Quote:

What the hell? That graph is the biggest joke I've ever seen. Did you read the vertical column? "Percent change since 1970". That graph was specifically made to produce the biggest visual spike possible with respect to the scores listed at the bottom.

Percent change means that in 2006, the federal government spent less than twice as much as it did 36 years earlier. The graph does not take into account inflation, nor does it account for the increase in enrollment due to population increase. I wouldn't be surprised if the government was actually spending *less* when all the corrections are accounted for.

http://world.std.com/~mhuben/cato.html

The Cato Institute:

"A "libertarian" quasi-academic think-tank which acts as a mouthpiece for the globalism, corporatism, and neoliberalism of its corporate and conservative funders. Cato is an astroturf organization: there is no significant participation by the tiny libertarian minority. They do not fund it or affect its goals. It is a creature of corporations and foundations.

The major purpose of the Cato Institute is to provide propaganda and soundbites for conservative and libertarian politicians and journalists that is conveniently free of reference to funders such as tobacco, fossil fuel, investment, media, medical, and other regulated industries."

Here is something from Cato institute: "Has Federal Involvement Improved America's Schools?"

A graph from the article (click to see larger scale):



By the way, we need to get our terminology right here. Some people call the money we spend there an "investment".

However, "investment" implies that we can reasonably expect a so called "return".

This picture indicates that the term "waste" is more appropriate.

All things considered, how are JC's public schools compared to other medium cities?
I know they get a bad rap but what is the real story?

Systematic Cheating Is Found in Atlanta?s School System

By KIM SEVERSON
Published: July 5, 2011
New York Times

ATLANTA ? A state investigation released Tuesday showed rampant, systematic cheating on test scores in this city?s long-troubled public schools, ending two years of increasing skepticism over remarkable improvements touted by school leaders.

The administration of former superintendent Beverly L. Hall punished whistle-blowers, hid or manipulated information and altered documents, the investigation found.

The results of the investigation, made public by Gov. Nathan Deal, showed that the cheating occurred at 44 schools and involved at least 178 teachers and principals, almost half of whom have confessed, the governor said.

A culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation existed in the district, which led to a conspiracy of silence, he said in a prepared statement. ?There will be consequences,? Mr. Deal said.

That will certainly include dismissals, according to school board members and the interim superintendent, Erroll B. Davis Jr., and could possibly result in criminal charges.

The findings of the investigation, which was conducted by a former state attorney general and a former county district attorney, will be delivered to district attorneys in three counties where cheating most likely took place.

Mayor Kasim Reed of Atlanta called the release of the investigation ?a dark day for the Atlanta public school system.?

The cheating, he said, showed a complete failure of leadership that hurt thousands of children who might have been promoted to the next grade without meeting basic academic standards.

At the center of the cheating scandal is former Superintendent Beverly L. Hall, who was named the 2009 National Superintendent of the Year and has been considered one of the nation?s best at running large, urban districts.

Dr. Hall, who announced in November that she would be leaving the job at the end of June, left Tuesday for a Hawaiian vacation.

Dr. Hall is a veteran administrator of the New York and Newark public schools. She took over the Atlanta district in 1999 and enjoyed broad support. Under her administration, Atlanta schools had shown marked improvement in several areas.

Still, the investigation shows that cheating on the state-mandated Criterion-Referenced Competency Test began as early as 2001, and that ?clear and significant? warnings were raised as early as December 2005. Dr. Hall?s administration punished whistle-blowers, hid or manipulated information and illegally altered documents related to the tests, the investigation found. The superintendent and her administration ?emphasized test results and public praise to the exclusion of integrity and ethics,? the investigators wrote.

In 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began aggressive reporting that questioned the statistical probability of some test scores and eventually led to a separate state investigation of 2009 tests that showed an unusually high number of erasures.

The specter of widespread cheating caused rifts within the business and religious communities and contributed to a tumultuous school board power struggle. That disarray led the body that accredits the district?s high schools to review whether the district could hold on to its rating. That review is expected to culminate in September, when inspectors return to see if the school board has improved its performance and how it handled the fallout from the cheating scandal.

Mr. Deal and Mr. Reed also made moves to control the school board, supporting a new law written specifically to address the issue. It gives Mr. Deal the power to suspend the entire school board for jeopardizing the district?s accreditation.

Just how badly students were affected by the altered scores is difficult to determine; however, some 12,000 students whose tests might have been tampered with have attended remedial classes after school and on weekends.

Parents of the 55,000 students who attend Atlanta public schools have found themselves torn between defending beloved teachers who said they felt pressured to cheat, worrying about the quality of their children?s education and wanting to support a district that has been improving.

?It becomes a question of what it means to be educated,? said Maria Pease, a former teacher who is the parent of a high school student. ?Does it mean the highest test score? I would argue it does not. This is part and parcel of a general dysfunction that isn?t particular to Atlanta public schools.?