As the 2010 Winter Olympics open tonight and continue through the next two weeks, the world will focus on how the countries of the world stack up against each other.
We all take great pride in watching our American athletes triumph against international competitors. In the same spirit, we’ll take a look at how the U.S. fares off the snow and ice and across top economic categories. You’ll find the results are up and down, much like the state of our economy today. In this first post we’ll take a look at U.S. performance in the classroom. Hint: we’re not taking home a medal in this category.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United States spends $9,709 per student on primary education, and $10,821 per student on secondary education. On primary education, the U.S. spends more per student than any other country except Luxembourg. On secondary education, the U.S spends the 4th most per student with only Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg spending more.
Do higher per student spending levels lead to superior results? Unfortunately, government spending does not appear to buy success. When tested in science, American 15-year-olds placed 29th, falling behind Estonia and Latvia, among others. And when it came to math, that same group placed 35th, with lower average scores than countries like Slovenia and Iceland.
The story is the same within the U.S. According to the Census Bureau, New York spent $15,691 per student in 2007, more than any other state in the country. This same year, New York 8th-graders’ math scores were 33rd best in the country. Similarly, the District of Columbia spent $14,324 per student, the 3rd most. Yet D.C. 8th graders’ math scores came in dead last.
Conversely, states like Minnesota (22nd highest spender) and North Dakota (29th highest spender) are tied for 2nd in Math.
An athlete can’t recover from a serious injury just by wrapping it in more padding. She’ll just make it worse until she undergoes surgery or intense rehab.
How far must we slide until policy makers acknowledge that throwing more money at a problem – while politically popular at times – does nothing but stifle the needed rehabilitation of our failing public education system?
Cheer up by checking out our next four events of Olymponomics 2010:
Business Friendliness (We do much better in this event except for one snag…)
Innovation (We’re the Lindsey Vonn of this event.)
Spending & Deficits (barely avoid last place)
Economic Freedom (dropped 5 spots in last 7 years)
