Once again the evidence is that more money does not automatically lead to better educational outcomes.
MacIver News Service | January 30, 2017
[Washington, D.C…] A new report from the federal Institute of Education Sciences has revealed that the Obama administration’s School Improvement Grant (SIG) program failed to create any academic gains for students. The controversial grant program spent $7 billion over eight years, and was the largest-ever federal investment in failing schools.
Then-Education Secretary Arne Duncan promised that the major effort would turn around 5,000 failing schools through a series of incentives. Duncan declared it to be the administration’s biggest bet.
Now we know – as some have been warning for years – that the schools which received federal dollars posted no significant differences in academic outcomes, graduation rates, or college enrollment than the schools which received no money under the program.
May we please dispense with the false equivalence that more money leads to better education? Once a minimum threshold of funding is met, any additional expenditure should only be tolerated if it can be proven to improve outcomes.
$7 billion wasted.
Just imagine the difference that would have made if it was vouchers….