By now I am sure that all of you have heard about the Save our Schools Rally that took place in Washington D.C. last weekend. The rally, organized by teachers, parents, and advocates called for an end to controversial education policies?and to ?put the public back in public schools.? The march lasted for four days with over 5,000 people in attendance. The event drew in big names such as Diane Ravitch, the financial support of the two largest unions, and even Matt Damon. While you most likely have seen the abundance of media coverage of Matt Damon's appearance at the event, see here, here, and here, you might have missed this little gem, an interview by reason.tv. The interview captured an amusing and ridiculous exchange between a reporter and a woman from Ohio who claims the government should spend a billion dollars per student. The exchange went like this:
Reporter: How much more would you like to see going to educate students?Ohio woman: How much money do you think children are worth? There is no set price that can be set on a child's life and learning.
Reporter: So if you want the government to spend more, how much more do you want them to spend?
Ohio woman: A billion.
Reporter: A billion dollars per student?
Ohio woman: Sure, why not?!
You can watch the interview in its entirety here, pick up at the 2:30 minute mark.
That interview got me thinking. Assuming that the State of Ohio didn't have an 8 billion dollar deficit and could afford to spend a billion dollars per public school student, how much would it cost? There are approximately 1,885,618 public school students in Ohio. If each student received a billion dollars that would amount to $1,885, 620,000,000,000, that's over a quadrillion dollars! Needless to say this is not a viable option.
-Bianca Speranza
