Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog debated a new report that Georgia ranked near the bottom among states in investments in education after the Great Recession. While states on average spend $6,189 per student, Georgia spent $4,466 per pupil during the 2011-12 school year. Here is a sampling of reader comments:
Ladybug: You get what you pay for — plain and simple — and, ultimately, it proves itself true. Georgia leaders should be ashamed of themselves for almost taking pride in how little they put toward the education of children in this state.
Coj: Inequity is systematic with our public schools. Private schools are for those who can afford it, while public schools are available to everyone. But public schools are not equitable in resources or the education they provide. Schools in districts where incomes are high tend to have better resources and better scores. Schools in districts where incomes are low tend to have fewer resources and lower scores. The inequity of education should be addressed first.
Pop: You can spend a billion dollars training a Shetland pony. It will indeed run faster, but never fast enough to hang with Secretariat. Will you keep begging for more money until the pony can beat Secretariat?
Dawg: Maybe if the politicians got out of education, telling teachers how to teach, what to teach, when to teach, and actually relied on the professionals who have gone to college to become a teacher, maybe then education could improve in this state. When this state began believing every child was going to college and put everyone on the same track to college, public education began to fail. That is not to say every child shouldn't have the opportunity, if that's what they want. But not every child wants to go to college, and not every career requires college.
Alberta: What if our lawmakers and their constituents spent less time thinking about gun legislation and religious liberty and more time focusing on our children's education? Nah! That would be the smart thing to do.
Outer: Just send your kids to private school, for goodness sake. Haven't we known this for at least the last 40 years?
Quid: So there we have it. People suggest we need better teachers, so we should try to attack them by paying more … but no one wants to actually put their money where their mouth is. People insist we need testing, which costs systems millions, but no one wants to address this huge cost to systems, preferring to focus on the costs of things like counselors and paraprofessionals who actually work with children and support their learning. People want schools to solve all of society's problems, but do not want to pay for the additional counselors and specialists needed to address the growing issues with our populations. People want students to get a "quality" education, but do not want to pay additional funds for content specialists or support personnel to offer quality education.
