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Education reformers in Washington State have embraced a "prototype school model" which would allocate funds to school districts in hopes of reducing class sizes. 

Several authorities on school reform point out that the quality of the teacher is more important than reducing class sizes for improving student learning.

Here are the authorities:

Arne Duncan, Obama's new Secretary of Education, in a Newsweek column yesterday, thinks that finding talented teachers is more important than reducing pupil-teacher ratios:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/189237/output/print.

Professor Dan Goldhaber of the University of Washington says that placing an effective teacher in the classroom is more important than any other single factor, including smaller class size, in raising student achievement:  see page 1 of his study on Teacher Pay Reforms:  http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeprof/download/pdf/P20TeacherPayReforms.pdf

Researchers at Stanford University have specifically warned Washington State that the research supporting the "prototype school" model is an unscientific and unreliable basis for guiding education reform.  See "Check the Facts:  The Confidence Men, Selling Adequacy, Making Millions," by Eric Hanushek, Education Next, Summer 2007.http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/7560457.html

Liv Finne,Director of Education, Washington Policy Center

Here is an appeal by the students who will be pulled out of their private schools if Obama pulls the D.C. Opportunity Scholars program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPjHUMiBSRw

We can double teacher pay, but not by passing a mandate or rule which would double teacher pay on the statewide teacher pay scale.  We can double teacher pay and improve student learning if we allow principals to control the money that is spent on their schools.

This is happening already in New York City at Zeke M. Vanderhoek's new charter middle school.  He will be paying teachers $125,000 a year.  He is opening his public school this year with seven teachers and 120 students, eventually growing to 28 teachers and 480 students, plus two social workers and the principal (at a $90,000 salary).  In each instance, funding of $10,000 per student would provide a bit more than $170,000 per teacher, giving a balance of $45,000 per teacher for a total of $315,000 for administrative expenses initially and $1.26 million at full enrollment.  Teachers will have a longer workday and year, and share nonteaching duties such as attendance and discipline. Teachers are required to demonstrate high academic skills as a condition of hiring. 

Under Vanderhoek's model, 73 cents of every dollar reaches the classroom and 90% of the school's employees are classroom teachers.

Washington's staffing-ratio funding model for public schools places staffing and budget decisions in the hands of central district administrators interested in maintaining the status quo.  As a result of this model, less than 59 cents of every dollar actually reaches Washington's classrooms.  Of the 104,200 public school employees, less than half, or 48,700, are actually elementary or secondary classroom teachers.   

Principals with control over their budgets would be able to tap the many programs funded by the state which are funded outside of Basic Education. Out of the total $13.54 billion spent by the state on K-12 in the 2007-9 budget, $2.53 billion was spent on Non-Basic Education Programs.  These funds would go a long way towards increasing teacher pay.

Evidence abounds that principals who are in charge of their budgets are able to raise outcomes for students.  Principals in charge of their budgets would also be able to double teacher pay.  Such a principal would be able to offer $100,000 to attract a much-needed Calculus teacher who knows math from Boeing, or to offer $100,000 to the teacher especially skilled at improving student achievement in high-poverty schools. 

A guest column in the Seattle Times today says, "We are 44th in total expenditures per student."  Ill-defined but impressing-sounding figures like this are often used by advocates to press for more education spending.  But the numbers are being manipulated to make it appear that taxpayers are not paying enough for our schools. 

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education, Washington actually ranks 28th in per pupil expenditures, when capital costs are included, and 35th when only operating expenses are counted.  These figures are for 2004-05, and do not include the 28% increases in education spending the legislature enacted since then.  (Certainly these large increases in funding have not resulted in significant improvements to student learning in the meantime.)  The following facts give a true picture of education spending:   

• Each year Washington spends more than $9,500 per student, more than at any time in state history, adjusted for inflation.

• This amounts to $237,500 for a classroom of 25 students for a nine-month year.  Even if the teacher's salary were $100,000, all the rest would be available for administration and special programs.

• As it is, less than 59 cents of every education dollar reaches the classroom.

• Over 35 years, the number of students grew 25%, while the number of public school employees grew 77%.

• The majority of public education employees are not classroom teachers.

• Public schools may not hire just any qualified person to teach.  Only people holding a state-approved certificate are allowed.  None of the 5,000 people being laid off at Microsoft can teach in a public school, although private schools will be able to hire these talented individuals. 

• Less than 36% of 8th graders have achieved grade-level proficiency in math and reading on the NAEP, the national "gold-standard" for assessing student achievement.

• About one-third of public high school students fails to graduate from high school.

• Over half (52 percent) of students entering community or technical colleges have to take remedial math, English or reading courses to catch up.  37 percent of stduents entering our two-year and four-year collegs must take remedial math or English courses. 

Taxpayers are providing public school administrators with ample funding--over $9 billion a year to educate one million students. 

President Obama has announced a new era of responsibility.  Our public schools are failing to  prepare our students for college and the workplace.  Responsibility and results, not endless requests for more money, is exactly what taxpayers, parents and students have a right to expect from the folks who run our public schools.