Diogenes Seeking the Productivity-Enhancing Educator 
By Martin Harris

In the ivy-covered halls of academe, there’s been somewhat less than a handful of researchers who have dared to defy political correctness and actually crunch the numbers for productivity trends in public education: two, to be exact. One is Eric Hanushek, formerly in economics at the University of Rochester and now in more congenial surroundings at the Hoover Institution. The other is Caroline Hoxby, who has remained at Harvard (presumably with a substantially reduced social calendar, but then not de-fenestrated, for some non-PC utterances, like its former Prez Lawrence Summers) even after publishing a series of research papers documenting the beneficial student-achievement results of increasing inter-school competition for students. Out in the civilian world, no researcher, to my knowledge, matches the solo accomplishments of MW Hodges, whose web-site mwhodges.home.att.net/education.htm sets forth a series of charts and stats documenting a 71 percent decline in productivity between 1960 and 1994, based on spending vs. student test scores, and continued declines since: for example, in 2006, the percent of 12^th graders scoring "proficient" or able to function at grade level in reading was at 65, lower than in ’92 when the test was initiated. None of these three, however, ventured into inter-state comparisons, so I figured it was worth a try. 

The exercise requires only two numbers per state: annual per-pupil spending, and average test scores. Both can be found in the National Digest of Educational Statistics, for example, the most recent 2005 edition (your election-year-friendly Congressman can get you a copy, no cost, if you ask nicely) in which you’ll find the spending in Table 164 and the test scores (using, the average of 8^th grade reading and 4^th grade math as a proxy for the full range of grades and tests) in Tables 113 and 121.The full name of the test is the National Assessment of Educational Progress. 

Try, for example, a Vermont-Tennessee comparison. Spending for 2002-3 was $11,075 for the former, $6,962 for the latter. You’ll find the same-year 8^th grade reading scores in Table 113 (VT, 271, TN, 258) and the 4^th grade math scores in Table 121 (VT, 242; TN, 228) and the averages work out to 256 points for Vermont and 243 for Tennessee, both on a 0-500 scale, meaning that, in both states, a substantial majority of students is non-proficient in both subjects. Not good in either case. And note that this exercise can be done only with the Federal NAEP data, one reason, I suspect, why Vermont educators prefer such local-only tests as NECAP. 

To get dollars-per-point, divide $11,075 by 256 for Vermont. You’ll get $43. For Tennessee, divide $6,962 by 236. You’ll get $29. The difference, $14 per point, represents how much more –between a third and a half, depending on you do your percentages-- was spent to get the same point of student achievement in Vermont versus Tennessee. 

How you respond to this little math exercise depends on your predisposition towards public education. If you’re dispassionate, you’ll read the productivity comparisons as a fairly obvious lesson. If you’re The Rutland Herald’s editors, you’ll opine, as they did a few years back, that education is too ineffable and mystical a process to be subjected to mere cost-benefit analysis. If you’re pro-privatization, you’ll argue that the public system costs more than a private one, more than it’s worth. 

And if you’re the American Legislative Exchange Council, recognized as non-partisan such matters, you’ll editorialize that "Vermont Ranks 3^rd in National Survey; Spending Increases Overshadow Student Performance". That was the headline of a press release announcing the publication of their annual Report Card on American Education. To its credit, ALEC dares raise the usually-left-unspoken cost-benefit question, but to its discredit, it chooses not to raise the question of how worthless a "third" ranking is, when it is achieved with such dismal test scores. 

So, research into educational productivity (or non-) still needs its Diogenes with a lantern. Please note: to avoid disappointment, don’t quiz your recent high school grad on this historical reference. 
 

Martin Harris is a former Chairman of Citizens for Property Rights