getting from our politicians who don't have the ba**s to raise taxes, or demand we invest in students instead of prisoners, or demand corporations pay their fair share to the communities that host them. This situation is truly criminal and I see it as a priority even more important than health care if we all really do believe in what America stands for.
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66
According to the NEA, the national average is $11,144 for 2009-2010. http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/NEA_Rankings_and_Estimates010711.pdf (See chart H-16.) In my state, California, we have the highest percentage of students enrolled in the nation, yet spend on a per student basis far less than the national average. In fact, we rank 43 out of 50 states at $9,118 per student for K-12, but that number can vary greatly from the average based on some very complex state funding rules. So our K-8 district is working with a budget of $7000 per student IF the legislature can get it's act together and pass a budget. If not, more pink slips.
As for your prison comment, here you go: http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=80703
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/01/back-to-school-for-the-billionaires.html
It comes down to personal responsibility and character and integrity. It comes down to people caring about their communities and having enough resources to live decent lives. Giving money to schools won't change that. Schools reflect their communities and those living in them. Change the community and you'll change the schools. It will never work the other way around.
But that kind of change is very expensive and time-consuming and hard work. It's much easier to scapegoat schools and blame them for not being able to do the impossible: overcome the influences of their communities and holding them responsible for the words and actions (or inactions) of others.
Yes, money is certainly an issue. Common attributes of our schools (which are cross sector - public, charter, parochial, independent) include longer school days and enriched curriculum which definitely require more money. Most of our schools have to rely on outside support from donors and partnerships with organizations to help fulfill their funding goals in order to bring quality education to kids in the inner city. One of our school leaders made an important point that a quality school often precedes parental involvement - once the parent sees that a child's life is being transformed, it often extends into the home and the parent then is more likely to become involved.
There's something very wrong when living in one of the most affluent suburban areas in the country has schools that are literally begging for money.