GoBigEd

Posted 2:10 PM by Susan Darst Williams

'TRUTH FAIRY' NEEDS TO LEAVE THIS BOOK
UNDER THE PILLOW OF STATE SENATORS,
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS, SUPES AND JUDGES

You know those "equity" and "adequacy" school lawsuits that clog the courts and force taxpayers to throw more and more money down a rathole so that schools can keep doing more and more expensive things that don't work for poor kids and recent immigrants?

We've got that going on in Nebraska, too. The boneheaded principle behind it -- that more money is the answer for struggling students -- is what's fueling the craze toward the "Learning Community" for metro Omaha, and fistfights over what should happen to OPS, the Overly Politicized Spendathon a.k.a. the Omaha Public Schools.

Well, how come our policymakers don't know that more money is NOT the answer? Maybe because they need this book by my hero, ed finance guru Eric Hanushek. How I wish Nebraska's ed leaders would read this. Then they'd realize that the answer is classic curriculum, traditional instructional techniques, better time management, less kowtowing to silly union regs, less interference by pointy-headed educrats, and all kinds of simple things like that . . . NOT just throwing money at the persistent income-based racial achievement gap that stains Nebraska education:

http://www.ednews.org/articles/2579/1/Courting-Failure-How-School-Finance-Lawsuits-Exploit-Judges-Good-Intentions-and-Harm-our-Children/Page1.html