Education Agenda

Beginning of article

Size Doesn't Matter

Is spending more money the best way to improve educational outcomes and to raise standards?

If one accepts the claims of the Victorian Labor Government, the federal opposition and their trade union ally, the Australian Education Union (AEU), then the answer is `yes'. All argue that expenditure on education must be increased and that this will automatically lead to improved learning.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that throwing more money at education, by itself, is simply a waste of taxpayers' resources. As stated in the year 2000 edition of the OECD's report `Education at a Glance', when comparing the results of …