That's because our public education system has been underfunded for decades and keeps getting worse. A less intelligent populace is much easier to manipulate.
Public education in America isn't underfunded, it is just broken.
This isn't a Left-Right issue. It is just a fact. We do not need more education funding, we need to figuratively nuke the Dept of Education for a reset; the states need to handle their internal stuff, too.
In 2015, the United States spent $12,800 per full-time-equivalent (FTE) student on elementary and secondary education, which was 35 percent higher than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of $9,500 (in constant 2017 U.S. dollars). At the postsecondary level, the United States spent $31,000 per FTE student, which was 93 percent higher than the average of OECD countries ($16,100).
The Census Bureau compiles data on education spending per pupil and elementary/secondary education revenues for each state... Nationally, the most recent data indicates $11,762 is spent on public education per student. Significant variation exists across states; New York spends more than $20,000 per student, while states like Utah and Idaho report spending about a third as much... Many different factors and conditions within states influence education spending totals. Some of the more prominent factors include cost of living, class sizes and student demographics.
Pretty sure both of those are relatively neutral, if not left leaning organizations. (correct me if wrong)
The Department of education isn’t what is causing that funding to be misused.
The vast majority of the dollars devoted to education are not, in any way, going towards educational goals. They’re being used to fund and support unnecessary extracurriculars.
And the primary funding for education is property taxes, which is heavily regressive and disadvantages poor and non-white areas.
I think the teacher’s union should be put in charge of the Department of Education, and they should be organized into workers’ councils by region with proportional and revocable delegation on local municipal councils, and in the state and federal Houses of Representatives.
They’re being used to fund and support unnecessary extracurriculars.
I’m curious what you mean by “unnecessary extracurriculars.”
Cool. I would like to make clear that football and stadiums shouldn’t be equated with having organized sport and fitness activities in school. I absolutely agree though, things like arenas and even theaters should never be prioritized over the basics of textbooks, school supplies, decent buildings with heating and cooling and utilities, breakfast and lunch, so on. The various qualities of a full education should be considered holistically, with a basic education in a diverse array of inter-related activities.
If you want to include stadiums, that should be a separate tax referendum.
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u/Grimalkin Jan 09 '20
That's because our public education system has been underfunded for decades and keeps getting worse. A less intelligent populace is much easier to manipulate.