[roboneal]

I'm not quite sure it's a money problem - for example in FY 2008 - Milwaukee Public schools spent $14503 per enrolled student and has a 46% graduation rate.

There are plenty of Milwaukee area private options that exceed the outcomes of the public school system for well under $14K.

[jshen]

It's easy to exceed public outcomes when you can refuse students who are severe behavior problems or bias the selection in some other way.

My wife is a teacher, and a severe behavior problem impacts the entire classes performance, but it takes so much of her attention away from teaching.

[roboneal]

I don't necessarily disagree, but the premise of the parent post was that this was simply a spending/budget problem.

Spending per pupil has risen every year over the last 20 in Milwaukee and performance & outcomes have dropped dramatically. Logic dictates that there are many other forces in play.

[catone]

I don't think I'd say my premise was that this was "simply" a budget problem. I was just saying that calling it a teacher shortage is a poor choice of words to describe the current problem -- we don't have a shortage of qualified teacher candidates, we have a shortage of capital necessary to hire them.

The education system and the problems therein (i.e., issues affecting student success) are certainly far more complicated and nuanced.

[jshen]

of course there are, but I don't think one can draw the conclusion that private schools are better with less money when they have a biased sample of students.