Debunking Education Myths

Marriage and family expert Maggie Gallagher points us to a new book, Education Myths, by Manhattan Institute scholar Jay Greene that aims to debunk time-honored myths about public education.

What kind of myths? Everything from schools are underfunded ("the money myth"), to schools are much worse than they used to be ("the myth of decline"). Since 1970, we've doubled per-pupil spending (after inflation), yet test scores and graduation rates have remained essentially flat. Schools aren't worse, but billions of dollars haven't made them any better, either.

Or take class size, for example. One random-assignment research study showed that smaller class sizes produced a modest academic benefit for students. But six years after California hired 50 percent more teachers to reduce class size, a Rand Corp. study found that test scores were increasing just as much in large classrooms as smaller classes and concluded smaller class sizes made no academic difference.

Or take teacher quality. Research shows that high-quality teachers are very important, but certified teachers are not, especially. Greene points out that of the 33 best-designed studies, not a single one showed any impact of teacher credentials on student performance. Academic ability matters. Diligence, motivation, enthusiasm probably matters. Master's degrees in education simply do not.

Or take the persistent myth that teachers are underpaid. At $30.75 an hour (not counting benefits), the average grade school teacher's hourly pay compares favorably to architects ($26.64), economists ($27.84), chemists ($30.68), biologists ($28.07), editors and reporters ($22.38) and social workers ($17.21). Of course, teachers, unlike most other professionals, face a hard ceiling in pay: They cannot translate better performance into either higher pay or higher status. Teachers get paid like union workers, higher salary for more years on the job, not for greater professional excellence. That's discouraging to both the teachers we have and the high-quality teachers we might recruit.

First impressions suggest that Education Myths will be an interesting read, and though it probably won't shed much new light on what critics of public education already know, it stands to provide a tremendous public service to public school teachers and administrators who aren't yet too jaded to consider the evidence with an open mind. Educators aside, however, I'm hoping all taxpayers -- especially those with children in public schools -- will take an interest in this book. Only when we demand that government relinquishes its monopoly over public schools by allowing parents to choose their kids' schools will we begin to see improvements.

Allow me to address some of the topics cited by Gallagher in her review:

The idea that public schools are underfunded would be comical if it didn't lead to more and more taxpayer waste every year. It's hard to believe the average public school often can't do with $9,000 per student what many private schools have to do with one-third the revenue. As Mona Charen pointed out in her book Do-Gooders, public schools spend almost half their budget on administrative costs, i.e. not on students.

"Reducing class size" may sound like a good idea, but that's assuming schools actually intend to discipline students in the first place. Lack of discipline is the disease that encourages us to fight the symptoms that manifest themselves in regular size classrooms when we allow three or four students to control a class of 30. It hardly matters how small a class is if you're unwilling to remove those who prevent instruction from occurring.

As far as teacher certifications are concerned, any honest person who's ever taken such an exam will tell you they are in no way an accurate indicator of potential teacher quality, despite the fact that this is the impression schools hope to give by requiring them. As I wrote in a recent column, certification exams are most effective at keeping many talented teachers out of the profession in the first place. Private schools nationwide are filled with accomplished mathematicians, historians, and musicians who find enjoyment in schools that place more value on expertise and achievement than on meaningless certification exams they simply refuse to take.

Perhaps the biggest myth about public education is that most teachers who leave do so because of "low pay." Certainly any socialist salary schedule that rewards teachers equally for time served instead of job performance will provide neither the incentive for accomplishment nor the potential for immediate increase in salary such achievement demands. As Greene calculates, when adjusted for the number of hours teachers actually work relative to other professions, the pay isn't so bad. (As the old joke goes, What are the three best things about being a teacher? June, July, and August.) And teachers who decide to leave after only a few years in the system knew going in that they didn't stand to make much money, especially right off the bat. So what causes them to leave? My own experience leads me to believe that most teachers -- especially those who know they can command more money for their talents in private industry -- simply become frustrated with the bureaucracy of teachers unions, the emphasis placed on social engineering instead of on academic instruction, and the widespread lack of discipline in schools and in many cases the complete disrespect given teachers nowadays by students, parents, and even school administrators.

Greene's book should strike a nerve, and with any luck it will contribute to efforts now underway to erode the hegemony our public schools hold over the rest of us.