To the Editor:
It’s tempting to assume that more funding for public schools will produce better results (“Are We Asking Schools to Do Too Much?,” Big Ideas for Education’s Urgent Challenges, Sept. 15, 2021). But the New York City school district already spends nearly $30,000 per student per year as of 2020, according to the Independent Budget Office of the City of New York, and still cannot close the racial achievement gap.
The real problem is not funding but demands that teachers be parents, police, and psychiatrists, rather than just teach their subject. No amount of funding will ever change the situation.
Walt Gardner
Los Angeles, Calif.
Walt Gardner, who taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District, blogs about education at theedhed.com. Formerly, he wrote the Reality Check opinion blog on edweek.org.
