[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: The Case of the Inflated Inflator

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Speed Gibson:
The Case of the Inflated Inflator
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1219126548.shtml


   A certain Public School Superintendent perhaps imprudently referenced
   the latest education post up at [1]Minnesota 2020: [2]School Districts
   Falling Further Behind Financially. Minnesota 2020 is an admittedly
   progressive (i.e. liberal), unadmittedly political (viz. DFL) think
   tank.
   It's a very professional, polished post, showing a disconsolate
   student and featuring some effective graphs splashed with red. It
   claims that school funding has not kept pace with inflation:

     It's a number that should make Minnesotans cringe: four out of five
     Minnesota school districts have dropped in real per-pupil revenue
     since 2003. That means 80% of our schools are trying to do more
     with less but it's not working. Our schools are falling behind.

   But look further, emphasis mine.

     These findings are based on actual and projected revenue and pupil
     count data from the Minnesota Department of Education adjusted for
     inflation in government purchases.

   See that? The government gets its own inflation rate, obviously a
   higher one than the Conssumer Price Index. This use of an inflated
   inflator appears to be a critical premise of this story, for the post
   goes on to say:

     Of course, anti-tax ideologues will continue to claim that real per
     pupil school revenues are increasing. However, repeating a
     falsehood will not make it true. Claims regarding growing school
     revenues are generally based on incomplete measures of revenue,
     inappropriate inflation adjustments, or both. Based on the most
     inclusive measures of school revenue available and taking into
     account the real rate of inflation in government purchases, there
     is no doubt that school revenues have been falling during the era
     of "no new taxes."

   This political outburst appears out of place in this otherwise well
   written post, again unscoring the need to use their inflation measure,
   one that tacitly accepts government inefficiency rather than force
   harder choices.
   I think [3]King Banian at SCSU would agree that there is no one
   perfect measure of inflation. But if we as a society are going to use
   such numbers, we have to settle on one, and clearly, empirically, that
   one should be the Consumer Price Index. We can't have one for
   Education, another for Health Care, still another for Agriculture and
   so on because utlimately they will devolve into serving their special
   situations.
   That doesn't preclude the school districts from expanding their
   argument after applying the CPI, citing unusual factors like the fact
   that education can be disproportionately labor intensive. That is the
   approach Minnesota 2020 should have taken.

References

   1. http://www.mn2020.org/
   2. http://www.mn2020.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B92B89B62-95BE-457A-8054-6F4AD9514C92%7D&DE=
   3. http://www.scsuscholars.com/