Higher Test Scores Equals Higher Economic Growth

“There’s almost a one-to-one match between what people know and how well economies have grown over time. It’s not the quantity of schooling that drives success in countries, it is the quality of outcomes that we see that is explaining the relationship.”

- Andreas Schleicher, the head of indicators and analysis for the education directorate at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

What Bill Gates Worries About

"The long-term thing that I don't lose sleep over but I worry about is that we do have our education system, particularly the K through 12 part, not improving as much as we should. And it's an important system for opportunity, it's an important system for the economic strength of the country, and since it hasn't improved that much, that's a bit scary and needs a lot more attention."

- Bill Gates, 11.12.2009

Fix Public Schools Now Or America Will Be Harmed

"People should understand how the system is falling short today and how it really contradicts our commitment to equal opportunity. If we don't change it now, it will hurt the future of the country as a whole."

- Bill Gates on American public education

America Is In Decline Because Of It's Education System

"“We are watching the decline and fall of the United States as an economic power — not hypothetically, but as we speak,” said Craig R. Barrett, the chairman of Intel. Mr. Barrett blames a slouching education system..."

- New York Times

The Federal Government Has Little Control Over Education

"Education secretaries barely have control over a professionalized staff that barely have control over a budget that contributes barely 8% of all education spending. I guess they can use their bully pulpit to influence the agenda for education policy, but almost all of the important education decisions are made by state and local actors."

- Jay P. Greene

Why Influential People Oppose Fixing Public Schools

"...the problem we tend to run into is that the most influential and well-educated people either have their kids in private schools, or they have their kids in an enclave inside the high school that are called honor’s courses..."

- Bill Gates

.02% Of NYC Teachers Fired Annually

"In New York City, the cost to fire one incompetent tenured teacher is about $250,000."

"of 55,000 teachers on staff, 10 were fired last year."

- Education Week

Math Skills Not Required To Become An American Teacher

"Almost anyone can get in. Compared to the admissions standards found in other countries, American education schools set exceedingly low expectations for the mathematics knowledge that aspiring teachers must demonstrate."

- National Council on Teacher Quality

Small School Academies Not Working

Gates Foundation leaders also have grown impatient at the uneven results when big schools break into small ones. This fall, Gates probably will switch the focus of its grants for fixing high schools to target teaching and raise teacher quality, says Vicki Phillips, former Portland superintendent who now directs Gates' education initiatives.

"We have learned that small by itself is not enough," Phillips says. "Good curriculum and instruction don't just show up. . . We need to get more dramatic results."

- The Oregonian

Jeb Bush Education Reform

"Florida did not have a voucher program when he was elected in 1998 and had only a handful of charter schools. Now it has nearly 40,000 students on vouchers and more than 100,000 in charters."

- St. Petersburg Times

Why Suburbanites Should Not Fear Vouchers

school choice saves you money:
"well-designed market education reforms will generate very substantial state and local tax savings"

school choice will not lead to an influx of inner-city students:
"more and better private educational options will emerge in cities"

- Cato Institute

Why Suburbanites Oppose Vouchers

it decreases their home values:
"If anyone is free to go to any school, a great benefit of owning a home in a suburb with superior schools vanishes--and with it, part of the home's value."

they do not want inner-city students going to their schools:
"What is more, parents who have invested large sums of money keeping their kids out of failing inner-city schools do not necessarily want their taxes used to pay for inner-city children to attend their own children's schools."


- Wall Street Journal

Charter Schools Work

IDEA charter school students, "mostly low-income Latinos", enroll in college at far higher rates than regular public school students:

"100% of the first graduating class at IDEA went to four-year colleges."

- USA Today

Obama Opposes Private School Choice

"let’s foster competition within the public school system"

- Barack Obama

Teacher Knowledge More Important Than Teacher Experience

"On average, high school students taught by TFA corps members performed significantly better on state-required end-of-course exams, especially in math and science, than peers taught
by far more experienced instructors."

- Wall Street Journal

American Public Schools Are Failing

"It's no secret the U.S. education system is failing."

- Bill Gates

American public schools are failing because of graduating, reading, writing, math, science, and spending.

Graduating:
- U.S. public high schools lose 6,829 students every school day, 1,230,000 students every school year.
- 29% of American public high school students do not graduate on time.
- America ranks 21st in high school graduation rate.
- Just over a third (34%) of students who entered ninth grade in public schools left school with both a regular diploma and the abilities and qualifications required even to apply to a four-year college. (2 out of 3 public high school students leave high school unable to apply to a four year college)
- 82% of American public high school students will not earn a college degree.

Reading:
- 27% of 12th grade students scored below basic on the federal government's reading test in 2005.

Writing:
- 18% of 12th grade students scored below basic on the federal government's writing test in 2007.

Math:
- 39% of 12th grade students scored below basic on the federal government's math test in 2005.
- America ranks 25th in math.

Science:
- America ranks 21st in science.

Spending:
"Total expenditures per pupil are nearly two-and-a-half times higher today than in 1970, after adjusting for inflation, while student achievement toward the end of high school has been flat."

The Solution: School Choice:

Large Failing School Districts

7 of the 50 largest school districts in America had a 2005 public high school graduation rate below 50%:

Rate - School District

37.5% - DETROIT
41.0% - MILWAUKEE
41.5% - BALTIMORE
44.4% - LOS ANGELES
44.5% - CLARK COUNTY, Nev.
45.2% - NASHVILLE-DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tenn.
49.0% - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

- Education Week

Public School Teachers Told To Vote For Obama

"every public school employee needs to get squarely behind the Obama candidacy"

- Reg Weaver, President of the National Education Association

6,829 Students Lost Every Day

"Nearly 1.23 million members of the public high school class of 2008 will fail to graduate with a diploma. That amounts to a loss of 6,829 students from the U.S. graduation pipeline per day."

- Education Week

Rupert Murdoch On Education

"The education system in this country is a total disgrace."

- Rupert Murdoch, May 29, 2008, All Things Digital Conference

Melinda Gates On Education

Walt Mossberg:
"What is your assessment of the problem in education in the United States and how is the foundation trying to attack that?"

Melinda Gates:
"The part that's broken is the public school system."

- Interview at All Things Digital conference, May 29, 2008.

Schools Of Education Are Diploma Mills

"The results suggest that states that want students to do better in math and science need to focus recruitment on more selective colleges instead of on traditional teacher education programs, which are often little more than diploma mills."

- New York Times Editorial

Colleges Compete For Students

"Public universities compete against private ones for top students."

- Bruce D. Benson, president of the University of Colorado system

Washington State Law Harms Students

Seven Washington State public high schools will not benefit from a 13.2 million dollar grant to add advanced placement courses because Washington State law prohibits teacher compensation not negotiated between teacher unions and school districts.

The Largest School Voucher Program

McKay Scholarship Program:

"Students eligible for vouchers who remained in the public schools made greater academic improvements as their school choices increased."

- Manhattan Institute

Low Graduation Rates And Test Scores

“We have one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world.”

“By the 12th grade, U.S. students are scoring generally near the bottom of all industrialized countries.”

- Allan Golston, the president of U.S. programs for the Gates Foundation

American Educational Choices Are Few

"choice has been implemented in very hamstrung forms: choice only among public schools, charter schools that must be approved by government and often remain shackled to rules and regulations, and voucher programs open only to relative handfuls of kids."

- Cato Institute

Education In Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. public schools:

Input: $24,600 spent per student per year
Output: 58.2% high school graduation rate

2012 Before Every State Can Calculate Graduation Rates

"Some states will need until 2012-13 to fully meet the requirement that graduation rates be based on data that track individual students."

- Kerri L. Briggs, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education

Teachers Union Wins, Students Lose

In New York, public school teachers' job security is completely unaffected by the academic performance of their students:

“the teacher shall not be granted or denied tenure based on student performance data.”

- New York Times

60% Of Washington State Math Teachers Did Not Major In Math

"New Mexico, Washington, and Arizona were on this bottom end of the spectrum, with 36 percent, 40 percent, and 42 percent of state math teachers having majored in mathematics, respectively."

- Education Week

76% Of 12th Graders Not Proficient In Writing

67 percent of 8th graders and 76 percent of 12th graders were not proficient in writing in 2007.

- Education Week

Lack Of Qualified Math Teachers

"only 61 percent of the nation’s math teachers in grades 7-12 have a major in that subject"

- Education Week

AT&T CEO On High School Graduation Rates

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down."

- AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson

Inflated Graduation Rates

Teacher Compensation

“I tell my students all the time that I can sit in the back and hand them worksheets and get the same amount of money as I do if I stand in front of the class working with high energy the entire time,”

- New York City Public School Teacher

Bill Gates Senior

"I am convinced that solving the high school crisis is our society's most pressing moral obligation and our most urgent domestic policy priority."

- Bill Gates Sr.

College Readiness Is More Important Than College Affordability

"The main reason fewer African Americans and Hispanics go to college isn't that they can't afford it. It's that they lack the skills to do the work."
- Cato Institute

"There is not a large pool of students who have the skills necessary to attend college but do not do so because of lack of funds."
- Manhattan Institute

43% Of College Students Are Men

"About 57% of American college students are women, and they constitute about 60% of those who graduates."

- Gary Becker

Every Day 6,000 American Students Drop Out Of High School

America Is Deporting It's Best Students

"more than half of all foreign nationals who earned advanced degrees in math and science in 2007 have been shut out of the U.S. job market"

- Wall Street Journal

America Is 24th In Math

"A 2003 study of 15-year-olds by the Program for International Student Assessment found the U.S. trailing 23 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, including No. 1 Finland, in math literacy at that age level. The U.S. was ahead of just five countries, among them Greece, Turkey and Mexico."

- bloomberg.com

New York Times Editorial Says State Tests Are Too Easy

"Many states have gamed the system — and misled voters — devising weak tests, setting low passing scores or changing tests from year to year to prevent accurate comparisons over time."

- New York Times Editorial

Milwaukee School Vouchers Growing

Enrollment in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program grew from 17,275 full-time equivalent students in the 2006-2007 school year to 18,550 full-time equivalent students in the 2007-2008 school year, a 7.4% increase. The number of students using vouchers to attend private schools in Milwaukee is 16.2% of the total number of students in Milwaukee receiving tax dollars for their education.

Education Quality #1 Issue Says Bill Gates

"The quality of our education, for me, rises above all the other issues in our country," said Bill Gates

Hillary Clinton Disagrees With Bill Gates And Warren Buffett

Hillary Clinton opposes individual merit pay for public school teachers. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet support individual merit pay for public school teachers.

Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton: "i support school-based merit pay"

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
Gates and Buffett support ED in 08 through the Gates' foundation.
ED in 08 supports individual merit pay for public school teachers.

Over 40% Of New York City's 8th Graders Can Not Read Or Do Math

New York City's Public School Students' NAEP Test Scores:

8th Grade Reading: 41% Below Basic
8th Grade Math: 43% Below Basic

New York City's Merit Pay Plan Needs Improvement

"Some performance pay plans (like the recently announced program in New York City) offer half steps in the form of school-wide incentives, but no way to evaluate and reward individual classroom teachers."

- Roy Romer

The United States Is Losing The Race

Facts From The American Institutes for Research (AIR):

"Students in Highest Achieving U.S. States Rank Significantly Below Students in Highest Achieving Countries"

"In mathematics, students in 49 states and the District of Columbia are behind their counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan."

"In math, the average D.C. student is at the Below Basic level, putting them behind students in 29 countries."

"The take away message from this report is that the United States is losing the race to prepare the minds of the future generation,” said Dr. Gary Phillips, a chief scientist at AIR and author of the report.

100% Of The 10 Largest School Districts Are Dropout Factories

100% of the 10 largest public school districts in the United States fail to graduate more than 60% of their students, by definition a "dropout factory".

Education Is The Best Investment

"Education is the best investment."
- Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve

"Education is the best investment."
- Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft

"The best investment you can make is in yourself."
- Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

Alan Greenspan On American Education

"Our students are average or above, at age nine or ten. What do we do to them in the next seven or eight years that they test so poorly relative to their peers in other countries?"

- Alan Greenspan

Teacher Unions Are To Blame

American public school students fare poorly on international standardized tests because their teachers are unqualified.

Their teachers are unqualified because qualified college graduates can earn more money in the private sector than by teaching and therefore avoid teaching as a career.

If qualified teachers were paid more, then more qualified college graduates would be attracted to teaching. This increase in qualified teachers would increase students' performance on standardized tests.

Teacher unions oppose paying qualified teachers more than unqualified teachers. Therefore, teacher unions are responsible for American public school students' poor performance on international standardized tests.

Federal Government Is Not Helping Students

"NCLB stipulates that school districts set aside funds for private tutoring and transfers, but if that money goes unused it is rolled back into their general budget. Obviously, this is a huge incentive for school administrators to do as little as possible to avail parents of these options. And Ms. Spellings has done next to nothing to stop districts from all but ignoring the law, either by granting exemptions or looking the other way. Around 2% of children eligible to transfer out of failing schools have exercised the option. Fewer than one in six students who qualify for tutoring are getting it."

- Wall Street Journal

Hypocrisy Defined

In 2004 Congress created the first federal school voucher program for students trapped in low-performing Washington, D.C., schools. Yet 96 percent of Democrats who private-school their children voted against the measure.

-Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

2007 Education At A Glance

As reported by the Cato Institute:

"U.S. students fall further behind their international peers the longer they stay in school"

"vocational track students in other wealthy nations actually outperform the overall U.S. average"

"the United States spends more than all but two countries (Luxembourg and Switzerland – tax havens, both)"

"We are tied for the highest college dropout rate in the whole of the OECD, 46 percent."

"America’s Schools Are Not Getting The Job Done"

As reported by Democrat Roy Romer:

Input:
"The U.S. spends a greater percentage of its GDP on education than any other G-8 country."


Output:
"American 15-year-olds scored on average below their peers in Canada, Germany, France, and Japan in math in 2003."

Wealthy Teachers

"a popular tutor might teach 100 students in a single lesson, each paying as much as $12.50 to be there. So a tutor working 40 hours could gross $50,000 in a week. "It's a big business," says Ken Ng, a well-known tutor god. "That's why I'm driving my second Ferrari."

- The Wall Street Journal:

State Standards Are Lower Than National Standards

Grover J. Whitehurst, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, says the achievement level that many states call proficient is closer to what the National Assessment of Educational Progress rates as basic.

America's Oldest School Is Also It's Best

America's oldest K-12 school, the Collegiate School (est. 1628), sends a higher percentage of it's students to selective colleges than any other high school in the country with a graduating class of at least 49 students.

The Wall Street Journal conducted a survey of high schools and found that The Collegiate School sent 51% of the class of 2003 to 10 of the most selective schools in the country, a greater percentage than any other high school in the Wall Street Journal's survey.

For Profit High School

Horace Mann School, a school that sent 35% of it's students to 10 of the country's most selective colleges in 2003, made a profit of over 6 million dollars in 2007.

The Best High Schools

This list from the Wall Street Journal ranks high schools based upon the percentage of students that they sent to 10 of the most selective colleges in the country.

Are American Public Schools Doing A Good Job?

1. Spending on American public schools has increased dramatically both in the short term and long term.

2. America has one of the world's worst public high school graduation rates.

3. Of those students who do graduate from America's public high schools, the vast majority of them can not read, write, or do math at grade level.

Here Are The Facts:

Spending On Public Schools:
Inflation-adjusted per-student spending on public schools has increased over 600% in the past 50 years and over 20% in the past 10 years. In the 2004-2005 school year, states spent an average of $10,159 per-student on public schools.


2003 Public High School Graduation Rates:
30% of public high school students do not graduate. That is over 1.2 million people who fail to graduate from high school every year. 18 countries have a higher high school graduation rate than America.


2005 12th Grade Federal Government Test Scores:
Math
77% of 12th grade students are not proficient in math.
39% of 12th grade students are below basic in math.

Reading
65% of 12th grade students are not proficient in reading.
27% of 12th grade students are below basic in reading.

Writing
76% of 12th grade students are not proficient in writing.

Public Education Spending

This graphic understates actual public education spending. It omits capital expenditures.

Education Is The 7th Most Important Issue To People

A Gallup poll discovered that education is the seventh most important thing that the general public wants their elected representatives to focus on.

Vouchers Are Better Than Charter Schools

"The proven academic gains from even limited voucher programs are significantly greater than those from charter schools."

"There is a lot of high-quality research on charters and it consistently finds that charter schools are only marginally better than regular public schools."

Robert Enlow, Executive Director of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation in a school voucher debate.