Sorry, Senators, More Money is NOT the Right Answer

In a Wall Street Journal article yesterday, Senators Patty Murray and Mary Landrieu point out that employers are having difficulty finding workers with sufficient skills to fill the jobs that they have. They note that 90 million adults (that would be a third of the population) have low literacy skills and that today's high school graduates are less educated than their parents generation. Good observations. Their diagnosis? We just need to spend more money on education! Excuse me, Senators, but we increased spending on education (in real dollars) by 138% in the last 25 years and, as you've pointed out, we got nothing -- or less than nothing -- for it. A rational person might conclude that something other than lack of money has been driving down education results. For politicians the answer is always: Spend more Money. Now, what was the question?