Money -- the root of all good?

By John Bertosa

WARNING:FACTS WILL BE REVEALED IN 50 SECONDS THAT WILL MAKE LIBERALS QUESTION EVERYTHING THEY THOUGHT THEY KNEW.
In Northeast Ohio, just like in other parts of the country, there are school districts that are the envy of parents everywhere and are just miles away from districts that are pitied by parents everywhere.
Two of those top-rated districts are Chagrin Falls, to the east of Cleveland and Bay to the west. And in between is the woeful Cleveland school district.
Liberals look at the situation -- affluent households supporting districts in which kids go to newer buildings and do excellent on test scores while poorer household have to go to crumbling buildings and are given educations that result in low test scores.
And these liberals cry unfair and demand an equal amount of funding goes to the poorer districts. Because, as was perfectly illustrated in the quote chosen by Dan, they believe the key is government money, aka redistribution of wealth, aka making people do the right thing.
WARNING:FACTS WILL NOW BE REVEALED THAT WILL MAKE LIBERALS QUESTION EVERYTHING THEY THOUGHT THEY KNEW.
Standard & Poors School Evaluation Services, with its Web site schoolmatters.com, has culled state and federal reports and created a database covering every school district. It found that Chagrin Falls spent $12,594 per student in 2006 while Bay averaged $11,215 per student, both way above the state average of $10,561.
And as for Cleveland, are you ready for this? The Cleveland School District spent $13,390 per student!!
How can this be so? Well because the industrial base in Cleveland, as deteriorating as it is, still has a higher tax base than mostly residential Chagrin and Bay.Chagrin took in an average of $12,590 per student and Bay took in $11,533 per student while Cleveland brought in $15,270.
There is not a direct correlation between districts spending more money and students learning more. Despite what Aaron Sorkin believes.
Still in shock, well lets look at some other numbers.
WARNING: LIBERALS MAY NOT UNDERSTAND OR EVEN BE ABLE TO SEE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES SINCE THEY DO NOT INVOLVE TAX MONEY OR GOVERNMENT CONTROL.
In Chagrin Falls, the number of single-parent households is 8.3 percent, in Bay it's 8.4 percent. And Cleveland again tops these numbers (only not in a good way) with 20.5 percent.
Having two people in a home increases the chance of supervision after school so that kids will be compelled to study instead of play Playstation 3 or just hang out.It also improves the odds that there is a parent who appreciates a good education.
But, the number that I think is most compelling is this, the number of households in which an adult has at least a bachelor's degree is 64.5 percent in Chagrin and 53.2 percent in Bay while in Cleveland it's 15.7 percent.
Parents or older siblings who have navigated the course to the finish line know how to get there but even more importantly they know what it takes to get there. They can tell the child this is how much you have to study and this is why this certain school subject is important.
It's family and hard work that offer the best chance to giving a child a good education, not a bright new building or high-priced teachers.
So, my solution to the education situation is to emphasize the charter schools so that kids in tougher situations can earn that degree and then serve as a beacon for others in their neighborhoods who might not have that good example at home. Boost scholarship opportunities for the same types of kids who have blindly scratched and crawled their way to great grades. Get them to college so they too can be a good example in their community.
It needs to be targeted since the numbers show throwing money at a school district does not have the desired effect.
As for the argument about getting the best teachers, that is irrelevant as long as the belief holds that "every child learns in different ways" and that "some students just aren't good test-takers." Because that means you can't create a true standardized test and if you don't have a test to compare the learning of students you will never gauge the teaching of students.
After all, if there was a way to gauge a teacher's abilities, (put sarcasm here) don't you think the teachers' union would have unveiled it already?