School spending no guarantee of quality

When running for governor in 2009, Scott Walker sang a tune every conservative loved to hear. “If voters have a choice between two clear messages, one from the right and one from the left,” Walker said in June of 2009, “they’re going to go with the more conservative one.”

Walker vowed to “send a clear message to the public about limited government, economic opportunity and personal freedom,” adding that he’s “always taken the approach you don’t need to pander to voters.”

Eight years later, Walker is facing his fourth gubernatorial election (including the recall imbroglio of 2012), and now it appears his strategy has shifted. Upon signing the most recent state budget, Walker boasted that government is now “investing more money into education than ever before,” calling it a “historic investment in our priorities.” Recently, Walker took a tour of the state, bragging about sending more money to rural school districts, claiming they now “have the kind of support that they need to ensure each child in the state has access to great education.”

There’s no doubt Walker is, in practice, a model conservative. His battles with public employees and his success in keeping taxes low are a testament to his philosophy. And his commitment to choice and charter schools has helped improve educational options for those who need them the most.

But boasting about increased spending rings a discordant note for right-wingers who would rather see a more efficient government than one that is simply bigger. GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan frequently argues how misguided it is to measure government spending on inputs rather than outcomes. While attempting to overhaul America’s programs for the poor, Ryan has noted that despite spending trillions of dollars on the “War on Poverty,” America’s poverty rate is just about where it was in 1965. This piggybacks on decades of conservative research arguing that throwing money at problems is counterproductive.

In fact, simply accepting credit for pumping more state money into public schools is a longstanding move perfected by Democrats. Rather than measuring educational quality by how much taxpayer money government is spending, progress should be measured by teacher quality, test scores, graduation rates and student readiness for the workforce. Numerous studies conclude that spending doesn’t necessarily correlate with student achievement — spending smarter is preferable to spending more. So if Wisconsin spends less money and still improves on all those measures, the public would undoubtedly acknowledge Walker is doing a good job.

In fairness, Walker is now gearing up for re-election and needs to appeal to more than just rightwing eggheads. He needs to show people that he’s not a Republican vampire, sucking dollars out of their kids’ classrooms. In fact, the size of his state budgets has risen from $66 billion to $76.5 billion during his tenure — an increase of 15.8%.

But in a perfect world, campaigns would be a perfect place to actually educate the public on the benefits of smaller, more efficient government. Election season is when voters come most in contact with the people that they elect — what better time to argue a conservative philosophy instead of trying to merely survive a field of Democrats by beating them at their own rhetoric?

All those years ago, Walker was right: If given a consistent conservative message, voters will accept it. All Republicans want is a party like it’s 2009.

Christian Schneider is a Journal Sentinel columnist and blogger. Email christian.schneider@jrn.com.