Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
Not too long ago, there was a push to defund the police. Some people compared defunding the police to how we have defunded the schools. More recently, schools have blamed their poor performance on being defunded. I can honestly say that I have no idea how that argument became so popular.
All the evidence that I have seen points in the exact opposite direction. Even after adjusting for inflation, we keep setting records for the amount we spend per student. How does this possibly qualify as defunding schools?
In all fairness, this issue isn't as straightforward for each state. Individual states have varied their spending, and I do believe that several states are currently below peak spending. The problem is that we frequently refer to defunding as a federal issue. Additionally, we have made this argument for numerous states that are setting records.
Defunding has become a convenient scapegoat for schools that are seeing record funds. It's an absolutely ridiculous argument that has nothing to do with reality. It's also why I keep saying that I don't want to defund the police. I honestly don't see how we can possibly afford to defund the police the same way that we have defunded the schools.
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