Wrong numbers

Education Next, Fall, 2008 by Cynthia G. Brown

William Howell and Martin West have written an interesting article about Americans' utter ignorance concerning the amounts their tax dollars contribute to public education costs ("Is the Price Right?" features, Summer 2008). While homeowners and parents were somewhat more knowledgeable than others, they too were way off in their estimates of per-pupil expenditures in their districts and average teacher salaries in their states. Yet the vast majority of Americans support increased spending on schools and believe that more money will result in more student learning.

It is humbling for us policy wonks to see how far off the public is about not only their investments in public schooling, but what might make a difference in student outcomes. But frankly, I'm more concerned about the taxpayers' and the pollsters' lack of interest in the unfairness of how the nation's only universal service is funded. Every level of government--local, state, and federal--underfunds the least well-off communities, with few exceptions, when considering varying student needs generated by poverty, disability, and language. Clearly, major efforts to educate the public are going to be necessary if school financing is ever to become fairer as well as wiser. We have learned that how money is spent is just as important as the amount. And given the lack of knowledge about funding, I shudder to think what a survey would show about what the money buys.

But are Americans any more informed about how their taxes and tax breaks work in other sectors, with the likely exception of the war in Iraq? Homeowners deduct mortgages and lower-income renters get virtually no help. We provide much more support to the elderly than we do to young children. Even the pinch of high health-care costs has not yet generated a successful public demand for more government investment. My hunch is that the public's knowledge of school funding is no less than their knowledge of other important funding issues.

CYNTHIA G. BROWN

Director of Education Policy Center for American Progress