Comments on: Staggeringly Low Productivity

By: John Anderson

John Anderson — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:47:18 +0000

I realize I am somewhat late to this post, but I thought this was related. Last summer, my wife and I launched a grassroots effort to stop extended learning time in our town and in our research to come up with alternatives to it, we came across this study by McKinsey:

How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top
http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/ourpractices/philanthropy.asp

Direct link to the English PDF:
http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/socialsector/resources/pdf/Worlds_School_Systems_Final.pdf

Fascinating read.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:36:22 +0000

Look at anything the government promotes as a good thing to have more of (with money or regulatory relief) and you’ll find that the cost of that thing increases faster than inflation. This includes education, health care, home ownership (til the bubble burst) and defense. Once the money starts flowing and cost start rising the response is always the same, send even more money and the spiral continues. Politicians define their commitment to an agenda in dollars spent rather than results achieved. No wonder we are broke.

By: DrTorch

DrTorch — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:17:28 +0000

James,

Yes, again I point to Fig 6, bottom chart of the page.

By: James H

James H — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:18:24 +0000

Are any of the figures adjusted for inflation?

By: LotteryPowerballNumbers

LotteryPowerballNumbers — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:43:57 +0000

Interesting, thanks for the post.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:02:26 +0000

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By: DrTorch

DrTorch — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:21:41 +0000

The document can be found here
http://nces.ed.gov/Pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009020

Higher expenditures on education (as % of GDP) correlate w/ weak US economy. Correlation doesn’t equal causation.

Table 6 (Ch 2, pt 1) may be easier to see than Table 25 (Ch 1).

Regardless, these figures are astounding. Easy to shave $125B from the Fed budget by trimming back the Dept of Ed (could save more by eliminating it).

By: LotoQuebecResults

LotoQuebecResults — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:01:52 +0000

I don’t get it!

By: MirageHotelNevada

MirageHotelNevada — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:44:05 +0000

is very confused…

By: Jess

Jess — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:45:24 +0000

Dr. T is correct. The number of school “administrators” has exploded (and that’s putting it mildly) over the past two decades – at every level.
Interestingly, researchers are finding it nearly impossible to assess the actual teacher/student figures, as many administrative titles include some classroom contact (which artificially lowers the student/teacher ratio).
The pay rates are also staggering. My local (Fairfax County, VA) has a most generous pay scale – fully 1/3 of all “bands” or levels pay in excess of $75K, while a 5 year teacher w/a BA is close to $60K (194 day contract).
At last estimate (2007), there are approx. 200 employees making in excess of $125K.

And they wonder why I moved my business out of the County?