In the past when I have posted about Education some commenters have taken the opportunity to assert that "money is not the answer" with regards to how to improve our education system. I assume this position to be based more on the interest in keeping taxes low than a fully researched opinion since the data tends to show a small positive correlation between education spending and test scores. Additionally if money didn't matter in education then the test prep industry wouldn't be a $4 billion a year industry and parents would send their kids to Community College instead of MIT. The truth is that like most things you get what you pay for. We want our kids to get a good education to give them the best chance of being successful and some of the most expensive colleges have the best ROI. A more appropriate statement would be that money isn't the ONLY answer.
One thing that I find particularly odd about the recent obsession over teachers pay by the right is just how at odds this is with the typical Republican ideology. When a CEO receives massive compensation the argument is that you have to pay top dollar to get the best people. The same is true of teachers. This is a highly educated workforce specifically trained to be educators. As with a CEO the free market idea should be that a teachers pay should reflect his or her value to the corporation (the school) i.e. the ability to replace the position without a drop in production.
A New York Times report on what makes a good teacher suggests that a teachers ability shows a high correlation to student achievement. It also shows that these are skills that can be taught. Obviously, as with all skills, there are a certain set of people that will excel and a certain set that will fail. The point being that you can't just turn any bum into a great teacher but if you hope to make a good teacher it will require a good education. Given that private schools compensate their teachers at a fairly equivalent rate to public schools yet tend to require less education the free market would suggest that the current pay is not out of line as the rhetoric might suggest.
It then follows that if pay rates are not out of line the changes we should be pushing for are not monitary but improvement based. Studies conclude that having a highly trained workforce, good facilities, smaller class sizes and high parental involvement as the necessary ingredients to improved student achievement. reducing money for schools will have a negative impact on three out of the four items necessary to improving proformance.
Republicans also tend to push for the public sector to act more like the private sector. Any businessman will tell you that the goal of spending money should be to get the best return on your investment. Well, low educated couples are four times as likely to get a divorce as high educated couples. Increasing the graduation rate and subsequent college attendance rates by 5% could save as much as $8 billion a year for the American tax payer. The higher the education level of a woman the less likely she will be to have an abortion. The more educated you are the less likely you will be to smoke cigarettes which costs American taxpayers $100 billion a year. The higher your education level the lower your chances are of being Obese which costs the American tax payer over $36 billion a year. Drug use also drops as education increases. What other area of government spending has such a huge bang for your buck?
Instead of attacking teachers pay and security with shadow legislation we as a society would be better served to look for solutions that improve the core areas of education which lead to better results. Merit Pay, Vouchers, and Deficit reduction are the side show in the education circus. Teacher education, good facilities, limited class sizes and parent participation get real results. If only our elected officials could focus on good policy instead of convenient politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment