Critically Thinking About K-12 Expenditures vs Performance
Does spending more money on education improve students' academic performance, as the teachers unions claim? Here's what the data say, loud and clear.
The teacher’s unions, and other self-serving allies, are always claiming that teacher pay is too low—and fixing that will solve the education crisis in our K-12 system (e.g., see here and here).
However, like a LOT of things we hear these days, this is inaccurate. Such assertions are made as the lobbyists know that the vast majority of citizens are NOT critical thinkers, so few will recognize when they are being conned.
See here for an example of reality. It shows that in the State of Washington, K-12 expenditure over the 2013 → 2024 period went off the charts.
Some will immediately attribute this to inflation, but this is also plotted, and the expenditures were ~300% above what inflation was.
Worse, over the same period, the student performance in two sample K-12 subjects dropped precipitously.
Every other state is also listed on the Edunomics Lab. (Search over “ROI”.)
Bottom Line —
The clear message here (and the data indicate that it is true in almost every other State), is that spending more money did NOT produce better performance.
In fact, the evidence shows that there is a negative correlation: more K-12 expenditures produce WORSE K-12 student performance…
The clear takeaway is that we need to reform what is being taught in K-12, not pay more for more of the same.
In simple terms: our K-12 school system should NOT be teaching children what to think (as is happening now), but rather HOW TO THINK!
It is as simple as that …
Republished with permission from Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.
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