Monday, October 10, 2005

What Does The Public Know About Education

A Republican "operative" sent me this link to a Democrat, but one who's on the right side of education--which simply means she agrees with me :-)

She gives California voters an F for knowing about education spending in this state. If you're interested in facts and not hyperbole, read the entire article. It's not long. Here's my favorite fact:

As a wonderfully sneaky test of awareness, PPIC asked Californians in a recent survey how much of the state budget is spent on public schools. They were clueless. Only one in three knew that public education is by far the biggest item, sucking up half the budget--very roughly, $50 billion of $100 billion.

Ignorant voters insist more money pour into the schools, not knowing California spends more on schools than the entire operating budgets of each of the 49 other states, including New York. (emphasis mine--Darren)


3 comments:

Editor said...

You are 100% correct. In fact teh US spends more on education per pupil (and in total dollars) than almost every other country on Earth. Money is not the answer, if it was then the US would rank at teh top of every survey of US academic skil instead of at the bottom.

We rank at the bottom because our culture, in spite of the lip service, doesn't value education. We glorify the hollywood and sports culture but science, math, technology, history, literature, etc...are left to the backburner.

Anonymous said...

One amazing note is that many teachers I spoke with in the lunchroom today did NOT have this knowledge in thier back pocket.

Darren said...

I agree with Phalanx. And Eric, are you surprised? Most teachers are sheeple, believing and doing whatever the union tells them. And the union certainly isn't telling them this.