Popular Posts

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Media Myth Debunked: Class Sizes Have Dropped 40 Percent Since 1960

A regular media meme, especially since Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's comments regarding public sector employees last week, has been that there just aren't enough school teachers in America.


Such statements ignore that according to the Census Bureau, since 1960, the average class size in our public schools has declined by 40 percent as the number of teachers rose almost four times faster than the student population.

In 1960, there were 1.4 million public school teachers educating 36.3 million primary and secondary students. This represented a ratio of one teacher per 25.8 pupils.

In 2009, there were 3.2 million teachers - a 129 percent rise - educating 49.3 million students - a 36 percent rise. This represented a ratio of one teacher per 15.6 students.

More

9 comments:

  1. When I was in second grade in 1959, there were 45 kids in the class and 1 teacher. Teachers aides were unheard of at that time. We all learned quite well and there were few, if any, serious behavior problems.
    There was only one vice principal and she had a big paddle on her wall. That was all we needed to know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Teacher shortages" were nothing more than propaganda dreamed up by the teachers unions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And now, with twice the number of teachers, our class population is half as smart.

    What a deal. Boy, am I thrilled at that result!
    Lrt's let them tell us once again it's because they are so underfunded they have to buy their own tissues for the kids to blow their noses on! Hahahahahaha! D heads!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Democrats know there is an attachment to teachers, police officers and fire fighters. That is why they use them for political gain.

    Increasing government jobs does not help the economy, it only hurts the economy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. nice post...stats don't lie ...only public unions and bureaucrats are allowed to

    ReplyDelete
  6. why do we need more firefighters? are there more fires? none of this makes sense; only to the mentally challenged libs. someone please help these people.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wouldn't expect the geniuses on this board to understand that simply dividing the number of students by the number of teachers nationally does NOT necessarily provide a strong perspective on student:teacher ratios. Nor do I expect any of these geniuses to factcheck even the numbers presented here before spouting more nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 7:05 I love how you rail against those on this board as being somewhat less than intelligent. I also wonder how many of them went through the public school system and are former pupils of you and or your peers! seem's to me you are trashing your own skills along with your profession at the same time by railing against the very people you were supposed to educate! Or maybe it's because you just failed to get them to believe and follow your liberal ideas?
    So which is it?
    You are a fool!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Times sure have changed. What was the percentage of students who lived in single family homes in 1960? How many homeless children in 1960? How about children living in poverty? How many autistic kids, ADHD, Emotionally disturbed, and children who don't speak English were in those classes in 1960. Times have changed and schools today are nothing like those in 1960, 1970, or even 1980. Blame it on whatever you want, but schools today face many more challenges today than in 1960, as everyone must receive an education in the regular classroom.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.