Question Needs to Be: What Does It Cost to Educate a Child in Today's Society?

I am tired of legislators who look at the amount of money spent to educate a child today compared to prior years and then say: "Look at how much more we are spending to educate our children today. We have fewer children. We have more teachers. It's a whole lot of money."

Yes, public education costs a considerable amount of money. Yet, I never hear the legislature take up in a meaningful manner: "What do we need to educate our child in terms of standards, in terms of curriculum to have high school graduates who are well-educated and can compete in the modern workplace? What is this cost? What is the cost to society of not making this investment - in terms of number of crimes committed and prison costs, in terms of the attractiveness to businesses of our schools?"

There was the Governor's task force on education, and the issue of the cost to educate a child was raised, but the discussion did not go very far. Until you know how what is needed and what that costs, comparing current dollars spent on education to dollars spent before provides little information and no guidance for next steps, processes to follow, etc.

Posted by at May 20, 2005 3:16 PM
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