A “Black Hole” is an astronomical term for a star that has imploded on itself, thus creating a gravitational field so powerful that even light cannot escape it. Thus when you look in that area of the sky it appears completely dark.
Metaphorically, a “black hole” is anything that seems to consume money and resources without end. Some boaters joke that a pleasure boat is nothing more than a “black hole” in the water that you endlessly throw money into.
Public Education is a kind of “black hole.” The evidence of its being a Black Hole is that there has been a DRAMATIC increase in funding for public education over the past several decades, with no measurable improvement. More specifically, if you spend twice as much on something as you did previously, you would expect that there would be some measurable improvement SOMEWHERE, but the only thing that has “improved” in public education is there are a lot more people on the payroll and they are making a lot more money. Educational "outcomes"? Not so great.
Here in Pennsylvania, we have a new Democrat governor who has staked his entire political existence on the proposition that Pennsylvania needs to spend more money on public education. We are already among the top ten states in the country in terms of dollars-per-student, but apparently we are not spending "enough." We are spending three times as much, in constant year dollars, as we were in 1975, with no improvement whatsoever in test scores, regardless of how they are measured.
It is also worth noting that a large army of teachers and school administrators will be retiring within the next ten years, and their pensions are not even close to being funded, so the local school districts and the state will have to supplement the pension funds with current-year tax revenues. Therefore, even if "education" funding were to remain constant, the tax bite will still be increasing significantly in the coming years. So the governor wants to piggy-back significant education spending increases on top of the increasing burden of pensions and benefits that cannot be avoided.
And for what?
Where is his evidence that the additional funding will result in any measurable benefit? No one is even asking that question because in the public's mind and in the media, the mantra, "Public Schools are Under-funded" is perpetually axiomatic. It doesn't matter how much funding is made available, it is never "enough."
Black hole.
Fortunately, the Republican legislature isn't buying it. So we have a months-long standoff, with no end in sight.
Metaphorically, a “black hole” is anything that seems to consume money and resources without end. Some boaters joke that a pleasure boat is nothing more than a “black hole” in the water that you endlessly throw money into.
Public Education is a kind of “black hole.” The evidence of its being a Black Hole is that there has been a DRAMATIC increase in funding for public education over the past several decades, with no measurable improvement. More specifically, if you spend twice as much on something as you did previously, you would expect that there would be some measurable improvement SOMEWHERE, but the only thing that has “improved” in public education is there are a lot more people on the payroll and they are making a lot more money. Educational "outcomes"? Not so great.
Here in Pennsylvania, we have a new Democrat governor who has staked his entire political existence on the proposition that Pennsylvania needs to spend more money on public education. We are already among the top ten states in the country in terms of dollars-per-student, but apparently we are not spending "enough." We are spending three times as much, in constant year dollars, as we were in 1975, with no improvement whatsoever in test scores, regardless of how they are measured.
It is also worth noting that a large army of teachers and school administrators will be retiring within the next ten years, and their pensions are not even close to being funded, so the local school districts and the state will have to supplement the pension funds with current-year tax revenues. Therefore, even if "education" funding were to remain constant, the tax bite will still be increasing significantly in the coming years. So the governor wants to piggy-back significant education spending increases on top of the increasing burden of pensions and benefits that cannot be avoided.
And for what?
Where is his evidence that the additional funding will result in any measurable benefit? No one is even asking that question because in the public's mind and in the media, the mantra, "Public Schools are Under-funded" is perpetually axiomatic. It doesn't matter how much funding is made available, it is never "enough."
Black hole.
Fortunately, the Republican legislature isn't buying it. So we have a months-long standoff, with no end in sight.
