Tests

Spending on K-12 education has increased 10 fold in constant dollars in the past 50 years. Federal control over K-12 education has risen dramatically in recent decades. Elementary and secondary spending under the Department of Education and its predecessor agencies rose from $4.5 billion in 1965 to $40.2 billion in 2016, in constant 2016 dollars.1 The Department of Education funds more than 100 subsidy programs, and each comes with regulations that extend federal control into state and local education.2 Scores on the SAT have sunk to the lowest level since the college admission test was overhauled in 2005, adding to worries about student performance in the nation’s high schools. You can argue that test scores do not tell the whole story but I have anecdotal evidence that things are not going well. One example is that freshmen must take algebra and many do not understand fractions so the teachers only give problems that have no fractions. This is the same state that you need to pass algebra to graduate but if you don’t you can take a state test and if you flunk it three times you pass. Thousands of freshly minted Minnesota high school graduates wouldn’t have gotten a diploma this year without a waiver from the state because they repeatedly failed Minnesota’s math requirement. In some districts, as many as one-third of seniors wouldn’t have graduated because they didn’t pass the mathematics graduation test.