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Education Spending vs Student Performance: What the Data Shows · Randy Unscripted

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  Randy Black: Randy Black.
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  Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Black.
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  Black. He's a troublemaker. Welcome back to Randy Unscripted. I'm Randy Black, and this is the podcast where I just kinda talk about whatever it is that comes across my mind. And
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  today, I wanna talk about something that comes up
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  constantly in discussions
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  about education,
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  money.
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  Specifically,
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  the question that people ask is this,
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  how much are we spending on education,
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  and are we getting results
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  for that investment?
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  Well, since I live in West Virginia and I work in education in West Virginia,
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  I wanted to to dig into the numbers and see how my home state compares
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  not just nationally
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  but also
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  internationally.
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  So let's start with the basic question here.
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  How much
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  do we spend
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  per
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  student
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  in education?
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  Well,
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  the most recent available data shows that West Virginia spends roughly $14,500
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  per student
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  per year in public education.
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  If you include certain capital costs and additional expenditures into that, that number climbs a little bit closer to $16,000
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  per student.
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  The national average
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  by comparison
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  is about $16,500
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  per student.
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  So West Virginia,
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  it's not drastically underfunded
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  when compared
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  to the rest of the country,
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  but
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  we do fall a little bit below the national average.
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  Depending on the dataset and the year you're looking at,
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  West Virginia typically ranks somewhere between thirty second and thirty fifth in the nation
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  for pure sorry, per pupil spending,
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  somewhere between thirty two and thirty five.
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  That places us roughly in the lower middle tier of the states when it comes to educational funding.
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  Now here's where things kinda get interesting.
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  When you look at student performance,
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  particularly on standardized
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  measurements like the National Association of Educational Progress, often called the nation's report card, the NAEP,
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  West Virginia's performance,
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  well,
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  it's significantly
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  lower
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  than its spending rank.
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  For example,
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  recent results show
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  West Virginia
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  ranks near the bottom nationally
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  in several key categories.
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  Fourth grade reading,
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  comes in at about forty second in the nation.
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  Fourth grade math
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  sets around thirty eighth.
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  Eighth grade reading,
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  roughly forty seventh.
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  And eighth grade math is around forty sixth.
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  In some categories,
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  more than 70%
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  of students
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  are performing below the proficient level on these national benchmarks.
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  In other words,
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  if we compare
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  where we rank in spending
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  versus where we rank in performance,
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  the gap there becomes really, really clear.
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  West Virginia spends somewhere in the middle of the pack,
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  but our test results land much closer to the bottom quartile of states.
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  But this comparison, it it becomes even more interesting
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  when we look at other states.
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  Some states spend less per student than West Virginia,
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  but achieve much
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  higher academic results.
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  For example,
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  Utah
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  spends around $9,500
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  per student, which is among the lowest in the nation,
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  yet their academic performance
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  is generally
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  above the national average.
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  Florida
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  also spends less per student than West Virginia,
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  but their students
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  tend to score higher on national assessments.
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  Even
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  Mississippi,
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  historically
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  one of the lowest performing states academically,
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  has made significant gains over the past decade
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  despite
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  spending less
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  per student
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  than West Virginia.
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  So that raises an obvious question.
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  If spending more money
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  automatically
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  produced better outcomes,
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  we would expect states that spend more to consistently
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  perform
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  better.
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  But when research
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  comparing funding when researchers look at the funding and at the performance across all 50 states,
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  the correlation
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  that exists
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  between spending
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  and academic achievement
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  is surprisingly
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  weak once basic funding levels are met.
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  In other words, money,
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  it certainly matters.
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  Schools need resources.
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  Teachers need salaries.
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  Buildings need maintenance.
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  But beyond a certain point, simply spending
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  more money
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  doesn't guarantee
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  better educational
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  outcomes.
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  Now let's zoom out even further,
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  and let's look at the international picture here.
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  Globally, The United States spends more money per student than almost any other country in the world.
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  American schools average around $16,000
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  per student depending on the calculation method.
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  By contrast,
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  the average among developed countries in the OECD,
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  which includes much of Europe and other advanced economies,
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  is closer to $12,000
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  per student.
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  So The United States spends significantly more on education than many of its peers.
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  But when we look at international test results from assessments like the program for international student assessment or the PISA, the PISA, depends on how you wanna say it, the results are even more mixed.
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  Americans
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  or American students
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  typically perform
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  above the international average in reading and science,
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  but around average
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  or slightly below average
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  in mathematics.
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  Countries like Estonia,
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  Finland,
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  Poland,
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  Singapore
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  consistently
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  outperformed The United States academically.
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  And here's the key point.
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  Many of those countries actually spend
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  less per student than The United States.
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  For example, Estonia
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  spends roughly $10,000
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  per student but ranks among the top educational systems in the entire world.
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  Poland spends less than The United States,
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  but also scores above the OECD average.
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  Singapore, one of the top performing
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  educational systems globally,
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  spends roughly the same or sometimes less per student than The United States depending on how those costs are calculated.
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  So internationally, we see a pattern that looks similar to what we see within The United States.
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  Higher spending
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  does not automatically translate
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  into higher performance.
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  Now that doesn't mean funding isn't important.
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  It absolutely is.
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  But research repeatedly shows that many of the strongest influences on educational outcomes,
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  they exist
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  outside the classroom.
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  Things like poverty levels,
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  family stability,
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  parental education,
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  literacy culture in the home, student attendance,
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  and community expectations
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  all play
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  major roles in academic success.
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  In states like West Virginia, those broader socioeconomic challenges can have a significant impact on what happens in schools.
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  When you combine higher poverty rates, rural geography,
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  transportation challenges, and a declining population in some,
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  actually most communities,
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  the educational system is often dealing with factors that go
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  far beyond classroom instruction.
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  So what does all of this tell us?
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  First,
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  West Virginia is not the absolute lowest spender in education,
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  but we do spend slightly below the national average.
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  Second,
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  our academic performance ranks lower than our spending rank,
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  which suggests there are factors beyond funding influencing the outcomes.
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  Third, even The United States as a whole spends far more per student than most countries in the world,
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  yet our performance internationally,
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  it's closer to the middle of the pack.
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  Finally,
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  perhaps the biggest takeaway is that education outcomes
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  are influenced by a complex
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  mix of funding,
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  culture,
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  policy,
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  family environment,
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  and community conditions.
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  Money matters,
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  but it isn't the only variable.
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  Understanding
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  the complex the the complexity is important if we want to have honest conversations
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  about how to improve education,
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  whether in West Virginia,
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  across The United States,
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  or around the world.
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  We have we have to grasp that.
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  And that's something that's something worth thinking about the next time we hear the question,
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  are we spending enough on education?
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  Thank you for listening to this episode of Randy Unscripted. I appreciate the time that you've taken out of your day to
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  hear my thoughts today on education
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  and spending that we have.
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  Be sure to follow the show if you can. Check out the website. We've launched a new website at randyunscripted.com.
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  Moved off of the randallblack.com
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  website.
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  And we are hoping to join back very soon. Have another episode for you. Whenever that happens, just make sure you listen because I'll be here, and I'm Randy.
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  And the thing you'll know for sure is this show will be unscripted.