Debate over Louisiana education reform should be grounded in facts: Jarvis DeBerry
"If more money was the answer, Louisiana would already have the best schools in America, but year after year we fall further behind. Our future is being squandered. Good teachers are leaving. It's like banging your head against the wall."
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal addresses the combined House and Senate Monday, March 29, 2010, in Baton Rouge.A political organization called Believe in Louisiana is running television ads in support of Gov. Bobby Jindal's plan to reshape public education, but it's hard to believe or believe in any group that begins with the baloney that Louisianians ought to be upset at not having the best schools based on all the money we've spent.
It's become an article of faith in conservative circles, the idea that increasing the money spent on public schools doesn't buy improvement. In some places and in some cases, that claim has merit. For example, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Census, Washington, D.C., spends the second-most money in the nation per pupil on elementary-secondary education, and yet its students' scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress are below the national average.
But then one takes a look at New Jersey, a state that seems to have taken seriously a quote
