Does spending more taxpayers money always mean better public services? Not always. Doomsdayers about possible public spending cuts would do well to read an article about French Schooling in the current issue of Time Magazine.
The annual budget for Education in France is the single highest area of public spending - larger than that of health, welfare and defence. Yet despite this financial largesse, one fifth of children leave school having serious problems reading and writing. Eighteen percent of sixteen year old school-leavers, end up with no educational qualifications whatsoever. Other statistics show that despite the huge expenditure, the gap between the academic attainment of poorer students and richer ones, has grown ever wider.
The reasons for this failure seem in part to be linked to the bureaucratic and centralised manner in which French schooling is run. Very little freedom is given to schools to organise schooling that is best for their pupils - as opposed to the diktats sent down by central government.
Sounds familiar? What the French example shows is that more money does not necessarily mean better schools. What is needed is a diverse approach - focusing taxpayer funds on poorer pupils, greater parental choice and allowing state schools to run themselves - independent of state or local bureaucracy - albeit with some central guidelines on key areas such as literacy and numeracy.
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