More money is not the solution to education issues

It’s that time of year again. The envelope arrived this week and it’s time to approve spending on the public education system. This year I am voting no.

Looking at the numbers as reported by State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Cheney School District is spending $12,604 per year per student. A lot of money. However, when I divide the annual school budget of $88.7 million (Cheney Free Press, 7/02/20) , by the 5,103 students in the district, per student cost is around $17,300.

Why does the state say we pay only $12,604 when the budget is $88.7 million? It appears that they use only the cost of salaries and benefits for personnel and ignore all the other expenses required to operate a school system. The fact is, we are spending $88.7 million in the Cheney School District this year and that comes out to $17,300 per student.

However, beside the enormous amount that we spend on education we are told to keep spending more and more. This is where I object.

In this era of heightened awareness to inequity it is generally agreed upon that education is a primary path to realize equity in our society. And yet, more so then anytime since the 1960’s, we have unrest in our streets, and hear daily about our unjust society. Even though we have been following the advice of politicians and experts in increasing the amount of money spent on education it has not been producing the outcome that has been promised and is expected, an equitable society.

We have either mis-diagnosed the problem or are applying the wrong solution. I am of the belief that it’s some of both. But obviously continuing to dump large sums of the people’s personal resources (tax money is taken from citizens, not the state) is not achieving the goal.

There is always more than one way to solve a problem and it’s time that we start looking for solutions other than depending on the existing structure of public education.

Wayne Gebhardt

Cheney