Misleading Education Union Campaign

The Washington Education Association (WEA) is running radio and television ads
decrying the fact that our state is 46th in the nation for class size, and 42nd in the nation for per-pupil spending. The ads, part of a campaign dubbed “Take the Lead,” are meant to generate sympathy for increased education spending.

Unfortunately, they’re misleading. And shallow.

A moment’s consideration of the facts shows us the WEA’s campaign is without substance. Consider the facts behind two of the union’s claims (which are featured in television ads this week):

1. Washington ranks 46th in the nation in class size.
Rankings are interesting, but they’re meaningless without baselines. Ranking “high” or “low” doesn’t answer the real question: What is Washington’s average class size? The WEA’s own national affiliate admits that “no state-by-state actual class size information exists.”

What we do know is that our state legislature allocates funding to pay for a student/teacher ratio of 18.8 to one. And according to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the state employs 55.7 K-12 classroom teachers for every 1,000 students, which means there is one teacher for every 18 students.

Many teachers will tell you their classes are larger than 18 or 19 students. Yet the WEA doesn’t seem interested in figuring out why this is and where current dollars are going.

Further, while class sizes are certainly important, they are only meaningful in context with the factors that matter most in student learning: quality and experience of the teacher, curriculum, school leadership, classroom discipline, and parental involvement. Some teachers can handle larger classes without difficulty; some subjects require more intensive interaction than others; some students learn with more ease than others. Class sizes should be determined by local teachers and administrators, not mandated at the state level.

2. Washington ranks 42nd in the nation in education spending.
Again, rankings are interesting, but they don’t tell us much without baselines. The important questions are: How much is Washington spending per-pupil, and how much is enough?

According to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington spent an average of $10,103 per K-12 student last year. That’s a lot of money. Is it enough to do the job? It’s hard to answer that question without meaningful performance audits of our K-12 schools, but it’s interesting to note that it rivals the tuition at some of our state’s elite private schools.

It is well documented that higher education spending doesn’t necessarily mean higher student achievement. Washington, D.C. spends more than any state, yet has the lowest student test scores. Utah spends less than most states, yet has some of the highest student test scores.

It costs money to provide a quality education, but how you spend that money is just as important as how much.

We will publish a more detailed response to the WEA’s misleading “Take the Lead” campaign next week. In the meantime, the union’s ads should be taken with a grain of salt.

Marsha Richards is the director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Education Reform Center.