Assaying U.S. Schooling: More Money or More Performance

U.S. schools are failing the nation and the nation’s economy. It may be that a greater level of expenditure can be justified and urged upon the nation based on an analysis of schooling effects on economic growth. Alternatively, the nation should aim to provide the highest quality of schooling at the level of expenditure preferred by the taxpayer. The application of a choice model for social expenditure suggests the latter course. In this case, the nation is left to try to improve the productivity and efficiency of schooling. The historical record reveals many failed approaches taken towards this goal, with one major option as yet untried: changing the traditional mix of capital and labor in the schools. Within this option, there can yet be many political and educational goals, e.g.: (i) improving the attainment of students in the lower tail of the achievement distribution, which can improve parental satisfaction of the included students and improve the quality of manpower available to certain sectors of the economy; and (ii) improving the attainment of students in the upper tail of the achievement distribution, which can improve the quality of manpower available to high valueadded sectors of the economy. The use of any radically different mix of capital and labor in the nation’s schools should aim to improve the achievement of all school children, but leaves uncertain and empirically unanswered questions of its effect on equity; and how to get “from here to there.”