According to the Dept of Education (the "ies", National Center for Education Statistics), adjusted for inflation, the cost per pupil increased from approximately $6,200 in 1985 to approximately $9,800 in 2007. That's an inflation-adjusted (ie, a NET) increase of about $3,600. That's nearly a 60%(!!!!) increase ABOVE(!!!!) what inflation added to the cost! Here's the link fyi:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/expenditures/figures/figure_02.asp
What did we get for that "investment"? NOTHING! During that time our kids' scores were almost completely stagnant and the scores went from among the best among developed countries to near last! Think about that and its various implications, not only for our kids but for our country's future.
So, when our elected representatives say we need to "INVEST" in education to fix it, I have to ask them, "what exactly do you call all that spending we've already done?" We've TRIED THAT. IT DIDN'T WORK! Hello!?!? We've been very generous in supporting your so-called investing and it has gotten us exactly NOTHING! Throwing money at education has done nothing and you want us to throw even more money at this problem? Do you think we're stupid? Apparently you do! :-(
Americans are beginning to wake up to this travesty for the reality of it. Since you 'education professionals' have failed, utterly, for the past 30 years, WE FOR WHOM YOU WORK are going to take charge and fix it ourselves. Buckle up you knuckle-heads!
Please STOP telling us that capping or even reducing the cost per pupil will hurt the kids' education! Historical evidence shows that there is NO relationship between cost per pupil and test scores. More money has not improved the results one iota so stop telling us we can't cut back these costs!
You all won't implement merit-based pay (ie, you get paid more if you produce results) so we will. You have EARNED a pay and benefits CUT due to unacceptable performance/results. In the private sector, employees who perform this poorly relative to their goals would have been fired long, long ago. Never mind pay and benefits cuts. You should be happy you still have jobs!
Get ready for merit-based and accomplishments-based pay and benefits as well as some tough choices. You're not going to like them but, frankly, you've forfeited your right to fight it by failing our kids as well as citizens for whom you work. Got news for you. We're the boss, not you. Not government. Definitely not unions!
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