Public-School Excuse #1 -- Give Us More Money!
If more money meant better education for our kids, our public
schools should have vastly improved over the last 75 years. Yet
the reverse is true. In dollars adjusted for inflation, public
schools spent about $876 per year for elementary and secondary
school students in 1930, when student literacy rates were close
to 90 percent. In contrast, in 2003 public schools spent about
$7500 per student, while literacy rates fell to the 50-70
percent level in many public schools.
In the year 2000, the five states whose students got the highest
SAT scores were North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and
South Dakota. Yet, per-pupil spending in North Dakota ranked
forty-first among the states, in Iowa twenty-fifth, Wisconsin
tenth, Minnesota sixteenth, and South Dakota a lowly
forty-eighth.
In contrast, the District of Columbia had the fourth highest
per-student spending of all the states but ranked almost at the
bottom of the list (50th out of 50 states and the District of
Columbia) in student achievement. Clearly, there is little
correlation between money spent per student and student
achievement.
A 1990 Rand Corporation study showed that private Catholic
schools do a better job educating children than public schools.
The study compared thirteen New York City public, private, and
Catholic high schools that had many minority students.
Yet, the average annual tuition costs for Catholic and
Protestant-affiliated schools for the 2002-2003 school year were
approximately $3500-$4000 per elementary-school pupil and
$5500-$6000 per Secondary school pupil. The average
public-school cost per pupil was approximately $7500. Catholic
and Protestant-affiliated schools therefore give their students
a better education for less money than public schools spend.
When we compare the academic record of home-schooled vs.
public-school students, the cost vs. achievement differences are
even more startling. In 1998, the Home School Legal Defense
Association commissioned Larry Rudner, statistician and
measurement expert at the University of Maryland, to do a study
on the academic achievement levels of home-schooled students.
The study tested 20,000 home-schooled students on the Iowa Test
of Basic Skills (ITBS).
The study found that home-schooled students did extremely well
on the test compared to public school students. Home-schooled
kids scored in the 75th to 85th percentile range, compared with
the 50th percentile national average for public-school students
across the country.
The study also found that in every subject and grade level of
the ITBS battery of tests, home-schooled students scored
significantly higher than public and private school students. On
average, homeschool students in the first to fourth grades
performed one grade level higher than comparable public and
private school students. By the fifth grade, the gap began to
widen, and by the eighth grade, the average home-schooled
student performed four grade levels above the national average.
Home-schooling parents not only give their kids a superior
education, but spend far less than public schools. For example,
some excellent phonics reading programs cost less than $150.
Even if we assumed that an average homeschooling parent spent
about $1500 a year on learn-to-read or learn-math books,
computer learning software, and other learning materials, that
is about one-quarter the average $7500-a-year that public
schools spend per student. Clearly, once again, it is obvious
that more money does not guarantee a better education.
Pubic-school authorities