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Welcome

 

Governor Bev Perdue recently said, "Because of decisions made this year by the General Assembly, North Carolina is 49th in the nation in public education." Is she correct about North Carolina’s ranking? In this week’s CommenTerry, I tackle this surprisingly complicated issue.

 

Bulletin Board

  • Join Dr. Roy Cordato on Friday, July 29 at 12 p.m. for the annual Friedman Legacy Freedom Lecture. Dr. Cordato will be discussing Milton Friedman’s theory of social responsibility of business. The event will be held at the John Locke Foundation office in Raleigh. Register online or call 919-828-3876.
  • Learn what politicians, left-wing economic professors and the liberal media don’t want you to know about economics, all without the confusion and clutter of complicated mathematical equations. Attend the Civitas Institute’s Free Market Academy on Saturday, August 20 from 9 am to 3 pm at the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, NC. (Please note: There will be an hour break for lunch.) Cost is $5.00. Register online at http://www.nccivitas.org/events/ or call 919-834-2099.
  • The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to the NC History Project website for further information.

 

CommenTerry

 

During months of budget deliberations, politicians and special interest groups repeatedly claimed that North Carolina ranks 49th in the nation in per-pupil education spending. I contend that there are many reasons why citizens, and the media that "informs" them, should challenge the legitimacy of one of the Left’s favorite talking points.

 

With the exception of a recent Greensboro News & Record editorial, the mainstream media never questioned the origin and validity of the argumentum ad nauseam (argument by repetition). At minimum, the journalists who cited the ranking should have acknowledged the fact that the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) obtained their information from "Rankings & Estimates 2010–2011," a study conducted by their parent organization — the National Education Association (NEA).

 

I suspect that any further inquiry from the media would have raised issues that groups like the NCAE were not prepared to address. For starters, what kinds of methodologies did NEA researchers use in their "Rankings & Estimates" study? What funding sources did they include in the ranking? Have statistical estimates published in previous editions of the report predicted public school spending accurately? Would North Carolina’s relative position in the rankings change if the General Assembly adopted Governor Perdue’s budget proposal? Most importantly, how could anyone have claimed to have a state-by-state ranking of per-pupil expenditures at a time when some legislatures had not passed a final budget for their state?

 

The NEA published their per-pupil expenditure rankings in December 2010, that is, well before the end of the 2010-2011 school year and months before any state legislature passed a budget. NEA researchers based their estimate for North Carolina, in part, on state budgets written and passed by Democratic leaders that no longer control the General Assembly. Simply put, the rankings were educated guesses based on the budgetary trends from previous years. Researchers could not (and are not expected to) anticipate changes to state political and economic conditions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. That kind of insight requires a crystal ball or something that can manipulate tachyons.

 

Moreover, NEA comparisons do not take into account cost-of-living differences among states. Unless one adjusts for these factors, per-pupil expenditure rankings produce apples-to-oranges comparisons. Surely, a dollar spent to educate a child in North Carolina goes much further than a dollar spent in states like California or New Jersey. Indeed, NEA researchers admit that variations in the cost of living may explain, and possibly offset, spending differences among states ("Rankings & Estimates," p. 76).

 

In their ranking of public education expenditures, NEA researchers also do not address variations in how states, localities, and districts fund their public schools. A relatively high percentage of North Carolina’s education funding comes from the state, whereas many states in the northeast rely heavily on local property taxes. Issues like population changes, population density, district size, number of districts, unionization, and state-specific legal, constitutional, and statutory mandates further complicate the process of developing apples-to-apples comparisons.

 

Of course, NEA researchers urge caution when citing state-by-state estimates published in "Rankings & Estimates." They advise their audience to contextualize and qualify findings, supplement NEA figures with state and national statistics, and acknowledge structural differences among states. Nevertheless, I doubt that these caveats will discourage liberals from regurgitating their new favorite talking point.

 

Random Thought

 

I have reserved a spot on the bucket list for Scott’s Pizza Tours. SPT provides bus and walking tours of New York City’s best pizzerias, including Lombardi’s, Ray’s (the one on Prince St.), and Patsy’s.

 

Facts and Stats

 

According to a July 2011 report published by the Fiscal Research Division of the NC General Assembly, "The enacted budget is 5.5 percent lower than Governor Perdue’s $20.8 billion recommended continuation budget and represents a 4.3 percent decrease from the previous year’s operating budget (adjusting for ARRA [stimulus] funds)" (p. 2).

 

Mailbag

 

I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].

 

Education Acronym of the Week

 

NEA — National Education Association

 

Quote of the Week

 

"In addition to identifying emerging trends in key economic, political, and social areas, the state-by-state figures on government financing, state demographics, and public schools permit a statistical assessment of the scope of public education. Of course, no set of tables tells the entire story of a state’s education offerings. Consideration of factors such as a state’s tax system, provisions for other public services, and population characteristics also are needed. Therefore, it is unwise to draw conclusions based solely on individual statistics in this report. Readers are urged to supplement the ranked data with specific information about state and local service activities related to public education. …The state-level data featured in Estimates permit broad assessments of trends in staff salaries, sources of school funding, and levels of educational expenditures. The data should be used with the understanding that the reported statewide totals and averages may not reflect the varying conditions that exist among school districts and schools within the state."

 

— National Education Association, "Rankings & Estimates 2010-11," December 2010, http://www.nea.org/home/46614.htm, p. vii)

 

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