School’s out for the Summer so now it is time to examine why test scores keep plummeting. One of the world’s top education scholars, Erik Hanushek, has just issued a report on the 40-year anniversary of the famous federal study published in 1984 called “A Nation at Risk.” That study warned that no foreign enemy could pose a greater threat to our nation’s prosperity and security than our failing school system.

It turned out none of the educrats paid any attention.

Hanushek notes that education spending after-inflation has risen four-fold since 1960 and roughly doubled since 1984.

Yet over the past several decades, there isn’t much evidence of improvement (if anything).  In most school districts the reverse is true. So naturally, Biden wants to spend hundreds of billions more – Garbage in, garbage out. Yet there is virtually no evidence that Uncle Sam’s spending has added much value. Mostly it’s added more red tape. Test scores haven’t budged:

Hanushek does find some evidence that spending more money can improve student learning in public schools. But he finds that the dollars need to be tied to “rewarding performance.” However, the teacher unions are adamantly opposed to anyone measuring their performance. They can grade the students, but no one dares to grade the teachers. Now we know why.