$1.5 Billion Wasted in One Year Alone
February 7, 2012 — pwceducationreformIs it possible to waste $1.5 billion in one year? If you work in public education, apparently it is. In fact, if you work in public education you can waste $1.5 billion in one year, and then demand more money the next year because the $1.5 billion wasn’t enough. And yes, billion, with a B.
Where was this money wasted? On professional development for teachers.
The Institute of Educational Sciences is a division of the US Department of Education. Their job is to determine if the programs and practices our public schools use actually accomplish anything. Several years ago the IES set out to study whether the professional development teachers receive actually (a) improves teacher knowledge of the subject, and (b) increases student knowledge of the same subject. Their second year results have just been released (see here).
Each year school divisions across the country spend more than $1.5 billion just in federal funds for professional development for their teachers. Add in the cost of hiring substitute teachers for lost class time while teachers attend professional