Everyone Loves Teachers Don't They?

At last night's debate, President Obama accused Mr. Romney of  believing that class size “doesn’t make a difference” and that hiring teachers won’t create jobs. Romney denied this and said he loves teachers, too.  But if Romney had been more honest than political, he would have said, "More teachers and reduced class sizes don't seem to matter much to educational performance."

Over the last half century we have spent more and more on K-12 education -- mostly for hiring more personnel. Class sizes are down 40%. What has this gotten us? Nothing measurable. Of course, teachers love having lower class sizes. It makes their job easier. But is this the objective?

If you were running a store, surely your staff would like you to add more help. How long would you continue to do that if sales didn't increase at all? You wouldn't. You couldn't.  But, unlike rational enterprises, the education industry is run for the benefit of the employees and their unions, not the customers (i.e. the parents and students).

Creating jobs is not the objective. Creating additional economic value is, and adding more employees to produce the same output doesn't do that.







 
US Average reading scores (NAEP long-term trend assessment tests)