• About Us
  • Activity
  • Advertising
  • Books
  • Business
  • Contact
  • Entertainment
  • feedback
  • Government
  • Home
  • Interviews
  • Members
  • National
  • Nevada
  • Nevada News and Views
  • Newsmax
  • NN&V Ads
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Polls
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe
  • Subscription Confirmation
  • Survey
  • Survey
  • Terms of Service
  • Today’s Top 10
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Welcome!
  • Yop Poll Archive
Nevada News and Views
  • Home
  • Muth’s Truths
  • Politics
  • Government
  • Entertainment
  • More
    • Nevada
    • Opinion
    • Business
    • Travel
    • News
    • Sports
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Pinterest

  • RSS

Opinion

New State Name May Improve Children’s Education

New State Name May Improve Children’s Education
N&V Staff
March 2, 2011

(Michael Chamberlain/Nevada Business Coalition) – Big government advocates continue to tug at our heartstrings to convince us to pour even larger amounts of money into pubic education. Those who see a government solution for every problem, self-interested parties and some well-meaning souls implore our Legislature to simply commit more cash to the cause. Others are demanding real reform rather than simply spending more money in the hope it will pay off for our students.

It’s not as though the state has not increased funding for education in the past. According to the Department of Education’s own data, from the 1959-1960 school year to 2006-2007, per pupil funding in the Silver State increased 280%, after adjusting for inflation. Yet student performance has not significantly improved.

Nor have federal dollars helped. The Department of Education has spent more than $1.5 trillion in the last 30 years and still our young people, both across the county and in Nevada, are no better prepared when they leave school than they were before the DofEd existed.

Still, with all this, there are some who claim the way to improve education is to increase funding. They point to other states that spend more than Nevada and get better results. However, they ignore those states that spend much more and whose achievement is worse as well as those that spend less but whose students perform better.

For decades the taxpayers of Nevada and across the United States have dumped increasing amounts of money into public education. As the financial commitment has grown, more and more of the money and the decisions have been removed from those closest to the students to big buildings in far away places. The education system has done a better job of providing jobs for adults than it has of providing education for children, even though educating children is supposed to be its primary mission.

To demonstrate how little the amount of money has to do with educational achievement, we performed an analytical exercise using data from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

Using the average scale scores for 2007 for 4th and 8th Grade Reading, 4th and 8th Grade Math and comparing with current expenditures per pupil for 2005-2006 for each state, it turns out that the length of a state’s name may have a stronger relationship to student achievement than the amount of money spent. (See image.) Furthermore, at least in this example, as students get older the correlation between the length of the state’s name and its student performance gets stronger while the correlation between spending and achievement gets weaker.

In other words, if the purpose is to help our children learn, we might be better off changing our name to “Nev” rather than spending more money on public education.

Certainly, some might consider this calculation frivolous and it probably appeals to only a few math geeks. But it helps to illustrate that school reform is about much more than money, despite what big government advocates and members of the education establishment would like us to believe.

When it comes to education, Nevadans need to demand real reform and real results. Pouring more and more money into education has not helped our children. Now, with one of the worst budget crises in our history, we can no longer afford it.

(Michael Chamberlain is Executive Director of Nevada Business Coalition.)

Prev postNext post

Related Items
Opinion
March 2, 2011
N&V Staff

Related Items

More in Opinion

About the Climate Change Crisis, Emergency or Whatever

Ron KnechtJanuary 20, 2021
Read More

RIP, Sheldon Adelson; Prayers for Dr. Miriam Adelson

Ron KnechtJanuary 12, 2021
Read More
Road to 2021

Response to Jim Schnieder’s Way to Welcome 2021

Ron KnechtJanuary 6, 2021
Read More

The Governor’s Arrogant Climate Plan

N&V StaffJanuary 4, 2021
Read More

My Big Picture View of Policy, Economy & Politics

Ron KnechtDecember 30, 2020
Read More

Christmas Memories Through the Years

Ron KnechtDecember 23, 2020
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Subscribe Free By Email

Looking for the best in breaking news and conservative views? Let Chuck do all the work for you! Subscribe to his FREE "Muth's Truths" e-newsletter.

* indicates required
Nevada News and Views
Nevada News & Views is an educational project of Citizen Outreach Foundation, a non-partisan IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization. It is not associated or affiliated with any political party or group. Nevada News & Views is accessible by the public at no cost. It funds its operations through tax-deductible contributions from donors and supporters and does not accept government money or grants.

TAGS

Featured Article Nevada Politics Muth's Truths business government Government Opinion Obama News Donald Trump GOP Republicans Ron Knecht Adam Laxalt

Copyright © 2021 Citizen Outreach | Maintained by VirtualAlly

Gingrich: Budget Bunk
Obama Bans Collector Rifles