Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
The Atlantic published an article earlier this month comparing U.S.'s moribund healthcare system to its education system, providing several facts that would probably surprise the average American.
- "In education, just as in health care, the United States turns out to have the highest cost system in the developed world, on a cost-per-client basis, save only for Luxembourg."
- For all this spending, our returns are at best mediocre when compared to other highly developed nations. This is true even of the school districts we think are our best—such as wealthy suburban public schools that spend as much as $20,000-$25,000 per student (enough for them to go to a prestigious "Asbury Country Day School" or the like).
- ""Health care and education together account for about 24 percent of the American domestic economy." One-quarter of our economy is consumed by education and healthcare, which are highly government subsidized and regulated and the only sectors (besides government itself) predicted to grow in the near future.
- "[T]he United States spends 63 percent more than other countries spend to educate and care for its citizens. As a result, the United States has taxed itself a whopping 63 percent more than necessary to have a profile of subpar performance. Put another way, if our health and education systems were as efficient as those of the average OECD country, we would save $1.4 trillion per year and, if they were as effective as those of the average OECD country, we would experience a very large improvement in education and health outcomes at the same time" (italics mine).
What should a normal person think when confronted with just a few of the many such astounding statistics? The first thing to know, which usually provokes a little astonishment and outrage, is that average K-12 per-pupil public school spending in the U.S. is $13,000. That baseline figure is actually rather low (perhaps even half the true cost) because it doesn't include infrastructure spending like new buildings, debt payments, and employee benefits.
The second thing to know is that, even factoring in the budget cuts since the recession, school spending is at an all-time high (in inflation-adjusted dollars). At the same time, as The Atlantic article points out, U.S. students are not demonstrating they know more on average and are actually slipping when compared internationally.
The Atlantic article's author, Marc Tucker, paints this as a moral problem because middle-class and rich folks, as with healthcare, have ways out. They can pay for expensive insurance, healthcare treatments, tutoring, and tony private schools. They can move zip codes to attend a mediocre-but-better-than-urban public school paid for with higher property taxes. Poor people can do none of these things and, as a consequence, are stuck in abysmal, self-perpetuating, generational poverty, both of pocket and soul.
Education is intertwined with the economy and our national character. Its oft-overlooked decline in this country has contributed, like healthcare, to a broken economy and our decaying culture. This, too, needs comprehensive and individual-driven reform.
Image by Judy Baxter.
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Jun '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
I think this has been realized for quite a while, and the reason why it's so were addressed in Peter Brimelow's 2004 The Worm In the Apple. The NEA and AFT have managed to keep the roots of the problem out of the public consciousness by clever marketing as well as brute intimidation.
Just a few days ago, I heard Obama rejecting spending reduction as a way towards a better future, partly because we need to "increase investment in education..."
Waiting for Superman has helped bring aspects of the issue to the public light. And as far back as 2003, Voucher Wars pointed out the success of educational alternatives. The success of the charter school movement has also been encouraging.
But I don't think the country has reached a tipping point where the unions' influence over the conversation is low enough to move significantly forward.
Jun '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Our public education system (when it works) isn't designed to create high quality. It's designed to create uniform quality. To create high quality, you actually have to care more about kids than about your retirement benefits.
May '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Are you etoiledunord's long lost twin brother?
Apr '12
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
It's encouraging, though, that the teacher unions are losing public sympathy. People are starting to realize what a problem they are, and how much harm they do to education. Dealing with the unions would help enormously in getting real reforms underway.
May '12
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
I think there is a common thread that both of these issues are areas where the federal government has been most meddlesome. Healthcare is the more complex of the two issues, but education should be a fairly simple solution.
Why does the federal gov't tax citizens, a portion of which is for education, confiscate the funds to DC, pay bureaucrats to manage unwieldly education programs, standards, etc. then return only a portion of the funds to where it came from with many strings (chains?) attached?
This is a quesiton that is not being asked by so called conservatives that believe in limited government. Even Gov. Romney's education solution while promoting choice is still a federal solution to a state/local issue.
We have made it too easy to play scared defense because if we ask this question or actually raise the issue of eliminating federal gov't involvement in education then we are immediately accused of wanting to deny every child an education, have them be illiterate tenant farmers etc.
I believe state and local government are best suited to lead education, but I think I am alone on this.
Mar '12
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
You're not alone in this. Nathaniel and I agree with you.
You raise another good point about the whole insanity of the feds taxing citizens of states to redistribute that money back to the states with absurd and expensive strings and needless personnel attached. That only makes sense if you believe in redistributing wealth and central control.
Incidentally, having the feds control education/healthcare/anything else is a way to make controlling that thing easier for lobbyists. They only have to buy off 51% of 535 Congressmen rather than the thousands more state and local legislatures.
Ben Domenech's The City has a great recent article about that exact topic. I'll see if I can't dig it up when I'm done with work today.
--Joy
Jun '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Southern Pessimist
Are you etoiledunord's long lost twin brother?
Yeah, long lost siamese twins.
Sep '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Even Reagan was unable to fulfill his campaign promise to eliminate the Department of Education, which had been established by his immediate predecessor.
Jul '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Eeyore: I think this has been realized for quite a while, and the reason why it's so were addressed in Peter Brimelow's 2004 The Worm In the Apple. The NEA and AFT have managed to keep the roots of the problem out of the public consciousness by clever marketing as well as brute intimidation.
Just a few days ago, I heard Obama rejecting spending reduction as a way towards a better future, partly because we need to "increase investment in education..."
Waiting for Superman has helped bring aspects of the issue to the public light. And as far back as 2003, Voucher Wars pointed out the success of educational alternatives. The success of the charter school movement has also been encouraging.
But I don't think the country has reached a tipping point where the unions' influence over the conversation is low enough to move significantlyforward. · 3 hours ago
Nice post. We are closing in on that tipping point though.
Feb '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Education is a much larger problem than health care in terms of value for money. There are medical breakthroughs that allow people to live longer. The things that have been done in oncology and with heart disease are amazing, and the US has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. When was the last time you heard of an educational breakthrough in the US? There is much better performance in healthcare than in education.
Jun '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
I agree that our universities have lost their way, and our secondary education is less than good.
I'm still unclear what the reasons are. Is it bad teachers (and teacher unions)? Bad curriculum (too many stupid electives; not enough civics and the 3 Rs)? The failure of families? A general cultural malaise?
I'm convinced the federal DOE is a net negative. But what should we do?
Jan '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Excellent point. The bulk of spending on education is directed at K through 12 ... but that segment of education doesn't actually change that much.
Therefore, the change in spending isn't caused by a change in the service. We're paying a lot more for basically the same service, and the results are worse.
May '12
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
tabula rasa: I agree that our universities have lost their way, and our secondary education is less than good.
I'm still unclear what the reasons are. Is it bad teachers (and teacher unions)? Bad curriculum (too many stupid electives; not enough civics and the 3 Rs)? The failure of families? A general cultural malaise?
I'm convinced the federal DOE is a net negative. But what should we do? · 7 minutes ago
I think it is a combination of all of those.
The root of it goes back to the mid 70's and the Dept. of Education. That is when we started using the word 'they' to describe everything as if there was some mysterious far away force guiding our local activities.
Federal management of education moves accountability so far away that parents and citizens become less engaged on the local level, curricula get twisted, standards lowered, unions back stopped, etc.
Get this back to our states and counties and then if the school is failing we have to hold the person in the mirror accountable, not some mythical invisible 'they' in DC.
May '12
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
ThePullmanns: You're not alone in this. Nathaniel and I agree with you.
Incidentally, having the feds control education/healthcare/anything else is a way to make controlling that thing easier for lobbyists. They only have to buy off 51% of 535 Congressmen rather than the thousands more state and local legislatures.
Ben Domenech'sThe Cityhas a great recent article about that exact topic. I'll see if I can't dig it up when I'm done with work today.
--Joy · 2 hours ago
Joy, you really nailed it. The root of motivation for the centralized control is one stop shopping for lobbyist and special interest groups.
Mollie (I think) had a great post over the weekend about something like 9 of the counties around DC being the wealthiest per capita in the country.
Break the cycle of centralized control, watch DC real estate values plummet and our children's education skyrocket.
I just wish there was a presidential candidate in the race with the courage to say it.
May '12
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Medical inflation started in 1964 with the creation of Medicare. Education started downhill with the advent of the US Government imposing itself on schools in the late 60's with busing. Home price inflation started with the Community Reinvestment Act in 1977, and was boosted with each amendment through the years, ending with the housing crash in 2007. The 4th slow motion self-destruct time bomb is student loans. Compare tuition increases against Federal Pell Grants, especially after Middle Income Student Assistance Act of 1978, and guaranteed student loan growth. All happened because government do-gooders got involved with markets.
Feb '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
tabula rasa:
I'm still unclear what the reasons are. Is it bad teachers (and teacher unions)? Bad curriculum (too many stupid electives; not enough civics and the 3 Rs)? The failure of families? A general cultural malaise?
I'm convinced the federal DOE is a net negative. But what should we do? · 15 minutes ago
That's the $64,000 question, isn't it?
I'm in favor of vouchers, charter schools and the like, but I doubt they will make anything more than marginal improvements in scores -- though with the benefit of not costing anything more. The results of randomized tests of vouchers is that there is modest but statistically significant improvement over what would have occurred otherwise. So politicians should not over-promise. And voters should not over-believe.
Most of the fed dollars are for post-secondary education (student loans). Most of the fed spending for K-12 is for special education and for poor kids and winds up being about 10% of K-12 spending.
Unions are a problem, but then again Massachusetts is unionized but has highest test scores.
Aug '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Whatever the answer is, I can reasonably assert it doesn't involve more spending on education. I wrote on the topic last year, but the result was pretty stark. The relationship between education spending and test scores on the PISA (the international education assessment conducted every three years) is remarkably low. From my conversation last year...
The solution lies in the realm of implementation, not spending.
Edited on May 30, 2012 at 1:16amJun '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
Hang On
I'm in favor of vouchers, charter schools and the like, but I doubt they will make anything more than marginal improvements in scores -- though with the benefit of not costing anything more. The results of randomized tests of vouchers is that there is modest but statistically significant improvement over what would have occurred otherwise. So politicians should not over-promise. And voters should not over-believe.
Most of the fed dollars are for post-secondary education (student loans). Most of the fed spending for K-12 is for special education and for poor kids and winds up being about 10% of K-12 spending.
Unions are a problem, but then again Massachusetts is unionized but has highest test scores.
I agree with all your ideas, yet there is something about the slide of the schools that smells of cultural decline.
We don't seem to require that our children read a challenging text anymore. The I-phone/Facebook world seems to exalt mindless activity (texting, telling everyone on Facebook what you're wearing today) to the detriment of serious thought.
I admit to being perplexed. This is a far bigger conundrum than solving our budget problems.
Feb '11
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
I just graduated with a Masters in Education and am currently substitute teaching in small town and rural schools, I had planned on a "real job" come fall, but it has just been cut...I live in one of those failing blue states.
The education problem is vast and deep and has many components, at least as I see it. The state level bureaucrats are often worse than the federal ones in terms of harm they can inflict and their staying power.
Parents have largely abdicated, they all complain about the schools, but on the local level, often punish those who try to innovate or demand standards, because, well they might have to parent more or confront failure.
Teacher education training, I can't tell you the little slice of Hades my "training" was, apparently my two majors that equaled one BA with honors were insufficient to actually teach those subjects.
The Unions - evil, evil, evil.
Most teachers are not lazy, but they are not "life long learners", the current buzz words, they just slopped through their BS in Ed and like kids (the better ones), those who are truly passionate about teaching are considered weird and pitiable.
Edited on May 30, 2012 at 1:48amMay '10
Re: Time to Realize Education Is as Big a Problem as Healthcare
From about April 2009 to January 2011 I worked on staff at the National PTA. The National PTA President's view, expressed in a USA Today essay, was "demand more money." He did not indicate where the money was supposed to come from, or what it was supposed to be used for, just the cry to demand more.
The answer, according to most on the Left is more money, More Money, MORE MONEY, MORE MONEY!!!.
Until the taxpayers demand accountability, nothing is going to change. Which is one way of saying nothing's going to change.
Meanwhile, as long as the PTA continues to be the fundraising love slave of the teacher's unions, don't look to them for any leadership.