Can money solve CA’s educational achievement gaps?

Columnist Dan Walters analyzes the fallacious idea that public schools need more funding to help students succeed—a timely one, amidst Silicon Valley schools’ latest cries for renewed parcel taxes and additional million-dollar bonds. If money is the central element in the equation, why are standardized test scores from New York schools (which spend over 50% more per student) indistinguishable from California’s? To receive daily updates of new Opp Now stories, click here.

If PACE and other advocates of big increases in school spending were intellectually honest, they would not only compare spending levels to other states, but also compare how well they are faring vis-à-vis California in national academic testing results and other measures of attainment.

New York, for instance, is spending at least 50% more per pupil than California but its scores on the last batch of National Assessment of Educational Progress tests were virtually identical to California’s — both being subpar. Meanwhile, many states that spend much less than California routinely score higher…

… the never-ending debate on California education will continue, but it should be a debate about more than money. Some of the academic resources being devoted to persuading Californians to raise taxes for schools should be spent on exploring why outcomes elsewhere bear little or no relationship to how much money other states are spending.

This article originally appeared in Fox & Hounds Daily. Read the whole thing here.

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