Spellings Holds Her Own

Forgot to follow up on U.S. Education Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings' appearance on The Daily Show earlier this week. It takes a confident person to go on a fake news show and pull it off looking relaxed and witty. Say what you will about Spellings, she did both.

You also have to hand it to the show's host, Jon Stewart, to conduct a five minute interview of any substance while talking about No Child Left Behind and the student loan scandal. It's hard to even describe NCLB in five minutes, let alone make it funny.

Not sure if she's just that affable or her handlers prepped her well but she comes off as likable and on point about the graduation rate in this country. Incidentally, according to Stewart, Spellings is the only cabinet level official to accept the invitation to appear on the show. Click here to watch the interview.

Per Pupil Pennies

Does more money = better schools?

That's one of the questions you may ask after reviewing the U.S. Census Bureau's latest report on school funding. According to the numbers bureau, the U.S. spends an average of $8,701 per pupil on education. New York spent the most at $14,119 per student; Utah spent the least at $5,257 per student. These figures are up 5 percent from the previous year, the report indicated.
And Washington? We clock in at $7,560.

Keep in mind these are based on 2004-05 expenditures AND our state just concluded one of its most successful legislative sessions for K-12 education funding. But the findings will likely raise the question as to whether more money is the answer to our education questions. Interestingly, the 10 states with the lowest spending were in the west and south; those with the most were in the northeast.

Overall, the report indicated the U.S. spent $488.5 billion on K-12 in 2004-05. Forty-seven percent of the funds came from the states themselves; another 43.9 percent came from local sources and the remaining 9 percent came from the feds.

The report is 134 pages of dazzling graphs, charts and numbers. If you've nothing else to do over the long weekend, this could be just the ticket...