Aaron Smith
3.8K posts
@ASmithAZ
Director of Education Reform at Reason Foundation. Free minds and free markets. @ReasonFdn @Reason
I was writing this as the latest news came in: Excluding Islamic Schools Defeats the Purpose of School Choice cato.org/blog/excluding… via @CatoInstitute
“Since the Obama presidency, Democrats have offered little on education policy beyond calls for more funding — even as evidence of failure mounted”
We are sad to report that Senior Editor Brian Doherty has died. Brian wrote six books, including "Radicals for Capitalism," a seminal history of the modern American libertarian movement. He had an inspiring commitment to covering the ways free people choose to live their lives, and he will be missed. A full obituary will appear soon at reason.com.
K-12 education spending has exploded higher while test scores have flatlined or fallen. At national level and in every state. Administrator vs teacher spending graph looks similar. Admin explodes higher, teacher wages flatlined. What else explains this abysmal performance?
Public school dollars are increasingly going to two things: teacher pension debt and non-teaching staff. That’s why teacher salaries are stagnant in many states despite record funding levels. Regarding staffing, it’s more than just “administrators.” Public schools have been adding instructional aides and student support staff (e.g. social workers, psychologists, SLPs, etc.) to their payrolls. Here’s what pre-pandemic growth looked like:
Public school dollars are increasingly going to two things: teacher pension debt and non-teaching staff. That’s why teacher salaries are stagnant in many states despite record funding levels. Regarding staffing, it’s more than just “administrators.” Public schools have been adding instructional aides and student support staff (e.g. social workers, psychologists, SLPs, etc.) to their payrolls. Here’s what pre-pandemic growth looked like:
Public school dollars are increasingly going to two things: teacher pension debt and non-teaching staff. That’s why teacher salaries are stagnant in many states despite record funding levels. Regarding staffing, it’s more than just “administrators.” Public schools have been adding instructional aides and student support staff (e.g. social workers, psychologists, SLPs, etc.) to their payrolls. Here’s what pre-pandemic growth looked like:
BREAKING - Today, on behalf of 3 Islamic schools & affected parents, we sued Texas state officials for unlawfully refusing to approve otherwise qualified Islamic schools for participation in Texas's new education savings program. Not a *single* Islamic school in Texas has been approved to participate in the new program - despite thousands of private schools across the state being approved. Here is our press release.
