Resources, Incentives and Accountability

Spurred by court rulings requiring states to increase public school funding, the United States now spends more per student on K-12 education than almost any other country. Yet American students still achieve less than their foreign counterparts, their performance has been flat for decades, millions of them are failing, and poor and minority students remain far behind their more advantaged peers.

In this seminar Eric Hanushek concedes that the principal focus of both courts and legislatures on ever-increasing funding has done little to improve student achievement. Instead, Hanushek proposes a performance-based system that directly links funding to success in raising student achievement. This system would empower and motivate educators to make better, more cost-effective decisions about how to run their schools, ultimately leading to improved student performance.

Particular insights will be shared from Hanushek's recent publication Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's Public Schools.

Speakers include:

• Eric A. Hanushek, Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Moderated by David N. Plank, Executive Director, PACE