PolicyGuy

Tuesday, October 31, 2006


Spend Less, Get More: Is This a Problem?
Arizona spends less than the national average on K-12 education. It also gets above-average results. A Tucson newspaper columnist thinks that the below-average spending level is a problem.

In his defense, he's not the only one with this odd fixation. It's a widely held belief: what counts in education is not outcomes, but inputs.

Why is thinking about education so, well, ignorant about economics? The fault lies in part with an education system that doesn't teach economics. Another reason is the belief that the laws of economics don't apply to education. Good intentions are all that matter.

Of course, we know where good intentions can lead ... right to the U.S. being near the bottom of the list of industrialized countries in educational performance.

"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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