Posted By:
LetsGoBucs
"We spend more per pupil than any country in the world." WRONG as to California, which ranks lower than a lot of underdeveloped nations. As for teacher's unions (and no, I'm not in one)- that's not the problem. The problem is putting inept teachers in administrative positions and over-funding those. Teachers remain the most important profession which is grossly underpaid.
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Since I'm often wrong I thought I'd look up the actual numbers instead of relying on my often faulty memory.
On this occasion I believe that I'm correct. I used OECD data through 2005 and overall the US leads all nations on expenditure per pupil. If you only measured primary education we are second to Switzerland. What was also interesting was the US summary from the 2005 report:
SHOULD THE UNITED STATES WORRY ABOUT ITS EDUCATION SYSTEM?
There are causes for concern in the United States’ education system. The advantage it had over other countries of much higher completion rates of upper secondary education and tertiary education has been eroded.
The higher education system in the United States remains strong, at least in its reputation which is all that is measured internationally and at least for its elite institutions. The United States’ economy continues to derive a relative advantage in innovativeness from the research conducted in its universities.
The quality of the learning of 15-year-olds in the United States, particularly in mathematics and problem solving, are well below those of many European countries and also Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand. With its relatively high expenditure and its relatively low student achievements at
the school level, the United States education system is clearly inefficient.