American Legislative Exchange Council Dumps on Schools
FYI--Before you read the report, you need to know about the people who wrote it.
ALEC Mission Statement
To promote the principles of federalism by developing and promoting policies that reflect the Jeffersonian principles that the powers of government are derived from, and assigned to, first the People, then the States, and finally the National Government.
To enlist state legislators from all parties and members of the private sector who share ALEC's mission.
To engage in an ongoing effort to promote Jeffersonian principles among elected officials, the private sector, and the general public, for the purpose of enacting substantive and genuine legislative reforms consistent with the ALEC mission.
To conduct a policy making program that unites members of the public and private sector in a dynamic partnership to support research, policy development, and dissemination activities.
To prepare the next generation of political leadership through educational programs that promote the principles of Jeffersonian democracy, which are necessary for a free society.
ALEC Board of Directors
National Board of Directors
Louisiana Representative Donald Ray Kennard,
Chairman
Kansas Senator Susan Wagle,First Vice Chair
Mississippi Senator Billy Hewes, III, Second Vice Chairman
Georgia Representative Earl Ehrhart, Treasurer
Iowa Representative Delores Mertz, Secretary
Oklahoma Senator Jim Dunlap, Immediate Past Chair
Private Enterprise Board
Kurt L. Malmgren, PhRMA, Chairman
Jerry Watson, American Bail Coalition, First Vice Chairman
Scott Fisher, Altria Corporate Services, Inc.,
Second Vice Chairman
Pete Poynter, BellSouth Corporation, Treasurer
Edward D. Failor, Sr., Iowans For Tax Relief,
Secretary
Michael K. Morgan, Koch Industries, Immediate Past Chairman
Allan E. Auger, Coors Brewing Company, Chairman Emeritus
Ronald F. Scheberle, Verizon Communications, Inc., Chairman Emeritus
ALEC REPORT: INCREASED SCHOOL FUNDING FAILS TO BOOST TEST SCORES
More Teachers, More Administrators, And More Money Leave Parents ‘Scratching-Their-Heads’ WASHINGTON, DC ---- Increased school funding for K-12 students nationwide has failed to improve test scores, says a new report ranking states on academic achievement.
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa ranked highest in academic achievement while Louisiana, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia rounded out the bottom, according to the tenth edition of the Report Card on American Education: A State-By-State Analysis, 1980-2002, released today by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
“This year’s Report Card tells state lawmakers what many parents already know,” said Duane Parde, ALEC’s Executive Director. “What money cannot buy in our public schools, parental choice and inter-school competition may.”
A key finding of the report shows there is no immediate evident correlation between conventional measures of education inputs, such as expenditures per pupil and teacher salaries, and educational outputs, such as average scores on standardized tests.
ALEC is the nation’s largest bipartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators.
According to the report, the amount spent per student has grown substantially over the past 20 years, from $4,810 in 1980-1, to $6,470 in 1990-1, and to $7,079 in 2000-1. This is an increase of $2,269 per student. Yet average SAT scores for all test-takers have declined since 1972. Moreover, on the 2002 NAEP reading test, fourth-graders nationwide improved by six points over the 2000 test but by only two points since the test was first administered in 1992. Test scores for eighth-graders flat-lined while those for twelfth-graders declined. The percentage of twelfth-graders that demonstrated basic reading skills dropped from 76% in 1998 to 74% in 2002.
Other key, state-by-state findings of the report include:
Washington, Iowa, and Wisconsin achieved among the highest standardized test scores in the nation, yet Iowa and Wisconsin ranked near the bottom on percentage of funds received from the federal government, Washington and Iowa ranked in the lower half of states with respect to per pupil expenditures, and Iowa was ranked in the lower half of states with respect to average teacher salaries.
New Jersey spent the most per student ($10,787) in the 2000-01 school year, followed by the District of Columbia ($10,252), Connecticut ($10,135), and New York ($9,935). States spending the least per student were Utah ($4,372), Arizona ($4,968), Arkansas ($5,269), Mississippi ($5,283), and Idaho ($5,386).
North Dakota (+16), Alaska (+11), Colorado (+10), and Montana (+10) had the largest increases in average composite SAT scores from 2001 to 2002; Wyoming (-24) and Utah (-23) suffered the largest declines in average composite scores during the same period.
During the 2000-01 school year, New Jersey ($53,281), Connecticut ($52,100), and New York ($50,920) had the highest average annual teacher salaries, while South Dakota ($30,265) and North Dakota ($30,891) had the lowest.
On the NAEP mathematics test in 2000, Minnesota had the highest scores, followed by Montana, Kansas, and Maine. Mississippi had the lowest scores, followed by Louisiana and New Mexico.
Of the three states with the most improved SAT scores since 1981 --- Missouri, Illinois, and Alabama --- only Alabama increased any of the public investment measurements (teacher-per-pupil ratio) enough to place it among the top ten states in those categories nationwide.
Of the top three ranked states among those in which the ACT Assessment was dominant, Wisconsin was ranked 21st, Minnesota 25th, and Iowa 15th in teacher-per-pupil ratio.
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REPORT: INCREASED SCHOOL FUNDING FAILS TO BOOST TEST SCORES
2003-11-17
http://www.alec.org/viewpage.cfm?pgname=3.1173
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
