“The 2004 Report Card on American Education,” is available from The American Legislative Exchange Council. (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)
An annual state-by-state report card issued last week by the American Legislative Exchange Council attempts to make the case that more money, more teachers, and other educational “inputs” may not translate to bigger learning gains for students.
The new report is the 11th by the council, a Washington-based group that advocates free enterprise and limited government growth.
The report notes, for instance, that of the 10 states that increased their per-pupil expenditures the most over the past decade, only two—New Hampshire and Vermont—rank in the top 10 in terms of their students’ overall academic achievement. What the report doesn’t show, the report’s author agreed, is how those states ranked academically before they boosted education spending.
