Man, I don’t know. A lot of the extra expenditure is probably going to special needs services and new educational tech/programs. Between the two, in more skeptical of the latter. Walk into any kindergarten around here and you’ll see big screen TVs in front and an iPad for each kid. I’m sure the bigger expense is licensing the “Alpha-friends” show or whatever and I’d love to see that go.

I also think COVID was hugely disruptive - not only to the kid’s learning but also to parent expectation that their kids try in school - Oregon has terrible parental support of kid attendance and learning. Parents need to blame their kids for failing more

As for solutions, I think we need to scrap No Child Left Behind. Leave kids behind in their last grade until they pass - I think MS did that, some say to inflate the scores. Loading teachers with students that don’t have a foundation makes it worse for everyone. Tying standardized test scores to funding also turns a metric into a target and worsens thing.

I don’t know man. It sucks and I’m just an idiot on the 'verse, but after seeing the ‘whole language’ approach fail so hard, I’m also skeptical of experts