Five Ridiculously Reformy “Copy & Paste” Policies & Why They’re Misguided
65 Cent Solution (now defunct?)
What is it? It was (thankfully this one is pretty much dead!) a policy proposal being pitched in the mid-2000s which would require, through state mandate/legislation or regulation, that local public school districts show on paper that they spend 65% of their total budgets on “instruction.”The argument was that the average district nationally allocates somewhat less than 65% to instruction. Instruction is good. Private sector businesses use benchmarks, therefore education should use benchmarks. 65% is a benchmark. Therefore it should be used! Viola… freakin’ brilliant?
Backers of this proposal argued that the policy allowed state legislators to claim they were increasing classroom spending without actually allocating more money.
But, the backers were caught with their pants down in a memo leaked to the Austin Statesmen newspaper in