End the Ed

A new study finds that administrative spending at public schools has increased 700 percent over the last 50 years.  From The Daily Caller:

In the last 20 years, the number of K-12 administrators has increased 2.3 times faster than the number of students in school, according to the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Teacher employment also outpaced student growth, though not as rapidly as the administrator count did.

Over a longer period of time, the trend is even more pronounced. Administrative positions at K-12 schools increased by 700 percent since 1950 — seven times faster than the growth of student enrollment.

But more spending equals better results, right?

“The increases in public school employment since 1992 do not appear to have had any positive returns to students as measured by test scores and graduation rates,” wrote Benjamin Scafidi, a senior fellow at the Friedman Foundation and associate professor at Georgia College & State University.

Evidence that such an employment surge positively impacted student achievement is scant, said Scafidi.

“The burden of proof is now on those who still want to maintain or even increase the dramatically larger staffing levels in public schools,” he wrote.

Can we please resurrect Reagan’s call to end the Department of Education?

(H/T Ann Coulter)