A recent review of public education spending has found that since 2011, funding per student has increased by 42 percent, while student proficiency in 8th-grade math has declined by 40 percent. One economist has calculated that Texans spend more than $50,000 per government school student, including bonded debt.
We asked readers if taxpayers are receiving a good return on the dollars spent for government-run education.
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Here is a sampling of the comments we received from our readers after they voted in the survey.
“As a retired Texas classroom teacher, I can attest to the fact that the biggest consumers of taxpayer money in most school districts are the very top heavy administrative positions, followed closely by the Athletic Department. It is beyond shameful that non-teaching positions—and there are a gracious plenty—get the biggest piece of the pie!” – Judt Henson
“As a retired public education teacher, I am appalled at how public education has deviated from educating our children in the fundamentals to producing social ‘warriors.’ Additionally, respect, courtesy, and manners are lacking in the halls of our public schools.” – Hamila Hobson
“Brick and mortar and indoctrination specialists are very expensive and never satisfied with the funding.” – Pat Wiggins
“The money received is not spent on education. It is spent on bloated, over-paid administration, athletic departments that outnumber faculty, and on the endless race for the biggest, fanciest football stadium. If we used all those dollars on actual education, we might get a better result.” – Markay Rister
“Texans are certainly not getting the Education they are paying for.” – Chuck Clutter
“The public education system in Texas is BROKEN. Texas children are in crisis, and we must make changes. It will not be easy but it is urgent! Our children are worth it!” – Bonnie Wallace
“Paying Cadillac prices for clunker results—Texans deserve better than a system that burns through $50k per student yet delivers declining performance. It’s not just wasteful; it’s shameful!” – Sharla Miles
“Today’s Public Schools are ‘money pits’ without delivering any meaningful results! Across the world, US schools only rank number 34 out of 81 other school systems in foreign countries. Yeah! We are only slightly better than half!” – Mike Belsick
“While the average spending per student may be near $50K, I would argue that there are a few districts that skew that number significantly, specifically those who pass billion dollar bonds to build state of the art sports complexes.” – Michael Mercer
“If we stopped funding these schools and perhaps had parents themselves pay a bit to educate their children, I think there’d be far more accountability.” – Cathy Blake
“Considering our family has homeschooled four children for $2-$4k per year for the last 5 years, the $50k amount for public school per child is very, very atrocious. If I had 50k per child per year, I could train an Olympian or send them to an Ivy League college and graduate high school with three or four degrees. Pretty ridiculous.” – Rachel Golden
“This is insanity. I encourage all parents who have their children in government schools to wage a mass exodus. Nothing will change until this happens—absolutely nothing.” – Cynthia Grubb
“Texas should do away with Independent School Districts and go to a centralized education system where all schools are built, staffed, and funded equally by the state. The focus should return to teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic and moving extracurricular activities out of the school system.” – Ronny Keister
“Nobody ever gets a good return on the dollars spent for government-run anything.” – David Vargha
“Though the degradation of public education spans decades, it hasn’t been by accident. I saw what was done in the 1970’s. The product of the changes made is as visible today as was predictable then.” – Jack Boteler
