Texas schools are failing to educate kids, so they need more money, right? Of course not, but that isn’t stopping a school finance expert claiming that school districts need $8 billion more per year than what the state has already appropriated.
Mind you, expert Lynn Moak gave this testimony during the notorious trial over school finance funding currently taking place. Among the school districts participating in suing the school for more money are ones that have spent taxpayer dollars on oversized jumbotrons and flat-screen TVs, professional-grade soccer fields, six-figure communication directors, and classrooms full of iPads.
Sadly, for someone who has worked with school finance issues for as long as Mr. Moak has, one would think he of all people would see that more money isn’t working. Especially when that money ends up paying for more administrators and fancy buildings, not for instruction.
As Ronald Reagan once succinctly put it:
“If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you’re liable to be given more money to do it with. Well, we’ve discovered that money alone isn’t the answer.”