We can improve education without busting the budget.
Marcus Winters argues that with every level of government in this country facing significant fiscal challenges, one way to improve student achievement would be more educational choice.
With more choice, schools could save money, achieve better academic results for all of our children and give a well-needed boost to the struggling economy. Education costs in this country have more than doubled since 1975, even after adjusting for inflation. Yet, “just about every measure of educational outcomes has remained stagnant since 1975, though some have finally begun to inch upward over the last few years.”
Winters, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, argues:
Schools don’t need more funds; they need the freedom to use their funds as they see best. That can happen only if the restrictions of the current system no longer bind them. A better system–one that the United States should begin moving toward–would be a taxpayer-funded one of relatively autonomous schools.
Read the entire article here.