Stop spending money on smaller classes
We’ve spent decades raising teacher quantity when we should have been raising quality.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times columnist, wrote about her experience with a struggling New York City public school for her daughter. However, the article also highlights the positive aspects of American public schools as a whole. While some schools may be failing, most American schools receive good value for their spending and students perform well on international standardized tests.
Yet, there are still many schools that provide subpar education, as seen in Hannah-Jones' case. The school allegedly gave her daughter high grades without ensuring she truly understood the material, leading to distress for the student and guilt for the mother. This issue of inflated grades is widespread, even affecting prestigious universities.
Some blame inadequate funding for underfunded low-income predominantly Black schools, which receive $23 billion less in annual funding compared to predominantly white districts. However, it is important to consider spending per student rather than total spending, as schools in predominantly white districts still receive more funding per student.
In fact, poor, predominantly nonwhite schools often receive more funding per student than other schools, even when adjusted for local cost of living.
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