Editor:
The recent article in the Journal "Penny-pinching pupils," reminded me of an old quote from Mark Twain. "There are liars, damn liars, then there are statistics." The statistic listing Colorado at the bottom in state funding of education has been refuted so many times in the past, I was surprised that credible people would even resurrect it from the graveyard of myths. This ranking is based upon a per capita funding of education and because Colorado's population has a higher per capita income than other states, this places Colorado's ranking lower. Given this reasoning, if we were just poorer, we would increase funding of education. The truth is that Colorado ranks in the middle when compared to other states on a per pupil dollar basis.
As expressed by William Maloney who was the commissioner of education in the state of Colorado for a decade, the lack of funding in education is one of the largest myths perpetrated on the American public. Not only has the funding of education grown larger than other sectors of the economy, the quality has declined as exposed by tests with other developed nations. What has been evident over the past couple of decades is that we have stopped funding education years ago and are now funding a bloated bureaucratic special interest at the cost of our children and society as a whole.
For an alternative view of education in Colorado, I refer the public to the Independence Institute at i2i.org.
Jim Mahlberg
Mancos
Via email
Editor's note: Per pupil funding divides the amount spent per year on K-12 education by the number of students. It has no relationship to the per capita income of Colorado residents.