ABSTRACT
Chapter eleven explores the second of three major areas of contemporary public spending: education. There has been a marked real increase in public spending on education at all levels over time. Yet for decades greater spending has not yielded better learning outcomes. The chapter raises questions not only about the measurable efficacy of public spending but also about the conventional focus of that spending: the classroom. For a century the classroom has been the target of state energies. But the best learning outcomes correlate closely with the autonomous reading ability of students not with classrooms. As public money spent on classroom education has grown over time, student levels of reading, writing and high literacy have declined markedly.
