When looking at spin from the left over this next few months – which will involve an epic battle between responsible, austere, adult GOP legislators and a profligate, irresponsible, spending-addicted, passive-aggressive, grossly-dysfunctional DFL governor and legislative minority – look for the following checklist items:
- Opposing [a spending proposal] will harm the children (or the elderly, the vulnerable): The examples of this “harm” will frequently be non-sequiturs.
- Opposing [the spending initiative] will be an epic catastrophe: Notwithstanding any data or history to the contrary.
- Opposing [a spending initiative] is a sign of immaturity (or mental illness, depravity)
: You’re a bad, bad person.
Dave Mindeman of mnpACT runs through the checklist; the subject du jour is education, but the same template will be repeated for every other subject – LGA, MNCare, high-speed rail, nursing homes, whatever.
Dave’s not had the best fall, of course:
I haven’t posted much lately as I evaluate looking into the new year. It has been a pretty depressing evaluation in regards to policy issues, which, again, are going to be difficult to make progress in.
My top priorities have been education and transportation….and frankly, both look to be losers in the coming legislative session.
Oddly enough, education and transportation are among my top priorities – and they look to be winners in the coming session. But there’s some cognitive dissonance involved, I suspect.
I am especially disheartened by this news story regarding my local school district, ISD – 196 (Rosemount-Apple Valley – Burnsville). It is a situation that is apparently becoming all too common.
As Republicans continue to preach the idea that we are overspending and budget bloated, wouldn’t you think that a high priority like education would at least be meeting its budget needs?
Check off #1, up above.
What are the “budget needs?” And how do we know if those “needs” are being met?
District 196’s enrollment was 27,954 in 2008 – which was off -1.9% since 2003; the average American school district grew by 1.6%, and the average district in Minnesota shrank an average of 3%, a number that hides huge disparities in growth; the Minneapolis Public Schools shrank 22.6%, while exurban districts like Elk River, Prior Lake, Saint Michael and New Prague grew in the 20-30% range.
District 196 employed 1,720 teachers in 2008, which was down -1.4% from 2003. That’s at odds with growth in teacher numbers nationwide (up 4%, 2.5 times as fast as student numbers grew)) and Minnesota (up .3%, even as the number of students dropped). The district spends $9,611 per student; of that, 90% – $8,646 – goes to teacher compensation, which is in line with national and state averages ($8,366 and $8,381, respectively, which are 81% and 82% of the respective per-pupil costs), figures which rose by 32-34% over the five year period, versus national and state average increase in the 22-28% range (the stats are all here; .
The district spends at the state average, and their budget grew considerably faster than state averages, even as the teaching staff shrank by a lower margin than the general enrollment, and the amounts spent per student rose by considerably faster than the national averages.
And yet, says the Pioneer Press, “parents” are “footing the bill for teachers“.
What concerns me the most about this article is that ISD 196 is not a poor district by any means. And by all accounts, it is one of the best managed Districts in the state. Yet, they are resorting to outside funding by parents. Isn’t there something amiss here?
What is even more disheartening about this is that if an affluent district like 196 is doing this, where are the poorer districts going to turn?
To we, the taxpayers, of course. Minneapolis and Saint Paul spend a solid 30% more per student than the Rosemount district, to the tune of $12,000-$13,000 per student; their changes in per-student spending on overall budgets and teacher compensation is commensurate with Rosemount’s, well into the 20-30% range.
If we think we are having difficulty with the achievement gap now, how much worse will it be in the future if this funding problem continues?
Check off #2. The only link between per-student spending and the “achivement gap” – and I’ll admit it may be a specious one, but numbers are numbers – is an inverse one; the higher Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s districts spending goes, the worse the achievement gap gets, while the solutions that do work seem to have little to do with spending – or the public school system, for that matter.
Are tax cuts that important? Are we willing to risk the educational future of the next generation because we think we need to pocket more money? Do you really think that last November’s election said that?
The election said “it’s time to look at these questions empirically, rather than through the ideological “throw more money at the problem” lens that the DFL uses”. So yes and no.
Oh, yeah – check off #3:
Somewhere, somehow, we have to come to terms with the idea that we have to pay for things. We have been dumping responsibility for our problems on future debt. And then the same people who do the dumping complain about the debt.
It is frustrating and an endless circular argument.
The “Greatest Generation” has given rise to the “Dead Beat Generation”. We pay for nothing…we aspire for nothing.
We have become shiftless leaches that will leave our children with a legacy of mediocrity.
“Give us what we want or your are an awful person who wants our children to starve”.
Look, Tom Dooher wants your money, and he’s saying something not far removed from the caricature in the previous line.
Against that, the facts are that spending doesn’t correlate with achievement – anywhere – and that spending on education, like all government spending, is disproportionally focused on labor and pension costs. Labor costs, thanks to the Teachers Union stranglehold on district compensation policies, has little to do with achievement; pensions have even less.
But the unthinking, unreasoning approach is “we have to pay for things”, the unspoken message being that we, the taxpayers, must not examine what it is we are paying for.
So is it a surprise that the “spend at any cost” school of thought works through the checklist, arriving inevitably at the conclusion that questioning The Machine is a sign of some sort of depravity?
Take a number.
Berg, why do you hate teach- er, I mean children? If ISD 196 cuts any more they may have to cancel the Senior Citizen Square Dance class.
The horror!!!
Nice work, Mitch. I have a questions about one tiny group of data points:
The district spends $9,611 per student; of that, 90% – $8,646 – goes to teacher compensation
I think I’m missing something. A classroom of 25 kids and we’re talking well over $200,000. Teachers don’t make that. They make $30k, or $60k or maybe even $80k, yes? That still leaves at minimum $120k! For what? How does this work?
This is a perfect example of mystery of educational funding? Where is all the money going?
This is a perfect example of mystery of educational funding? Where is all the money going?
No mystery, Mr. Roboto. Benefits.
What are the[education] “budget needs?”
12 kids per class, 90% of salary as pension, retire at 55.
And how do we know if those “needs” are being met?
Tom Dooher isn’t in your face.
Tom Dooher thanks you for the Wagyu beef dinner he will be enjoying tonight.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagy%C5%AB
At some point during the Clinton regime, “for the children” replaced “patriotism” as the last refuge of scoundrels. I immediately discount to zero and/or turn away from any argument making such an appeal.
Public education will never reform itself. As long as the media and the DFL (I know, it’s oxymoronic to suggest a difference) scream bloody murder everytime a public school holds a bake sale for playground equipment, there will be no reform. Suggesting schools are getting plenty of money simply invalidates our debate. Instead, we have to show how efficient private, online and homeschooling is in comparison to the Black Hole we currently fund.
Unless and until parents revolt and demand the legislature debate real school choice we will merely be shoveling good money after bad.
I think these liberals are trying desperately to change the subject before the subject is broached. That is, if the GOP has the backbone to simply ignore the squealing at the trough and makes sensible reductions in unnecessary spending, there is an excellent possibility that nobody in the public at large will notice the difference, and the jig will be up for these chicken littles. As long as they can scare the public and bully the GOP, they succeed; without those two tools they’ve got nothing.
Where is all the money going?
I miswrote to an extent. IT’s not just “Teacher” compensation. Administrators also get paid.
So the teacher gets 30 or 60 or 80K, whatever they’re making. Their benefits – great health insurance and that nifty pension – add up to big extra chunk; I”m not sure if it’s 1:1 with salary, but it’s up there (private sector benefits average around 20% of base pay).
And then there’s administrators. When my dad was a teacher, there was an administrator or staffer for every 8-10 teachers. Now it’s close to 1:1.
So that $200K per classroom pays for a teacher, and a generally-useless mouth to feed besides.
My top priorities have been education and transportation….and frankly, both look to be losers in the coming legislative session.
What he’s saying, of course, is that the teachers union is in for a well deserved de-pelting. Only a leftist could overlook the past 20 years of unmitigated FAIL the public schools have been orchestrating to decide this year is going to be hard on “education”.
What a fucking scumbag…no, really.
Mitch-
If a pension pays $40k/yr that is the equivalent of a a million dollar 401k earning 4%.
Of course, the pension goes away with the death of the recipient & spouse and the 401k can be a legacy.
On the other hand collecting $40K/year at 55 gives the pensioner a boost over 401k holders. You can’t start withdrawing your 401k money before 59.5 years of age w/o paying a tax penalty.
Mitch and Terry, thanks for the explanations. These are the kinds of things I want out in the open, so to speak.
This topic seems to me to be a bit related to the Phase 1 and Phase 2 post the other day. This Phase 1 is the ranting (well deserved) and jokes about “for the children” and such (also well-deserved). Phase 2 is, well, where *is* the money being spent? And what *should* schools be teaching? – I personally think that well-learned Three Rs is far more important than computers, music, phys ed, etc.
I agree we need to know where the money is being spent, but we need factual numbers. Not just hearsay or assumptions, actual facts.
I completely disagree with JDM that only the “Three Rs” should be taught in our schools.
One thing American education has over other nations is critical thinking. You don’t get that from just studying the “Three Rs”. Music and Art promote critical and thoughtful thinking. They play a very important to role in child development and education.
In regards to PE, there was an article on MPR about the state of our military’s recruits: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/npr.php?id=132407022
Here is a bit excerpt:
“You’d be surprised, the soldiers that we get today,” says Frank Palkoska, who directs the Army’s fitness school. “They can’t do simple motor function movements, like a shoulder roll, the ability to skip — so we’ve got to lay a base of foundational fitness, without injuring them.”
I think if we want to invest in our future, we need to invest in our children’s education. If we want the best leaders and the best minds we need to create them by giving them educational opportunities they won’t get elsewhere.
In saying that, I too, would like to know where all our money is going in education. For every dollar we spend where and who does it go to?
I was a private-practice attorney in a town of 2500 people in Central Minnesota. Typical small town lawyer – wills, divorces, defense, business owners, contract work for the City, etc.
My oldest kid was in 10th grade at the time. He wisecracked that his Social Studies teacher’s car was nicer than mine. I told him the teacher made more. Not just per-hour (figuring his salary on a 9-month hours-worked basis instead of my year-round basis), but gross. My son couldn’t believe it but I showed him the union contract for a 10-year teacher with a Master’s Degree versus my own paystub. Then I explained a Defined Benefit pension versus my own SEP-IRA and the value of employer-paid health insurance, and then we talked about coaching add-on pay.
For roughly the same education and professional experience, the teacher’s pay and benefit package was significantly better than mine. Plus, he got summers and all the good holidays off with pay whereas if I took a day off, I didn’t bill any clients so basically mine was leave without pay.
I made more than the banker, the funeral director, the hardware store and restaurant owners, the local cops and City Clerk, and most all the working stiffs in town. The teacher made more than I.
No, don’t cue the violins for the poor downtrodden lawyers; instead, marvel at the efficiency of the teacher’s union lobby.
Gritbaby,
I agree – focusing on the Three Rs is self-defeating to a point (at least, once kids have learned enough of them to read a book, balance a checkbook and write a coherent essay). Most people actually learn to write and think via other subjects; if I hadn’t had music and foreign languages, I’d likely have never really learned to care about learning, at least academically.
And I agree that American education traditionally is good for critical thinking compared to, say, Germany or Japan’s general education – although in my experience, No Child Left Behind is causing that to get shorted terribly.
As to where the money goes – well, that’s the fun part. So much goes to administrator salaries and staff pensions, you’d be amazed.
This discussion thread illustrates why collectivism doesn’t work and Hayek pointed this out a long time ago: You can’t get everyone to agree on a plan, even among fellow collectivists. That’s why one-size-fits-all education or health care or…doesn’t work well.
The alternative is called freedom. Buy what you want and avoid what you don’t want. It means competition. It doesn’t have to mean the dogs-eat-the-dogs–we know our state is populated with perhaps the most compassionate group of people the world has ever known; we’ll be willing to help out the less fortunate.
JDM can do what he thinks best and so can gritbaby. Freedom and competion are the heart of the matter and no amount of heavy thinking emanting out of the U.S. Department of Education is going to help those of us hoping for change.
We need a new way. It’s for the children!
I didn’t realize that my aside about the 3 Rs would become a slight thread-jack – my apologies.
I will mention, however, two things. First is that I guess I missed the news, perhaps it’s recent, that present-day students, high-school graduates, now can read all that well, can give change w/o a machine assist, or can write a simple essay. Second, I have nothing against letting students who are able to handle the 3-Rs the freedom to explore other topics.
I think the point is overhead has taken first consideration in our public education system at the expense of the finished product. The Democrat/Education Cartel has every reason to maintain status quo. Therefore, we will continue to see an inferior product being produced.
JDM, I didn’t mean my comment as a slight. It is in our day of cutting funding for education the things that get cut are the things like music, art, and physical education.
I think all of us are saying pretty much the same thing. Mitch has pointed it out that we are spending a lot of money. Where is that money going? We need an audit that can show an educational dollar bill and where every thing goes. And to no offense to Mitch, I want more details than 90% goes to teacher compensation. How is it broken up based on salary and benefits?
We need to have an honest debate about the education funding and I think it can only come by a TRUE audit of where the money goes. From administration costs, utilities, operations, and teacher costs. Where does it all go? Don’t just give me high level numbers and vagueness.
I swear I can get more information from a stock I am looking to invest in, than what I can get in a report about the where my money goes into education.