Last night Americans For Prosperity Foundation sponsored a viewing of the movie The Cartel to a packed house in Springdale. The movie "shows us our educational system like we've never seen it before." We were privileged to also have Dr. Patrick Wolf , Professor and 21st Century Endowed Chair in School Choice from the University of Arkansas attend and share with us some of the information he has spent years compiling with regards to school choice.
Dr. Wolf shared these facts:
- Since 1970, real spending on public education in the U.S. has more than doubled, yet student test scores on the NAEP over that same period have not improved
- The U.S. spends the most per-pupil on public schooling among all of the countries of the world, yet we recently ranked only tied for 12th in reading, 17th in science, and a miserable 25th in math among 34 developed countries
- Currently we spend an average of over $10,000 per public-school pupil across the U.S. and $9,112 in our otherwise low-cost state of Arkansas, yet only 7 of 10 students in our country and our state even graduate from high school
- Over half of the freshmen who enroll at our state's flagship public university require remediation before taking serious college courses
- Public charter schools receive an average of 40% less public funding than TPS but produce results that are as good or better
- Private schools participating in school voucher programs receive an average of 50% less public funding than TPS and, like public charter schools, produce results that are as good and often better
This begs the question why does our public school system spend so much money to achieve such disappointing results?
Dr. Wolf says one possible explanation examined in this award-winning film is the cartel behavior of the national teachers unions
He added, "Although many public school teachers are dedicated to working hard to educate our children, the teachers unions that represent them are all too often the force that says "no" regarding such common-sense reforms such as performance pay, firing incompetent teachers, expanded learning days, and parental school choice."
We will be hosting viewings around the state over the next several months please visit http://www.americansforprosperity.org/arkansas to keep track of where we are.
Our next showing will be in Nashville, AR Tuesday March 8th~ go here for details
