Never Enough For Education
Never Enough For Education
To the Editor:
With another budget vote coming up, perhaps we should consider some facts involved â from the book Education Myths, by J.P. Greene, head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and M.A. Winters, senior research associate at the Manhattan Institute.
Most people have no idea how much money schools actually receive. Average state and federal spending alone is about $10,000 per pupil per year. Per pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, has doubled over the last three decades.
The student-to-teacher ratio went from 22.3 in 1970 to 16.1 in 2002 with little change in student achievement.
Teacher pay per hour is quite good. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the average elementary-school teacher in 2002 at $30.75 per hour. Compare to firefighters ($17.91), police officers ($22.64), biologists ($28.07), mechanical engineers ($29.76). And these rates do not include health and retirement benefits, which tend to be higher for public employees.
As the nonteacher bureaucracy at the schools grows and grows, you can be sure that school spending will never be enough to satisfy the education industry.
John J. Leitner
9 Possum Ridge Road, Newtown                                 May 22, 2006