Welcome
In a recent Time magazine article, blogger Andrew Rotherham pointed out, "In education circles, productivity is a four-letter word." As I see it, a little profanity never hurt anybody.
Bulletin Board
- The E.A. Morris Fellowship for Emerging Leaders continues to accept applications for the 2010-2011 class. Applicants must be between the ages of 25 and 40, reside in North Carolina, and commit to a yearlong program of activities designed to examine, develop, and enhance their leadership skills. There is no cost to individuals accepted into the program. For additional information, please visit the E.A. Morris website at http://www.eamorrisfellows.org.
- 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 http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/edu_corner for further information.
- Become a member of JLF’s Freedom Clubs! We have seven regional clubs covering every part of North Carolina, so there is one near you and your like-minded conservative friends. For more information, visit https://www.johnlocke.org/support.
CommenTerry
Kudos to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and the Charlotte Observer for publishing per-pupil expenditure figures for each of the schools in the CMS system. According to the data, schools with high concentrations of low-income children receive significantly more resources than schools with few low-income students, but those resources hardly guarantee high student performance.
The highest-spending elementary school was Thomasboro Elementary. Thomasboro has a 95 percent poverty rate and spends $10,393 per student. It is also one of the smallest schools (312 students) and has one of the lowest student-to-teacher ratios (10.4 students/teacher) of any school in the district. Yet just over half of the students at this school were at grade level on state standardized tests (see Facts and Stats below).
Thomasboro’s data are a stark contrast to a school like Devonshire Elementary, an elementary school with the highest percentage of low-income students in the district. Devonshire spends approximately $2,500 less per student, has a slightly higher student-to-teacher ratio (12.0 students/teacher), and outperforms Thomasboro by nearly twenty percentage points. A number of other high-poverty schools in the district also spend thousands less but achieve better results.
It is reasonable for school districts to allocate additional funds to schools with more challenging student populations, but taxpayers should question whether schools and districts use these additional funds in productive ways. The above comparison suggests that one CMS elementary school is considerably more productive than the other.
Unfortunately for taxpayers, elected officials continue to demonstrate a preternatural unwillingness to talk about productivity in meaningful ways (or at all). Public school advocacy organizations raise a fuss when they do. Others make a conscious attempt to avoid the subject of productivity altogether.
Instead, elected officials have approved funding increases for public schools with little regard to the educational and economic outcomes of such expenditures. As we pointed out in Agenda 2010: A Candidate’s Guide to Key Issues in North Carolina Public Policy, there has been a 273 percent increase in state real per-pupil expenditures, a 446 percent increase in federal real per-pupil expenditures, a 521 percent increase in local real per-pupil expenditures, and a 329 percent increase in total real per-pupil expenditures between 1965 and 2009. Can we really say that students are 329 percent smarter than they were in the 1960s? Anecdotes aside, do we have quantitative evidence that shows a direct relationship between education spending and economic growth in North Carolina?
One final note. If state education leaders are serious about greater transparency and accountability for North Carolina’s public schools, state legislators should pass a law that requires every school system to follow CMS’s lead and publish expenditure, personnel, and performance data by school.
Facts and Stats
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, contact Terry at [email protected].
Education Acronym of the Week
BUD — The Budget Utilization and Development System
Quote of the Week
"For the next several years, preschool, K-12, and postsecondary educators are likely to face the challenge of doing more with less. My message is that this challenge can, and should be, embraced as an opportunity to make dramatic improvements. I believe enormous opportunities for improving the productivity of our education system lie ahead if we are smart, innovative, and courageous in rethinking the status quo."
— U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, "The New Normal: Doing More with Less–Secretary Arne Duncan’s Remarks at the American Enterprise Institute," November 17, 2010
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