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Dollars & Sense

Cheap, easy, priceless school reform.

Here are two cold-hearted facts: First, if children in Asia receive a better education than your children, they will surpass yours in next generation’s global competition. Second, they will deserve to do so.

Of all society’s institutions from which we should demand excellence, schools top the list. Yet, we tolerate their consistent failure to convert huge financial inputs into adequate education outcomes.

Stories are all too common about students sharing out-of-date textbooks, teachers paying for basic supplies with their own money, and classrooms lacking computers. Meanwhile many administrators take home six-figure salaries with monthly car allowances that have local BMW dealerships keeping their phone numbers on speed-dial. The call continuously goes out for more money. But when taxpayers respond generously, where does that money go? Too often, not to America’s classrooms, where it’s needed most.

A business technique called "best practices” counsels studying one’s competitors to identify current benchmarks. In that spirit, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), the national average for "classroom spending” is 61.5 cents of every dollar of operational budgets (defined to include teachers, textbooks, classroom supplies and activities including athletics, music, the arts, and special-needs instruction). To date, only four states spend 65 cents or more of their budgets in classrooms (Maine, New York, Tennessee, and Utah).

This "best practice” observation is the inspiration behind a national grassroots movement that has the potential to remake the K-12 education system as we know it. First Class Education seeks to have each school district in America direct at least 65 cents of every dollar away from centralized administrators and into classrooms for more and better-paid teachers, newer textbooks and computers, and to foster an environment that inspires learning.

Many wonder what difference could be made by redirecting 3.5 pennies of every dollar of school budgets into classrooms. Here’s the answer: According to the June 2004 report by the NCES, if all 50 states and Washington, D.C. allocated 65 cents of school spending to classrooms, an additional $14 billion would be available — enough to provide a new laptop computer to every student in America or hire 300,000 more teachers. All without a tax increase.

Arizona’s Republican legislative leaders are supporting a ballot referendum for the 65-cent requirement and Minnesota's Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty is calling for its immediate passage as part of any final education funding this year. An additional five states will soon be announcing ballot initiatives — one a week for the next five weeks — as this turns into a prairie fire across America.

How will these initiatives work? Each school board would be empowered to determine how to allocate the additional classroom funds. They could choose to raise teacher pay, reduce class sizes, or add additional instructional opportunities. Districts below 65 cents will need to increase by two pennies a year until the goal is reached. A waiver provision is also allowed if districts have legitimate reasons for not reaching the classroom goal.

A central belief behind this movement is that those responsible for the financial control of our schools don’t have their priorities in order. This is the only way to explain the undeniable reality that while government spending on schools continuously increases, students continue to be given inadequate supplies in crowded classrooms taught by underpaid teachers.

That’s why the "65 percent Solution” is a critical component of school reform. It will redirect billions in (tax free) school funding away from administrators, bureaucrats, and paperwork, and invest instead in the classroom education of America’s young people.

This initiative is the fastest way to infuse teachers with a new sense of purpose and the resources to do their jobs. After all, every time you find a great school you find a great story. They are the stories of empowered parents, enthusiastic instructors focused on fundamentals, principals demanding excellence, and school boards demanding accountability.

There’s an education renaissance waiting to happen, and it will occur when more of the resources we send schools follow students directly into classrooms. If we fail at this, our young people will grow up and face their global competitors unarmed, unprepared, and, I fear, unsuccessfully.

Patrick M. Byrne is the founder and CEO of Overstock.com and First Class Education's national advisory chairman. Dollars & Sense. National Review. May 12, 2005.

Less Safe?

At first it was a matter of obvious academic incompetence that compelled so many parents in America to seek alternatives (e.g., private schooling, home schooling). But the growing motivation today for exiting public education is no longer just about academics. It's now about something much more fundamental: safety.

With public school educators pushing the latest wave of social engineering (e.g., promoting homosexuality), more and more parents have become alarmed. But what once was an occasional leak in the dam has now become a gushing breach of parental trust. For example, the pro-homosexual/transsexual movement has successfully pushed the "Day of Silence" on thousands of campuses across the nation. This is the day when, in the name of "tolerance" students and many teachers are silent all day in school in order to show support for acceptance of these statistically dangerous yet "alternative" lifestyles.

In fact, during the last such "Day of Silence," one Christian girl was caught speaking that day and received the evil eye of condemnation from her peers and teacher. The student was so shaken up that she went to speak to her counselor. The school counselor refused to speak to the girl because of the observance of the "Day of Silence!" While the Pacific Justice Institute is presently representing this family against the actions taken by the teacher and counselor, the frequency of these events have created major risks to the emotional safety of countless numbers of students from faith-based families.

This level of depravity in public schools has recently reached a whole new level with reports of public school teachers having sexual relations with their 13, 14 and 15 year old students. The frequency of such reported incidents has taken the issue from being classified as merely an extreme fluke to becoming an out-right national concern. With the institutions who trained these cradle robbers having yet to announce any major reforms, the future crop of teachers can only expect to harvest more bruised produce.

An even greater risk has recently erupted to threaten the physical safety of public schoolchildren. It seemed like only yesterday that our TV sets were reporting one mass school shooting after another. And while attempts have clearly been made by many schools to address this sharp increase in violence on campus, a recent action by the United States Supreme Court is only guaranteed to fuel the fire.

Recently in the case of Roper v. Simmons, the Court ruled 5 to 4 that it was unconstitutional for states to give the death penalty to individuals for murders they committed while under the age of 18. This new "get-out-of-death-free" card can be used by any 17 year old wanting to murder the President, a police officer, or a classroom of students. In the past, students may not have known at what age their state approved of the death penalty, but they did know that teenagers did sometimes get the death penalty. However, now that the Supreme Court has clarified any confusion they may have had, every high-schooler can now kill with confidence, knowing that they will never have to pay the ultimate price for their action.

Some parents may be thinking to themselves, "Well that is most unfortunate, but my child isn't at risk because he/she gets along with everyone." Make no mistake. This flagrant act of judicial activism has dramatically increased the danger of murder to any student attending public school. While some students at Columbine were singled out because of their Christian faith, many were simply killed at random. And those students who were singled out were reportedly some of the most likable, "get along" students on campus.

So, thanks to the United States Supreme Court, not only are public school students subjected to more harmful social engineering and harassment, they are now more than ever subjected to an inevitable greater risk of death. Sound like a commercial for home schooling? With the decisions like this from the Supreme Court, I sincerely doubt home schooling groups will need to advertise.

Brad Dacus. Public Schools Becoming Even Less Safe? Pacific Justice Institute. Volume 7, Issue 1. July 2005.

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