Not enough money for education? It's a myth.

If there's anyone at all I can respect at ABC, it's John Stossel. He's a libertarian, and the only person I know of at the network that's not sold out to the tired liberalism that pervades the "mainstream" media. He regularly takes on the myths the liberal establishment love to throw around. His latest target is education spending:

Not enough money for education? It's a myth.

The truth is, public schools are rolling in money. If you divide the U.S. Department of Education's figure for total spending on K-12 education by the department's count of K-12 students, it works out to about $10,000 per student.

Think about that! For a class of 25 kids, that's $250,000 per classroom. This doesn't include capital costs. Couldn't you do much better than government schools with $250,000? You could hire several good teachers; I doubt you'd hire many bureaucrats. Government schools, like most monopolies, squander money.

America spends more on schooling than the vast majority of countries that outscore us on the international tests. But the bureaucrats still blame school failure on lack of funds, and demand more money.

Unsurprisingly, he's getting clobbered with hate mail from the NEA.

I say abolish the US Dept. of Education. That includes the small percentage of money schools get from the federal government as well as 80% of the paperwork. Let each state and locality set their own rules. Eliminate the rules that forbid school choice. Let parents decide where to send their kids. Institute voucher programs (the only thing federal money should be spent on) to allow parents to send their kids to any private school they wish. In effect, make the dismal public schools compete with the phenomally more successful private schools.

Oh yeah, and bring back corporal punishment!!

Hat tip to Right Wing News.