[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4714]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    SPENDING KEEPS GOING HIGHER WHILE SAT SCORES KEEP GETTING LOWER

  (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, is there a relationship 
between how much money is spent on education and how well students do? 
If I look at a graph showing SAT scores since 1960 and spending on 
education since 1960, I note that spending just keeps going higher and 
higher while SAT scores keep going lower and lower. Or if I look at how 
much money is spent in cities like Washington, New York, Chicago, or 
Kansas City, I note that school districts that spend the most money 
often have the lowest SAT scores, presumably meaning the worst schools.
  What am I to conclude? Mr. Speaker, when I talk to teachers, and I 
don't mean education establishment bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., 
when I talk to teachers in the classroom they all agree that it is 
important that schools are adequately funded. But no one, virtually no 
one, says that money is the most important thing. So what makes for 
better school achievement? Most important are loving parents who teach 
their children that education is important. No government program can 
do that. That is something that money cannot buy.

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