Fool’s Gold: One good education cut deserves another

by David Safier

Today, Clint Bolick weighed in on education funding, poaching on Matthew Ladner's territory. And though the style is different, the malady remains the same.

Bolick's opening argument is that we're spending a lower percentage in the classroom now than we did in 2000. He ends by concluding, that means we should cut back on education funding even further.

So let's figure this out. When overall spending per student goes down, and you still have to pay for transportation and food services and building maintenance and utilities, the only place left to save money is in the classroom. You can always bring in another old desk and put another student into an already crowded classroom. That doesn't cost a penny. Schools don't do that because they want to, of course. They do it because there's no choice.

That's why we have one of the highest student-to-teacher ratios in the nation.

Bolick's solution is to cut schools loose of districts and have each function on its own. That, he says, will get rid of unneeded bureaucracies and save money.

Let's see. Charter schools function that way, and their administrative/bureaucratic costs are through the roof, far higher than district schools. That's working well.

Oh, but Bolick says, private and charter schools "operate with significantly lower overhead." That may be true of private schools. Not offering free transportation or food services or the kind of support services needed when you have to take all students who enroll (private and charter schools have the luxury of sending trouble-makers and special education children back to district schools, who have to accept them) does cut down on overhead. If district schools cut out those services, they could save money too. Lots of kids couldn't get to school, of course, and students needing extra help would be on their own. But for G.I., that's not a bug; it's a feature.

These folks at G.I. make lots of money writing this kind of drivel. It's good immoral work, if you can get it.