Comments on: The Supreme Court Gets School Funding Right

By: Arnold Hillman

Arnold Hillman — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:08:07 +0000

Eric,
I know that this is an old article, but it still sounds like you. Do you honestly believe that the only reason there are court cases is more money. How about unequal distribution of funds to rural schools across the country? How about the dichotomous distribution of both real estate wealth and personal income. I know you believe that targeted funds are somewhat of any answer and there are some schools that have done miraculous things with “less.”
Your continuing trumping of “money doesn’t matter,” is wearing thin. Let’s look at school districts of the same size in wealthy and poor places and see what kinds of outcomes you get, what materials they each have, programs, access to broadband, and so many other things. Where would you want your own children to go to school?

Arnold (former member of AEFA and progenitor of the equity suit in PA PARSS v. Ridge decided by the Supreme Court in 1999 with one sentence- It is not a judiciable issue.

By: Ed is Watching » iVoices: Colorado Expert Discusses Education Policy and the Courts

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:53:06 +0000

[...] school finance, superintendent authority, and more. For an even quicker hit than our podcast, watch Mike Petrilli interview Martin West about the new [...]

By: Andrew Coulson

Andrew Coulson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:42:28 +0000

George,

You couldn’t be more right. While parts of the blogosphere picked up on a chart I posted recently showing the collapse in education productivity ( http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/09/09/a-picture-is-worth-300-billion/ ), the education media were not remotely interested. Even the business/econ media have largely ignored this issue, but I think a much less concerted effort has been made to reach out to them. In their case, I think the problem is that they’re just not aware of the facts.

So perhaps everyone aware of the astonishing productivity collapse in education of the past 40 years, and the pointlessness of spending more on the status quo system, should focus their efforts on business/econ journalists. Education reporters, in my experience, just aren’t interested.

By: George Mitchell

George Mitchell — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:52:38 +0000

In the spirit of sounding like a broken record, I note that this excellent post once again brings to mind the near-complete failure of the news media to report the evidence regarding growth in K-12 expenditures and the absence of any correlation with results. The voluminous material available at Ed Next and other reliable sources on this topic have not made a dent, in my opinion. Am I wrong? Is there any evidence that policymakers are catching on? I can name a number of elected officials who do get it, but their efforts are overwhelmed by the prevailing media template about schools be “underfunded.”

What can be done to increase awareness of the facts?

By: Marci Kanstoroom

Marci Kanstoroom — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:49:26 +0000

It looks like officials in DC have taken note of the Flores ruling: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/15/AR2009091503408.html