“Invest” in education by paying Johnny & Susie for As and Bs!

By John Sykes

In his SOTU address last night Obama blithered about throwing more money at education.

Cash for Education Clunkers writes:

We're going to have to out-educate other countries," President Obama urged this week. How? By out-spending them, of course! It's the same old quack cure for America's fat and failing government-run schools monopoly. The one-trick ponies at the White House call their academic improvement agenda "targeted investing" for "winning the future." Truth in advertising: Get ready to fork over more Cash for Education Clunkers.

Our government already spends more per capita on education than any other of the 34 wealthiest countries in the world except for Switzerland, according to recent analysis of data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Overall inflation-adjusted K-12 spending has tripled over the past 40 years, the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy points out. Yet American test scores and graduation rates are stagnant. One in 10 high schools is a dropout factory. And our students' performance in one of the most prestigious global math competitions has been so abysmal that the U.S. simply withdrew altogether.

It would appear that Obama’s 2011 federal education budget is about $200 billion.

Even more shocking are these statistics from The Center for Education Reform:

• AVERAGE DISTRICT PUBLIC SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $12,018
• AVERAGE PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION: $8,549
• AVERAGE PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $8,001
• AVERAGE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TUITION: $6,018

So we spend 41% – 100% more on our public K-12 student that on the alternatives who appear to provide a better education?

Come on …! We’d be better off taking any money the Fed’s have taken from us and “investing” in education by paying Johnny and Susie for As and Bs!

Related cartoon