In this 2009 photo, third-grade teacher Fae Haglund talks to her students at Adams Elementary School in the Mesa Unified School District. Governing boards for all East Valley districts are in the process of approving budgets. (File photo)
Stephanie Shuey hangs photos in her resource classroom at Haley Elementary School in Chandler. July 24, 2009.
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thebuckstopshere posted at 3:43 pm on Thu, Sep 16, 2010.
Don't anybody believe for an instant that spending more money per pupil will result in a better education for our students. I took a hard look at this a year ago using US census data for spending plus another report (can't remember the name of the service, but it has been around for something like 35 years or so) in order to decide whether or not I should vote in the affirmative for a local tax override. It took many hours to sift through and plot the data. There was NO correlation between the two. Based on that review, Az ranked # 50 scholastically, Utah was #38 and Idaho was #20! Both Utah and Idaho ranked higher academically even though they ranked below Arizona in spending.
You can't and you won't ever buy a better education by throwing more money at it. If parents and students want a better education, they better start looking at something else...maybe like....WORKING for it.
That tax override was defeated (60/40 against) with only 40% of registered voters bothering to vote for a simple MAIL-IN ballot. The obstacle to a better education in Arizona as I see it is between the parents and the students and is spelled A-P-A-T-H-Y instead of M-O-N-E-Y.
stan000 posted at 9:01 am on Wed, Jun 30, 2010.
I'm not really concerned about how much we are spending per student but about how much we are getting for our money. The kids I see graduating from public high school do not impress me as being employable or ready for taking much but remedial classes if they go on to college.