Hoover Institution: Eric Hanushek- 'Schools Fiscal Crisis Unclear'

 

Source:Hoover Institution- Eric Hanushek, talking about American schools.

"Hoover senior fellows and members of the Koret Task Force on K--12 Education Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson dissect the fiscal problems in US education. Short-run revenue problems are hard to solve just by wishful thinking, but the long-run problems caused by health care demands and unfunded retirement liabilities are real." 

From the Hoover Institution

When it comes to eduction funding especially for our public schools, we should judge our spending not just by the amount we spend on our public schools, but also by what we spend that money on and what we get in return. 

Our public schools are generally funded through state and local property taxes: this is tax revenue so we should be making sure we spend this money on things that work. And make sure we get the best bang for our bucks as possible. Instead of judging success by the amount of money we spend, instead of what we get. 

If we judged our public schools by the amount we spend on them and nothing else, Washington would have the best public school system in America of any big city certainly, but any city in general. Because they spend the most per-capita on public education then anyone else or one of the highest levels in the country. And they have instead one of the worst public education systems in America. When it comes to other big cities but public education systems in America as well. 

So what we should be doing is figure out what works in public education and each public school system should figure this out for themselves. With the FEDS and states helping out research and funding and figure out what doesn't work. Fund better the things that do work and either cut back, eliminate or reform what doesn't work. It's pretty much that simple. 

One thing doesn't work is paying teachers based on their time of service, instead of quality of service. Because that puts in a built in incentive for educators not to do a good job or the best job as possible. Because they know they'll get an automatic pay raise based on the time that they serve. So that would be one reform I'm in favor of, eliminate teacher tenure and pay the good teachers well and eliminate or retrain the low-performing teachers. 

Pay teachers based on the job that they do and reward the good ones and pay teachers more money up front, so people well educated who could make a lot of money doing other things. Would have more incentive to go into the education profession. This would be one reform that I would like to see and then I would fund it well. 

Funding our public schools should be about what works and what doesn't and go from there. Funding what does work at a good amount and cutting, eliminating or reforming what doesn't. And figure out how to fund what works in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible, so you also have money to fund other priorities.