Money and Education

Americans spend $8,000 every year on each student in grades K-12. The median salary for an American worker is $40,000. So if you're making the median salary, have two kids, and are pulling your own weight, 40% of your salary goes to your kids' education! Three kids? 60%! In other words, Americans are getting an incredible bargain from the government when it comes to education. And the government is not getting a return on its investment. Only 18-30% of 4th graders are "proficient" in reading, math, science, and history. (And from my experience, it doesn't take much to be proficient.)

So what do Americans call for? "We must spend more money on education!"

Is a lack of funding the problem? Despite per-pupil expenditures well above average, American pupils score well below average on international assessments. So, obviously, money is not the problem. If I were to reform the education system, I would spend less, not more. I would cut wasteful spending and pay teachers more. Here are some ideas.

1. Textbooks. Why do we buy new textbooks every few years? Has algebra changed in the past few centuries? Physical science? English? Basic chemistry? Newtonian physics? No! So why are we paying top dollar for new textbooks every few years? The most expensive part of buying any book is intellectual property--nifty designs, pictures, the wording the author used to describe a principle. So let's stop paying textbook publishers to rearrange the design in their books. How about publishers that recycle textbooks? Have the schools send their old books in, recycle the paper, and reprint the same book.

2. Base teacher salary on performance. We need to start treating the teacher position as what it is--a job. In the real world, supervisors observe their employees and the results of their labor and give them raises accordingly. For some reason we give teachers raises based on how old they are instead of how good they are at teaching. I do not think teachers should get paid based on how well their students do on standardized tests. (They can't help it if the student is completely unmotivated and has no support at home.) But let's start trusting principals to gauge the worth of their employees as we trust supervisors in the private sector.

3. Reduce cost of "free or discounted lunches." About 20% of students in Idaho are now on this program. Free and discounted lunches are paid for by the USDA and students who actually pay for their own lunches. "Oh, you're going to pay for your own lunch? Well, then you're going to pay for that kid's lunch, too." No way! From now on, if you don't pay for your kid's lunch they're getting gruel. What the #&@! are you using your food stamps for? Oh, you're not on food stamps? Then buy your kids some food! It's called a "sack lunch!"

4. Open Office. School districts that use the program Open Office instead of Microsoft Office save hundreds of thousands of dollars every few years. Teachers can also find a wealth of free resources online instead of ordering expensive programs, images, and animations from software companies.

5. Have the students clean up. Look at other countries that perform better than the United States in education. They make the students clean the school every day before they dismiss. Not only would the school districts save money, but the students would take better care of the school.

6. Provide alternatives for unmotivated students. How many students refuse to perform well in school because they don't see the point? Why do we force them to learn things they know full well they will never use in their lives? We make them sit in the classroom wasting everyone's time with disciplinary problems and using up resources. If they know they're going to mechanic school, let them go! As soon as they can read and write, perform simple arithmetic, and know their rights and responsibilities as a citizen let them go to mechanic school! That's more than schools are accomplishing now with a lot of kids and it would provide motivation to learn. "As soon as you learn this you can go."

7. Streamline higher education. I don't want to get rid of the great universities that dot our nation. But I'd like to provide cheaper alternatives. Let's have colleges that are good at one thing--training people for employment. No gymnasium, no student center, no sports, no landscaping, no band...nothing that isn't necessary for education. Hire professors that are there to teach rather than to do research.