Study: Massive county spending hasn't improved test scores

"The public is told over and over again that higher spending on education is the only way to improve student achievement, even though the evidence clearly points in the other direction," the DC Examiner says in an editorial.

"Duncan's own county is a good example of how you can't buy higher test scores - you've got to earn them. While a study by the nonprofit Maryland Tax Education Foundation noted that the county's public school system is a 'relative bargain' (compared to notoriously high-tax Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, that is), it also found that 'massive extra spending hasn't moved the needle on test scores.'

"How massive? Try $1.2 billion beyond adjustments for inflation and enrollment for a 30 percent increase in eight years. Put another way, Montgomery County is spending $338 million more on its schools than it did in 1997, but even with this massive infusion of funds, 'results on state testing have been inconsistent. [And] SAT scores relative to the rest of the country have been flat despite the heavy spending increases.'"