Friday, September 13, 2013

Facing the facts



"Anyone who faces the facts knows the public education system is failing our children," OCPA distinguished fellow Andrew Spiropoulos writes.

Nationally, since 1970, we have nearly tripled how much we spend per student from kindergarten to 12th grade. In Oklahoma, since 1990, we have increased common education spending an astounding 40 percent, amounting to billions of dollars of new spending. 

What has been the return on our massive investment? Student achievement has flat-lined, with no significant improvement in the last two decades. The latest round of ACT scores showed that only 23 percent of Oklahoma seniors were prepared for college work in the core subjects of English, reading, science, and math. A significantly higher percentage, 29 percent, could not demonstrate college readiness in a single one of these subjects.

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