A new study from Education Next concludes that the more people know about how much is spent on public education, the less likely they are to support increased spending on schools:
The average per-pupil spending estimate from respondents to the 2008 Education Next/PEPG survey was $4,231, and the median response was just $2,000; but for these respondents, local average spending per pupil at the time exceeded $10,000. When told how much the local schools were spending, support for increased spending dropped by 10 percentage points, from 61 percent to a bare majority of 51 percent.
Howell and West [authors of the study] find that these differences in opinion based on exposure to key information are consistent across a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, views about the local public schools, and political ideologies.
?It?s clear that the American public is quite willing to update its views in light of new information about public schools,? Howell and West said.
Whenever the topic of failing schools is raised, the education establishment invariably proffers more money as a solution. In response to which I would offer this analogy: eventually, sinking more and more money into repairing that 15-year-old clunker car is useless. It’s time to get a new one.
