“Over the past decade, there has been no progress in either mathematics or reading performance, and the lowest performing students are doing worse,” said Peggy Carr of the National Center for Education Statistics announcing this year’s Nation’s Report Card.
Carr said the score drops cannot be traced to any one specific student subgroup, as almost all of them logged declines. For example, black, Hispanic, Native American and white students in fourth and eighth grades scored lower in reading in 2019 compared to 2017. The declines in reading at both grades were also seen at all levels of achievement.
So Texas’ and other states’ taxpayers have poured billions more into public school funding over the last few decades and gotten what for it? More falling scores.
Karl Marx
My opinion, and that of some others willing to think beyond what is safe and familiar, is that our government/socialist model of education is fundamentally flawed with its ability to force funding without such being tied directly to customer or taxpayer satisfaction. The system also lends itself to being used as a propaganda machine for whatever political group controls it.
Public education is stuck in a 19th Century model with the solution to every challenge being more financial resources, it needs to go the way of all the other anachronistic Marxist models of service and product delivery.
Teachers would, especially the top 75%, do much better in a truly competitive environment where their skills and dedication are sought after by competing entities.
Working in large bureaucracies driven by political needs as opposed to performance for customers is hardly bound to produce great innovations or a life fulfilling environment in which to work.
Pratt is 100% completely correct.