Utahns should be proud that their state is improving educational results while keeping its rank as the nation’s lowest state in per-pupil spending. Utah should not worry about falling behind other states in the spending race. Although Tribune editors seem not to like this fact, research has consistently shown that increasing education spending does not increase education quality. One of the latest studies to demonstrate this was a huge Harvard University data comparison across every state. As study author Paul Peterson noted, when school districts get more money, they are not likely to spend it in the most effective ways. In other words, school districts tend to treat extra money like ice cream: a tasty, fattening and short-lived snack. In an age of necessary government spending cuts, Utah should be a model for other states rather than derided by its own for a difficult and significant success. Joy Pullmann Research fellow, Heartland Institute Chicago Copyright 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Reader Comments Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, click the red “Flag” link below it. See more about comments here. Click here to hide comments Disqus. . .. Login Add New Comment Post as … . Real-time updating is paused. (Resume) Sort by popular now Sort by best rating Sort by newest first Sort by oldest first Showing 1-10 of 35 comments RMHartman independant, free thinker, observer of the human condition. It’s pretty obvious to me that Ms. Pullmann has never visited public K-12 in Utah. She has never seen the notes form teachers, asking parents to send in paper, kleenex, crayons, pencils…basic supplies which the school budgets can not pay for. Perhaps Ms. Pullmann would like to check the dates of the textbooks our public schools are using. She might want to ask the teachers when they last recieved a real raise. Or maybe she should ask first-year teachers how much they are paid. Then she can perhaps understand why so many of Utah’s taxpayers (parents) are unahhpy with our educational budget shortfalls. Like Reply 1 week ago 2 Likes . Sandy_Man Jonathan Kozol, noted education scholar, author, speaker, often speaks to groups of blue chip CEOs. During a reception following one of his speeches, one CEO asked him, “But can you really solve it by throwing money at it?” Kozol replied, “it works for you children”. Like Reply 1 week ago 2 Likes . utesby5 Left of Utah If one bothers to access the source that Ms. Pullmann is referencing one would find little if any justification for her conclusions. Indeed on the position of Ms Pullmann that Utah should be proud of getting a lot “bang for our buck” is not specifically mentioned. The report says: ” Some states received more educational bang for their additional expenditure buck than others. To ascertain which states were receiving the most from their incremental dollars, we ranked the states on a “points per added dollar” basis. Michigan, Indiana, Idaho, North Carolina, Colorado and Florida made the most achievement gains for every incremental dollar spent over the past two decades. At the other end of the spectrum are the states that received little back in terms of improved test-score performance from increments in per-pupil expenditures-Maine, Wyoming, Iowa, New York and Nebraska. However, we don not know which kinds of expenditure prove to be the most productive and whether there are other factors that could explain variation in productivity among the states.” The report goes on to say while discussing if there is a positive correlation between spending and educational gains or if other factors would be the cause, “None of these propositions have been adequately tested, however, so any conclusions concerning the sources of educational gains must remain suggestive.” Ms.Pullmann is at best deceptive in claiming the report justifies her illogic and at worst disingenuous. Like Reply 1 week ago 3 Likes . utesby5 Left of Utah Reductio ad absurdum; If there is no relationship between what is spent on education and the quality of that education, then society should not spend any money on education what so ever. Yet, in a free market system, the best and most elite colleges in the country charge more for their education than state or city funded colleges. Either Ms. Pullmann’s thesis is fatally flawed or the free market system of determining education value is a myth. If Ms. Pullmann is so naive as to think that we as a society can get something for nothing, I can only hope that she takes a similar position for getting paid by the Heartland Institute for her intellectually dishonest and illogical bunk that is her letter. Like Reply 1 week ago 3 Likes . ChairmanMauzer Joy, what do you think of the fact that Utah ranks last when compared with states with similar socioeconomic demographics? You get what you pay for. The Heartland Institute is a joke. (Edited by author 1 week ago) Like Reply 1 week ago 2 Likes . lamecrow Crustaceous and curmudgeonized. …but not a funny one… Like Reply 1 week ago in reply to ChairmanMauzer 2 Likes . Shamus_McOdin Joy you may have a point. I have four friends that went to College and finished with credentials to teach. Can you answer me honestly how “do more with less” works when each makes more money waiting tables at Chill’s and serving cocktails in bars than they would teaching in the public schools of Utah? Like Reply 1 week ago 4 Likes . Armand Winter Chicago Public Schools currently enjoy a higher graduation rate than the 70% rate in Tooele. Like Reply 1 week ago 3 Likes . Shelama Any meaningful discussion of education and education outcomes needs to include the impact of the home and family life. Like Reply 1 week ago 5 Likes . 1stedition I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. Like Reply 2 days ago in reply to Shelama . 12… 4 Next → M Subscribe by email S RSS . blog comments powered by Disqus
Joy Pullmann is a research fellow on education policy for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of The Federalist, a web magazine on politics, policy, and culture.
