Please, a few facts to back up these assertions. . .

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Submitted by benjamin Geballe (United States), Mar 24, 2010 21:41

A little googling is in order here. New York spends the most on its students of any state in the country. There of course are many factors that go into this - cost of living, special needs of the student population (immigrant and special education students are more expensive to educate because they need special services). In ranking the states based on academic outcomes (not inputs), New York is tenth. There is a clear correlation between those states that spend a lot (Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts) and those states with the highest academic outcomes (those four states, plus Vermont, Maine, Minnesota, Virginia and Wisconsin). So, as a point of fact, our students actually are better educated than most. Are we as efficient in our education spending as Minnesota or Vermont? No, but we also have a much more challenging student population to work with. But based on the statistics, students in New York fare better than 40 other states, including all the other "big" states. Texas ranks 24th. California 46th. Florida 46th.

If we wish to follow Alabama, Arizona and Mississippi to the bottom of the educational ladder, cutting teachers is a good place to start. A soda tax is a good place to start to maintain our competitiveness.

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