Blueprint for Providing Quality Education at Reasonable Cost

By Jeffrey L. "Jeff" Pettit

Legislation designed to control school taxes, such as Act 1,does not address the basic economic causes for high taxes. There is another way.

Every service related industry in this country, except education, have solved the dilemma of how to control costs when the largest expense is the cost of human capital, meaning salaries and benefits, which always increases. The solution is plainly visible everyday, from the UPS driver who uses a handheld computer to track deliveries to ATM machines: the application of technology to increase productivity. Technology allows business and professions to provide more services to more people, without increasing the number of employees to provide such services and, as a result, without increasing costs.

The present model of education relies upon significant human capital - teachers - to provide educational services. Although great strides have been made in automating a teacher's administrative tasks, such as grading, attendance and report cards, little improvement has been made in increasing a teacher's productivity in teaching. In fact,the solution offered by the Governor and other advocates to improve the quality of education - smaller class sizes - reduces productivity because more teachers teach the same number of students, not less. Thus, the solution is to increase productivity so that the future cost of salaries and benefits is offset by improvement in the quality of education and the number of students receiving instruction from that teacher.

The trick is defining and measuring productivity in academic instruction. One way is to provide the benefits of small class instruction without smaller classes. In Rose Tree-Media, steps have been taken in this direction, using technology to identify specific needs of individual students and tailor instruction accordingly. Laptop computers and other devices not only allow more classroom participation, but makes the teaching process more interactive and more exciting. Wise investment in technology and training will allow more students to receive meaningful instruction without hiring more teachers, and and taking on annual increases in salaries and benefits which drive the need for tax increases. Taxpayers will see academic performance improve and realize that their investment in public education produces a good return in the life of the community and the value of their homes.