Everyone knows that our public schools are underfunded, right? So why do they keep blowing easy money?


You might recall that last week the Miami‐​Dade School District turned down a principal’s offer to work for a single dollar on the grounds that the district would have to put his salary in the budget anyway. Good bye, $119,999! Today, The Seattle Times reports that the state of Washington is forfeiting a $13.2 million grant for Advanced Placement teachers because the people running the grant program want to pay teachers directly for participating in their training. The problem? “Washington’s collective‐​bargaining laws require that teacher pay be negotiated between unions and school districts.”


Our public schools, no matter what bureaucrats and unions tell us, are not underfunded. If they were, though, the whiners would largely have themselves to blame.