June 13, 2005

Statisically, That's Beside the Point

Bruce Barry has kicked off an interesting debate about Metro Nashville's schools budget and academic performance over at the Nashville Scene's blog, Pith In the Wind. On the one hand, Barry says the statistical analysis in the PowerPoint presentation by Metro Council member Eric Crafton (which I blogged about here last week) is flawed because he compares Nashville's schools to the wrong other school systems. On the other hand, Barry admits Metro schools are "mediocre." Which, of course, was half the point of the presentation. The whole point is that Metro Schools spend a lot of money, enrollment is shrinking, the student-teacher ratio is very low, and yet the system's academic performance is mediocre - and you don't have to compare Nashville's schools to any other city or town to know that taxpayers are shelling out more and more money and getting less and less for it.