Brent Davis: More thought, less money on education

As earth’s wealthiest nation, we desire our children receive excellent education. Yet among the top industrialized countries, America ranks 55th percentile in reading and science, and 20th in math, though spending more than 90 percent of other countries. If money spent guarantees excellent education, why are we not near the top?

Kansas spends 28th of the 50 states on education, ranking average among the states in eighth-grade math and reading on the Nation’s Report Card tests, and 19th of 50 on the ACT. Some states with higher scores spend more, some less, but Kansas ranks 32nd in gross domestic product. If we plan to grow and be more competitive economically, don’t we need to spend judiciously on education?

Consider three education-funding tragedies:

▪ From 1986 to 1998, a court order gave the Kansas City, Mo., public schools over $2 billion in additional funding to raise district test scores. Scores remained unchanged; the tax base was decimated.

▪ From 1965 to 2015, U.S. education funding increased over four times; class sizes dropped over 40 percent; the percentage of teachers with masters degrees and teacher pay rose; teacher experience increased. Yet test scores stagnated.

▪ From 1990 to 1995, Texas gave 15 low-performing Austin schools $1.5 million in additional funds over five years to improve student scores. Thirteen failed, two raised scores to average and attendance to the top. It’s not money that matters, it’s how money is spent.

A test prep professional, education business owner and parent of a high school student, I examined “Educational Spending and Student Achievement in Kansas Public Schools” for my economics master’s project. Five things stood out:

More money does not equate to better education. Teachers matter most in education — an effective teacher can impart 1 1/2 years information a year, an ineffective teacher only half a year. Effective principals eliminate discipline problems, marginalize ineffective teachers and keep effective teachers teaching children as much as possible (and aren’t preoccupied with paperwork). Involved parents improve outcomes, and parent involvement increases when parents have real choices about their children’s education. Students rewarded for higher achievement achieve higher.

“Suitable” Kansas funding plans incorporate these achievement findings while holding down costs.

Continuing to require more money for education without implementing policies that lead to the better results other countries are achieving at lower cost will achieve one of two things: We will either damage Kansas’ families ability to compete with those of other, wealthier, states by raising taxes, increasing business costs and unemployment, or force the cutting of other important government services.

Merely mandating increased Kansas education spending is wrong-headed. Let’s not become the next education-funding tragedy.

This story was originally published December 25, 2017 at 3:14 AM with the headline "Brent Davis: More thought, less money on education."