Confirming what conservative think tanks have argued for decades, a leading liberal organization's district-by-district analysis shows that more education spending does not buy better academic results in the classroom.
In Florida, the Center for American Progress found that only 17 percent of the state's school districts in the top third in spending were also in the top third in achievement.
CAP's findings could provide ammunition to Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers as they seek to blunt teacher-union resistance to school reforms while trimming education budgets.
Headed by former Clinton administration chief of staff John Podesta, the Washington-based CAP conducted a yearlong study of the efficiency of the nations public education system. It includes the first-ever attempt to evaluate the productivity of almost every major school district in the country.
The study estimated that low productivity is costing the nations school systems up to $175 billion per year.
Founded in 2003, CAP says its mission is to "provide long-term leadership and support to the progressive movement." But instead of offering the usual liberal bromides that demand more school funding while soft-pedaling accountability measures, Podesta & Co. took a different tack in its report titled "Return on Educational Investment."
"Our nations school system has for too long failed to ensure that education funding consistently promotes strong student achievement. After adjusting for inflation, education spending per student has nearly tripled over the past four decades," senior fellow and author Ulrich Boser stated.
"But while some states and districts have spent their additional dollars wisely -- and thus shown significant increases in student outcomes -- overall student achievement has largely remained flat.
"Besides Luxembourg, the United States spends more per student than any of the 65 countries that participated in a recent international reading assessment, and while Estonia and Poland scored at the same level as the United States on the exam, the United States spent roughly $60,000 more to educate each student to age 15 than either nation."
With 30 states cutting K-12 spending, CAP warns, "If schools dont deliver maximum results for the dollar, public trust in education could erode and taxpayers may fund schools less generously."
While maintaining a need for "fairness" in education funding, Boser's report cautioned that its emphasis on productivity "does not mean we endorse unfettered market-based reforms, such as vouchers allowing parents to direct public funds to private schools."
But the study echoed U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's recent declaration: Its time to stop treating the problem of educational productivity as a grinding, eat-your-broccoli exercise. Its time to start treating it as an opportunity for innovation and accelerating progress.
Among the findings of the CAP study:
- More than a million students are enrolled in highly inefficient districts. Over 400 school districts around the country were rated highly inefficient on all three of the study's productivity metrics. These districts serve about 3 percent of the almost 43 million students covered by the study.
- High-spending school systems are often inefficient. The analysis showed that after accounting for factors outside of a districts control, many high-spending districts posted middling productivity results.
- Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to be enrolled in highly inefficient districts. Students who participated in subsidized lunch programs were 12 percentage points more likely to be enrolled in the nations least-productive districts, even after making allowances for the higher cost of educating lower-income students.
- Highly productive districts are focused on improving student outcomes. The districts that performed well on the study's metrics shared a number of values and practices, including strong community support and a willingness to make tough choices.
- States and districts fail to evaluate the productivity of schools and districts. While the nation spends billions of dollars on education, only two states, Florida and Texas, currently provide annual school-level productivity evaluations, which report to the public how well funds are being spent at the local level.
- The quality of state and local education data is often poor. In many instances, key information on school spending and outcomes is not available or insufficiently rigorous, and this impeded the study of educational productivity. For instance, CAP said it did not have good enough data to control for certain cost factors, such as transportation. So a rural district with high busing costs might suffer in some of the study's categories compared with a more densely populated district.
- The nations least-productive districts spend more on administration. The most inefficient districts in the country devote an extra 3 percentage points of their budgets on average to administration, operations, and other noninstructional expenditures.
In Florida, 10 districts received the highest possible "adjusted return on investment" rating. They were: Bay, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Clay, Nassau, Seminole, Santa Rosa, St. Lucie and Wakulla.
The lowest adjusted ratings were found in: Desoto, Franklin, Glades, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Levy, Liberty and Polk.
Interestingly, these rankings do not necessarily jibe with Florida's annual report card that grades district performance. St. Lucie, for example has received "B" and "C" grades from the state while neighboring Indian River and Martin counties regularly receive "A's." Neither of those districts earned a top adjusted ROI score in the CAP report.
The "Adjusted ROI" ratings factored in such benchmarks as per-pupil spending, test scores and poverty rates. The study's admitted statistical bias against rural districts' transportation costs undoubtedly hampered the smaller school systems' rankings.
To remedy the inequities and boost productivity, the CAP study urged states and districts to:
- "Reform school-management systems. Education policymakers should create performance-focused management systems that are flexible on inputs and strict on outcomes. State and federal governments should also provide educators with the tools, technology and training required to succeed with limited school dollars.
- "Report far more data on school performance. While applauding Florida's data-collection program, Boser said other states and districts should develop data systems that report reliable, high-quality information on educational outcomes, operations and finance.
- "Encourage smarter, fairer approaches to school funding. Education policymakers should develop funding policies that direct money to students based on their needs, so that all schools and districts have an equal opportunity to succeed. Federal policymakers should also continue to support competitive funding programs that create opportunities for reform and innovation."
Amber Winkler, a senior researcher at the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, said CAP's liberal credentials give its report the potential to be "a fantastic call to arms" in the political arena.
"Analysts found, not surprisingly, that no clear relationship between spending and achievement existed in more than half of the studied states, even after adjusting for student and demographic variables," Winkler said.
"Further, the least efficient districts were more likely to spend more, especially on administration," she noted.
See an interactive version of the report here.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
