Parental Involvement & Student Achievement
Many sources have recently said Arizona is near the bottom in per pupil spending. For sake of argument, say this is true. Say Arizona is near the bottom in per pupil spending…what exactly does this mean?
The goal of education should never consist of how much money we spend on education, but what comes out - student achievement. Yes, funding is extremely critical but so is parental involvement and teacher discipline.
Critics have held an obsessive, tunnel-vision focus on per pupil spending to the detriment of student achievement.
Yet higher student achievement does not necessarily correspond with more money.
Let’s take Utah and Washington D.C. as a practical example.
Utah spends roughly $7,215 per pupil in overall expenditures whereas Washington D.C. spends roughly $17,600 per pupil. Yet Utah continuously scores well above Washington D.C. in student achievement. So money, although necessary, is not sufficient.
Arizona spends roughly 42 percent of the ENTIRE state budget on education. In fact, six state agencies comprise over 91 percent of our state budget.
And despite the $133 Million in Fiscal Year 2009 budget correction reductions in K – 12, education still received $61 Million more than their Fiscal Year 2008 budget.
Most people value quality education and most people believe that a highly qualified workforce is critical for the emerging economy. This is not disputed.
These same critics who say Arizona is near the bottom in per pupil spending assume that student achievement in Arizona is extremely poor and thus the ONLY way to increase student achievement is to increase per pupil spending.
The literature suggests that parental involvement remains the number one indicator of student achievement.
Higher student achievement directly corresponds to higher parental involvement.
Although we cannot legislate parental involvement perhaps we can reduce taxes and allow parents to keep more of their own money thus giving them the opportunity to spend more time with their children.
The goal of education should never consist of how much money we spend on education, but what comes out - student achievement. Yes, funding is extremely critical but so is parental involvement and teacher discipline.
Critics have held an obsessive, tunnel-vision focus on per pupil spending to the detriment of student achievement.
Yet higher student achievement does not necessarily correspond with more money.
Let’s take Utah and Washington D.C. as a practical example.
Utah spends roughly $7,215 per pupil in overall expenditures whereas Washington D.C. spends roughly $17,600 per pupil. Yet Utah continuously scores well above Washington D.C. in student achievement. So money, although necessary, is not sufficient.
Arizona spends roughly 42 percent of the ENTIRE state budget on education. In fact, six state agencies comprise over 91 percent of our state budget.
And despite the $133 Million in Fiscal Year 2009 budget correction reductions in K – 12, education still received $61 Million more than their Fiscal Year 2008 budget.
Most people value quality education and most people believe that a highly qualified workforce is critical for the emerging economy. This is not disputed.
These same critics who say Arizona is near the bottom in per pupil spending assume that student achievement in Arizona is extremely poor and thus the ONLY way to increase student achievement is to increase per pupil spending.
The literature suggests that parental involvement remains the number one indicator of student achievement.
Higher student achievement directly corresponds to higher parental involvement.
Although we cannot legislate parental involvement perhaps we can reduce taxes and allow parents to keep more of their own money thus giving them the opportunity to spend more time with their children.