The cost of accountability in our public schools has been measured by a coalition of business, education, and philanthropic organizations. The study uses a series of calculations to determine how much money schools needto spend to meet the scholastic accountability levels the state and federal governments expect. It has taken more than a year for researcher John Augenblik and his associates to calculate it would have taken $913-Millionmore – two years ago. That figure would be much larger today becaue of reductions in state funding and additional withholdings caused by short state income. Augenblick says the goal is to eliminate excuses. Augenblick says accountability is undermined if funding needed to achieve it is inadequate. He says he talked to a lot of educators in running his study and says almsot all of them believe state and federal achievement goals can be reached with and adequate amount of money put behind the effort. He sayshis study should help state lawmakers – and educators – understand the price of adequacy.
