Supply-Side Education Policy, Continued

Expanding on yesterday's post: Tests can be thought of as a kind of tax on the public education system. They consume scarce resources that could be used for teaching purposes. The tens of millions of dollars a year states spend on standardized tests represent funds that could have been used to reduce class size or increase teacher pay. The same is true for the money needed to create data systems that track students who move between school districts, an essential component of calculating accurate high school graduation rates. More importantly, tests consume time, both in the actual taking and in pre-test preparation, reducing the hours available for instruction and thus, presumably, the amount that students learn.

But, as with taxes, tests are necessary because they create a resource--detailed, comparable information about school success--that serves the broad public interest. Tests are compulsory, not voluntary, because otherwise people would have an incentive to free-ride and enjoy the benefit without the tax. The trick is to strike the right balance of taxation, so the short-term negative consquences are minimized (they can't be eliminated) while the public benefit is maximized. If the public resources are used wisely, they support the overall quality of the system and thus the quality of education provided. Individually, the dry cleaner across the street from my house would benefit if he didn't have to pay taxes. But he's better off operating under a system of taxation, because it pays for the sidewalks and roads that bring customers to his door.

People don't like taxes. As a result, they're susceptible to arguments that taxes can be lowered without consequences. Yet many of loudest critiques of NCLB imply the need for more information resources, not less. Fair accountability systems, we are told, will measure value-added growth. They will take into account social studies, art, music, foreign language, critical thinking, creativity, parental satisfaction, etc., etc. It's true, accountability systems would be better if they measured these things. But they can't be measured for free. And they certainly can't be measured using fewer resources than we use today.

Arguments that we could fix this whole mess simply by having less of what people don't like (taxes) and more of what people do like (public resources) are dishonest. In the long run, they breed cynicism and distrust, because they teach people to expect a combination of taxes and services that's impossible to achieve.