[MD] Public Education

[Krimel]

-----Original Message-----
From: Platt Holden [mailto:pholden at davtv.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:30 PM
To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
Subject: Re: [MD] Public Education


[Arlo]
> Some thoughts and numbers.
> 
> International Comparison of Math, Reading, and Science Skills Among 
> 15-Year-Olds: "More than 250,000 15-year old students from 41 
> countries participated in the assessment. The countries included all 
> major industrialized nations (results for Britain were not available) 
> and 11 other nations that chose to participate. The test scores are 
> from 2003." (http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html)
> 
> The U.S ranked 28 out of 41 on Math. The top countries were Hong 
> Kong, Finland, South Korea, Netherlands, Lichtenstein, Japan, Canada.
> 
> The U.S. ranked 12 out of 41 on Reading. The top countries were 
> Finland, South Korea, Canada, Austrailia, Lichtenstein, New Zealand.
> 
> The U.S. ranked 20 out of 41 on Science. The top countries were 
> Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Lichtenstein, Australia.
> 
> All the top have public schools. None have a "voucher" system.

All the top schools spend less per pupil annually than the U.S. 

Australia	  $6,484
Canada	    6,482
Finland   	    6,501
Japan		    6,842
Korea		    5,174
Netherlands   6,439	
New Zealand  5,419
U.S.              8,935

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2007/section4/table.asp?tableID=738

Obviously throwing more money into the government-union school system in 
the U.S. is not going to the solve the  problem of the system's failure. 

[Krimel]
Notice that in the numbers that really matter, percentage of GDP, The US is
about average in spending for Elementary and High School. In post secondary
spending where privatization is high and a greater portion of the cost is
borne by the students, we are at 2.9% GDP, the highest in the world. This is
one area were foreign students are coming here and kicking GPA ass because
our students are less prepared for the level of analysis involved at the
college level as opposed to memorizing "facts" for tests.

I wish you would stuff this government-union crap. I live in right to work
state and unions have zero impact here.