Politics, spending big part of education

Published 1:46 pm Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Wanda Granquist said: “Let us keep the politics out of education” in her letter to the editor (“More spending enhances education”, Reporter, Aug. 7). Public education is 100 percent political. The only way to take politics out is to end public education.

Even if all education were private, there is often political maneuvering within the private school administration. I guess the only avenue left is home schooling, which is not practical for all families.

Ms. Granquist castigates Ms. Finne but offers no evidence that Ms. Finne is wrong. The goal is improved education of students, not pay or class size. The biggest funding improvement for all school levels is elimination of the federal department of education and shrinking of the administrative overhead within the state.

Please compare the salaries of the federal administrators and teacher salaries. Also compare superintendent salaries to teacher salaries. The administrators do not teach any students, and in some cases hamper the teacher’s ability to do so.

The proof of Ms. Finne’s point is comparison of spending per student by each school district across the United States, and the achievement level of the students in each district.

I am certain that some districts have a higher achievement level than other districts that spent more money per student. Compare spending on education in the U.S. versus other countries that have surpassed the U.S. in educational achievement.

– Bill Malinski