Addressing American students this week, President Obama may have earned an “A” for good advice, but he deserves a “D” for candor and honesty, at least when it comes to the real problems students must overcome to succeed.
President Obama challenged students: “I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too.”
Unfortunately, a student’s effort and hard work aren’t the only factors that determine whether they succeed in school. Things outside of their control — including whether they have access to great teachers — affect how much they learn. And millions of students who listened to President Obama’s address are forced to attend low-performing schools.
The president told students that he was doing “his part” to “fix up” American education. But that’s only true if you believe that boosting federal spending on education programs will fix our schools.
This year, the Obama administration has implemented unprecedented spending increases for K-12 education (and that’s on top of the large spending hikes witnessed under the Bush administration). The “stimulus” package alone included nearly $100 billion in new spending on K-12 education — more than the Department of Education’s entire annual budget.
Simply spending more on public education won’t fix the widespread problems in our schools. If it did, we’d already have high-performing schools.
Decades of consistent growth in spending by federal, state and local governments on public education have yielded little improvement in students’ academic achievement. Since the 1970s, total per-pupil spending has more than doubled, yet test scores and graduation rates have stagnated.
Decades of consistent growth in spending by federal, state and local governments on public education have yielded little improvement in students’ academic achievement. Since the 1970s, total per-pupil spending has more than doubled, yet test scores and graduation rates have stagnated.
In 2009, taxpayers will spend more than $10,000 on the average student’s public-school education. A typical student entering kindergarten should expect to have more than $100,000 spent on his or her education through high school. Yet statistics show that only one out of every three eighth graders is proficient in reading.
In many big cities, fewer than half of all students graduate high school. Without serious reform, our public schools will continue to fail too many students.
Common-sense changes could ensure that all children receive a quality education. School leaders need more authority to hire and fire teachers.
Good teachers deserve performance pay bonuses. Parents should be able to choose where their child goes to school: Kids in bad schools deserve a chance to switch to a better learning environment.
Schools should be held accountable to the public for results through quality testing. “Social promotion” (just passing kids along to the next grade whether they’ve earned it or not) should be ended. Kids at-risk of falling behind should be given intensive remediation and tutoring.
These reforms may be unpopular with the powerful teachers’ unions. But they’re desperately needed if we’re serious about fixing American education.
