Editing 78-04-B6 (section)

= Local Control II =

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=== Transcript ===
Adjusting dollars for inflation , the actual cost of educating public school
students since 1950 went from $504 per pupil to $1400 in 1976. That is an increase in
real dollars of 180 per cent. If you don't adjust for inflation the increase is
around 1000 per cent.

Part of the reason for this has been a great growth in the educational bureaucracy.
In 1950 there was one full-time school employee for every 19 students. Today it is one
for nine. The greatest increase has been in non-teaching personnel, mainly administrative.
For teachers alone the ration went from one to every 28 pupils in 1950 to one teacher
for 21 pupils in 1976. To sum it up, as we transferred much of educational funding
to the state and federal level we tripled the cost per student and doubled the
bureaucracy.

Now of course we would have no complaint if educational quality had risen to match
the increase in cost and staff. Unfortunately, the reverse is true. We were on a
rise in educational performance from back in the '30's until the early '60's.
Federal aid actually began about 1962, so did federal control over education and so did
the decline in educational quality, as measured by the Scholastic Aptitude Tests.

This was not the only indicator. There are state educational testing programs.
In one state the score changed from a 10 year rise of about 13½ per cent in reading
and 16 in math to a 10 year drop of 13 per cent in reading and an 18 per cent drop in
math. Dozens of other states have recorded similar declines--all coinciding with the
creation of the United States Office of Education and the rise of state education
bureaucracies.

The state with the lowest spending per student and the lowest percentage of personal
income devoted to education--New Hampshire-has the highest average score in scholastic
Aptitude tests.

New Hampshire also has the lowest percentage of state aid to local schools (16 per
cent) which means the least interference with local control. The national average of
state aid to schools is more than double that of New Hampshire--39 per cent. By
contract Massachusetts has the highest per-student cost and the highest per cent
of personal income devoted to education. In Scholastic Aptitude Tests it ranks below
the National average.

The only thing you can say for increased state and federal aid to education is
that it will result in higher cost, more educational employees and less supervision
by the taxpayers.

The National Education association has long lobbied for a United States Department
of Education and massive increases in federal aid. As a candidate, the President
told the N.E.A. convention he would strive for a separate Department of Education and
a $20 billion increase in federal spending for education. He said he believed the
federal government should provide one third of the cost of education. This would
reduce local funding to less than 20 per cent which would virtually eliminate local
control of education. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>03/13/[[Radio1978|1978]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-280]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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