In fact, I think they’ve graduated a high school kid (whose better educated) for the same price it takes the average American state to get a kid into 4th or 5th grade.

I actually wrote an article awhile back mentioning this, suggesting that if our goal was just to spend a lot of money, we would be better served by shipping our kids to Estonia and paying their tuition and board for the same price as under educating them in America. Quite literally, outsourcing education.

The point of my magnum opus is to shift the focus from inputs to outputs. That’s the reason we put resources into public education. The proponents of the current public education system have successfully kept the focus on resources leaving unasked, and unwelcomed, considerations of results.

For a shift of focus symbolism trumps information.

After you fill the tumbler for European spending, you could have the dollar amount spent in Europe appear on the screen next to the top of the water level, then do the same after you fill it again for Arizona spending. That way the audience wouldn’t have to take it on faith that the relative water levels accurately reflect the real difference in spending.

And after that tablespoon of water finally drops out of the tumbler, you could flash an outcome statistic for Arizona schools – the % below basic on NAEP or something.

Does this ad make it entirely clear that when you refer to the public education system the word “public” ought to be capitalized, bolded and in a bigger font and the word “education” ought to be in lower-case and a smaller font?

The ad is meant to motivate supporters of the educational status quo and provide them with talking points so the undecided will hear the same message from many sources assuming, unfortunately, that repetition equals credibility. That message can only be counteracted by finding an opposing constituency and motivating them to make a counterpoint.

Here’s my counterpoint ad:

scene: a water tumbler and a water pitcher are on a table. The tumbler and pitcher are picked up.

Off camera announcer: This is how much money the average country in Europe spends on K-12 education.

scene: fill tumbler from pitcher

Off camera announcer: This is how much money Arizona spends on K-12 education.

scene: pitcher continues filling tumbler until tumbler overflows and then continues to pour as water overflows.

Off camera announcer: So the problem isn’t really how much money we’re putting into Arizone public education…..

scene: pitcher stops pouring and tumbler is tilted so water should pour out….

Off camera announcer: But how much education we’re getting out of Arizona public education

scene: …but utilizing a bit of special effects, nothing pours out of the tumbler until it’s almost horizontal. Then a tablespoon or so of water pours out.

Fade to black.