FamilyFacts.org: Education Spending Skyrockets While Achievement Remains Flat
Rachel Sheffield /
Does the United States spend enough on education? Many messages in the media and from Capitol Hill would suggest that there is a dearth of taxpayer dollars spent on American education today and that if the U.S. can only spend more, student achievement will flourish.
However, years of increased spending have led only to bigger budgets and bloated bureaucracy—not improved student achievement—and have similarly failed to empower those with the greatest stake in a child’s education: the family.
Research shows that families play a large role in a child’s educational success. Yet for decades, policies have focused on pouring more money into a broken education system and into the hands of bureaucrats rather than on empowering parents and children.
Thus, despite ever-increasing education dollars flowing from the Department of Education (DOE) since the 1970s, test scores remain virtually unchanged. Federal spending has nearly tripled, while at the same time achievement has stagnated and graduation rates have hardly budged. (more…)