Education reform is costly failure - we need to cut our losses
By Daniel B. Jeffs, founder DDC

Education reformers having been whittling away at the quality of public education since 1960 with failed experimentation and unconscionable results, not the least of which have been outcome-based education, inflated grades, social promotion, and relentless administrative and union empire-building at obscene expense. Graduating students who are functionally illiterate and stealing college students' education is bad enough. But adding insult to the injury of the education money pit, the education establishment simply won't give up the power of well-established indoctrination, taxing and spending at any cost.

The loss of jobs during these tough economic times notwithstanding, outcries from the public education establishment and teacher unions protesting teacher layoffs and lamenting overcrowded classrooms simply doesn't hold water.

Between 1960 and 1995, average student-teacher ratios in U.S. schools fell by one-third. Yet student achievement trends in both the SAT and the National Assessment of Educational Programs (NAEP) showed a general decline in test scores and achievement even as class-size fell during that period.

If it were not for California's 1996 Class Size Reduction Act (SB 1777), reducing K-3 class sizes from roughly 30 students to 20 or fewer, and subsequent K-12 class size reductions, taxpayers would not have wasted billions of dollars on substantial increases in teachers, administration, facility and classroom additions.

The results of a 2004 RAND examination over five years of standardized test scores of 2,892 California schools across the state clearly indicated that the class-size reduction program was generally ineffective. The RAND study was confirmed by a British study of the effects of class size on 21,000 students' achievement, released in December 2004 by the University of London. As far back as 1935, it was determined that class size reductions made little or no difference in teaching and education results. Wisely, the experiments were quickly abandoned.

It's time for educators, legislators and taxpayers to wise-up and stop the bleeding. Tough decisions have to be made, particularly in tough times. President Obama's Huge stimulus plan to inject over $90 billion into public education won't change the education system's status quo of failure in the nation, particularly in California. Indeed, if California voters made the necessary cuts in unnecessary teachers, staff, administration and classrooms -- along with repealing the 40 percent grip on the state budget general fund -- property taxes could be significantly reduced and the hope for balanced budgets increased.

Reference:
Huge stimulus plan won't change the education system's status quo
By Lisa Snell
Reason Foundation

January 27, 2009

http://www.reason.org/news/show/1003242.html