Debunking Myths About Public Education

Critics of public education in the United States propagate myths intended to undermine public support of public education. These "talking points" express the idea that public schools have spent huge amounts of taxpayer money in the past generation with nothing to show for it and that public education in the US, despite these expenditures, is chronically failing compared to other nations. These arguments, however, are nothing but spin – propaganda created by a selective view of statistics. On this page, we provide resources that discuss and dispel those myths.

Issue brief (PDF): Debunking Seven Myths About Public Education

Think Tank Reports “Severely Flawed”: Most reports from education policy think tanks are not worth the paper on which they are printed, according to a new education policy research center (March 2007)

Think Recent Test Scores Show Schools are Failing? Think Again!: NAEP scores, given a lot of press coverage, are often misleading. We must look at other measures of success when judging schools (March 2007)

Looking at Education "Through a Wider Lens": Policy-makers must a take a most holistic view of education and its relation to other areas of social policy (January 2007)

Public Education Funding and Achievement Grow: Opponents of increased funding for public schools often fall back on the argument that “money doesn’t matter” in education. This is false (December 2006)

Good News: NAEP Scores Show Dramatic Gains by Students: Reactions in the press miss the good news and positive progress contained within NAEP scores (January 2006)