Two Decades of Funding Increases Not Helping Students

Over the past 20 years education funding in America has increased by almost 80 percent so that today school systems spend an average of more than $9,000 per student. Despite this record of growth, student achievement has remained stagnant. However, pockets of success do exist and can help guide policy makers and educators in the right direction towards better schools. Spending on education in Tennessee remains well below the national average yet standardized test scores in the state have shown a substantial increase over the past 20 years. According to Dr. Debra Cline, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Sevier County School District, there are 14,200 students registered in the Sevier County School District as of January 4th. For the years 2005-2006, the expenditure per child was $7,402 which $1,700 less than the national average and $67 less than the state average, according to Cline. “Performance levels in our academic performance falls consistently above the state average even though we are spending less per pupil,” Cline told the Herald. “We do a wonderful job of making the most of the money we have available. We have so many people all across the our system who are committed to doing a very effective job and stretching themselves for the benefit of the children and I believe that pays off in the kind of programs we are able to provide to our children.” The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has recently released the 13th edition of the Report Card on American Education: A State by State Analysis: 1983-1984 to 2003-2004, which ranks the educational performance of the school systems in the states, and the District of Columbia according to several criteria including National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), SAT, and ACT scores. \"Raising student achievement levels and improving our schools is not a matter of spending more money doing the same things as before but rather using the resources we have available in better and more innovative ways,” said ALEC Education Task Force Chairman Rep. Jane Cunningham from Missouri. “We need to hold our schools accountable and demand results, and we need to give parents more choices when it comes to their children’s education,” she added. The ALEC 2006 Report Card on American Education found, among other indicators, that 71 percent eighth graders taking the NAEP mathematics exam in 2005 performed below the “proficiency” level. ALEC also found no direct correlation between spending per pupil or teacher salaries and achievement.