In a report just released by Education Week, the trade publication for K-12 education, Maryland was pronounced to have the best schools of any state in the country. For those who insist money isn’t everything when it comes to K-12 education, guess what? Money helps. A lot.
According to the Washington Post, Maryland put $3.3-billion into its schools over the past six years, increasing state spending on education 80.4 percent since 2002. County governments spent an additional $1.3-billion over the same period, a 34.3 percent increase. The results — judged by such measures as standardized tests (even Margaret Spellings would have to approve) and high school graduation rates — were in the pudding: For every additional $1,000 spent per elementary school student, proficiency rates rose 4 percent, and for middle school students, 8 percent. Perhaps that’s not impressive enough to people who want a “high rate of return” (whatever that means). No matter. It strongly suggests cause and effect rather than simple correlation.
Money alone will solve a great many problems. Or, at least for grades K-12, it’s the sine qua non for better education. It permits smaller classroom sizes and more individualized attention for those human beings who are too young to have yet turned into the jaded adults who think these things don’t matter. For anyone who’s encountered the distressing experience of realizing a public middle school science teacher does not know who your child is halfway through the year (yes, this happened to my husband and me) — smaller classrooms and individualized attention sound like very good things for K-12 education.
True, American tax dollars will never be able to deliver an education like that of Alexander going one-on-one with Aristotle (Alexander ended up great, yes, but did it have anything to do with Aristotle?), or the fictional Emile going one-on-one with Rousseau (Eek! Emile turned out all right, but talk about a manipulative teacher!), but there’s no reason other than “priorities” that all American public schools can’t deliver as well as Maryland does.
