School Money Math Never Adds Up Quite Right
4th October 2010
Katherine Mangu-Ward has the goods.
Today at National Review, Rich Lowry does some education money math on the occasion of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s $100 million gift to Newark public schools. He is pessimistic about the possibility that more money—even private money geared toward reform—can make much of a dent in one of the worst performing school systems in the country.
Hm. Internet billionaire (who went to Harvard) gives hundred million dollars to public school system that spends more and does less than most other public school systems in the country. Hard to imagine a more Crustian thing to do. The boy is fitting in right well.
Now young reformist Newark mayor Cory Booker is poised to try the same gambit, with a little more money and a lot more publicity. Booker’s powerful backer—the Fenty to his Rhee—is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. They seem to be genuinely willing to work together on education reform, which is impressive, since Booker is likely to make a bid for Christie’s job at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Well, good luck to ’em. I can’t see any prospect of breaking the hold of the education unions on a public school system, short of hiring the Mafia to whack 90% of them.
Lowry isn’t wrong to feel hopeless. Money spent on education is like the money spent on a restaurant tab for a large group: The numbers never make any sense or add up properly, and you always feel like you paid for more than you actually got.
And that about sums it up.