Fraters Libertas

More On Education Myths and Reality

To provide a local angle to the discussion on education myths on last Saturday's NARN show, I thought I'd provide some numbers from the public school district that I live in. St. Louis Park is an older, first-ring suburb just west of Minneapolis. Somewhat blue collar, very middle class, and definitely not one of the wealthier western suburbs (such as Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Wayzata). Here's a few figures to gnaw over from the Minnesota Office of the State Auditor:

Total enrollment: 4410

Percent of enrollment classified as minority: 27.37%

Percent classified as limited English proficiency: 6.76%

Percent of enrollment in special education: 16.79% (the highest of thirteen west-metro school districts)

Pupils per licensed instructional staff a.k.a. average class size: 15.36 (lower than Wayzata, Minnetonka, or Eden Prairie)

Average teacher salary: $48, 717 (not bad for nine months of work)

Total revenues per pupil: $13,307 (that puts SLP 4th out of 166 similarly sized school districts in the state)

Total local levies per pupil: $3,560 (that's the highest in the state--talk about hitting close to home)

Total operating expenses per pupil: $10,254 (7th in the state)

Total expenditures (including capital & debt service) per pupil: $15,262

So what's my point? Every few years we're hit with another levy increase referendum and with it a campaign stressing the school's district's desperate financial straits. This despite the fact that we already pay the highest amount per pupil in the entire state.

If you consider the amount of money we're spending, the relatively high teachers salaries, and low class sizes, the school district should be producing above average results. But the latest basic skills tests (BSTs) for St. Louis Park show that the district's students are performing BELOW the state average in reading and writing. Granted, it's only slightly below, but the point is that it's obvious that something is not working. And yet, the solution that I most oft hear offered up is mo' money.

More money to do what exactly? Lower class sizes? Raise teachers salaries? We've already done that and it ain't working.

I want the public schools in St. Louis Park to succeed. But to continue to throw money at the schools when money clearly isn't the answer is insane. It's time to stop the madness.

(If you missed the show on Saturday, you might want to check out the book Education Myths : What Special-Interest Groups Want You to Believe About Our Schools and Why it Isn't So, especially the Money Myth, the Special Ed Myth, the Class Size Myth, the Teacher Pay Myth, and the Myth of Helplessness.)