Dive Summary:
- Carrie Lukas, the managing director of the Independent Women’s Forum, writes for Forbes, proposing that parents should be allowed more freedom in selecting where their education dollars go and what kind of learning experience they receive.
- 80% of the $1.1 trillion that Americans spend on education every year is controlled by the government, but she would like to see that change.
- She points to $10,000 per student spent each year by the government and the disappointing 38% of high school seniors who are proficient in reading, asking how that statistic can be improved.
From the article:
When you see that Americans spend more than $1.1 trillion on education—that’s 7.8 percent of GDP—it’s tempting to call education “big business.” Except that it’s not really: 80 percent of that spending is controlled by government and spent on public schools and universities. That means that it’s divorced from the usual factors that make our competitive free market system work. ...