Missouri by the Numbers

“In the Classroom” Statistical Analysis

More money needs to go into classrooms
News-Leader.com
Patrick Byrne
Guest Editorial

Here are two cold, hard facts: First, if children in Asia continue to receive a better education than your children, they will surpass your children in the next generation's global economic race. Second, they will deserve to do so.

Of all the institutions we demand excellence from, schools should be first. Yet we tolerate their consistent failure to convert huge financial outlays into adequate education outcomes for our children. The call continuously goes out for more money, but when taxpayers respond generously to education, where does it go? Often, not where it's needed — not into America's classrooms. You might be shocked to learn that only 61 percent of Missouri's education budget makes it to the classrooms.

A business concept called "best practices" calls for solving business problems by studying competitors to compare benchmarks. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the national average for "classroom spending" is 61.3 cents of every dollar of operational budgets (defined to include teachers, textbooks, classroom supplies and activities including athletics, music and the arts and special needs instruction). In the NCES 2005 report on education spending, two states did, however, spend 65 cents or more of their budgets in classrooms (Maine, 67.1 percent and New York, 68.7 percent). If these states can reach 65 cents, why can't every state?

That is the inspiration behind a national grass-roots movement called First Class Education. This movement has the potential to remake the K-12 education system as we know it. FCE seeks to have each school district in America direct at least 65 cents of every dollar away from centralized administrators and into classrooms for more and better-paid teachers, newer textbooks and computers, and an environment that inspires learning.

Many will wonder what difference could be made by redirecting just four cents of every dollar of the Missouri education budget into classrooms — the difference equals $266 million. Raising the bar to 65 percent would put an additional $266 million into classrooms in the state, all without a tax increase.

The central belief behind the First Class Education movement is to ask and answer this one simple question before every education dollar is spent outside the classroom — "could this dollar be better spent inside the classroom?"

Given current expenditures in Missouri, and in the vast majority of states around the country, this question is either not being asked often or is being answered incorrectly. That's why the "65 Cent Solution" is a critical component of school reform. It will redirect billions in school funding away from administration, bureaucracy and paperwork, investing instead in the classroom education of America's young people.

The First Class Education movement is the fastest way to infuse teachers with a new sense of purpose by channeling more of what we spend on education into their classrooms. After all, every time you find a great school you find a great story. These are the stories of empowered parents and teachers focused on fundamentals, a principal demanding excellence, or a school board demanding accountability.

There's an education renaissance waiting to happen here in Missouri and it will occur when more of the available education dollars follow students directly into classrooms. If we fail at this, our young people will grow up to face their global competitors unarmed and unprepared.

Patrick Byrne, Utah, is CEO of Overstock.com and Chairman of First Class Education