February 4, 2009 10:40AM # Drop the Pipe Dream By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE The gargantuan “stimulus” coming down the pike has suddenly gotten education a [lot](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202054.html?hpid=opinionsbox1) of [attention](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/opinion/04wed1.html), but commentators continue the pipe dream that politicians might finally leverage *this* infusion of cash into effective reform. Here’s an idea: Wake up and smell reality instead of hoping upon hope that this time our billions…er…tens of billions will get us something. As Adam Schaeffer and I [document today on *RealClearPolitics*](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/02/investing_in_what_doesnt_work.html), the U.S. has been stimulating education at all levels for decades, and have gotten essentially nothing for our money. And of course we haven’t: As the “Washington must do something” rhetoric driving the pork-laden stimulus-to-end-all-stimuli well illustrates, the overwhelming goal of most legislation is to make politicians appear to “care,” not to actually accomplish anything. And nothing, unfortunately, says “care” as much as wasting tens of billions in the name of cute, innocent children. ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).