January 25, 2011 12:41PM # Public Education Needs Transparency & Competition, Not More Money By [Adam B. Schaeffer](https://www.cato.org/people/adam-b-schaeffer) --- SHARE In honor of [School Choice Week](http://schoolchoiceweek.com/home), President Obama seems set to use his [SOTU address](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/24/earlyshow/main7277305.shtml) this evening to demonstrate how truly pathetic most education “reform” ideas are in this, the era of our Great Recession. We are, and have long been, out of money at the Federal level. So, naturally, the President [proposes](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/24/earlyshow/main7277305.shtml) more “investment,” ah, *spending* in education. Of course, we know that Fed Ed spending does [diddly](../president-to-call-for-big-new-ed-spending-heres-a-look-at-how-thats-worked-in-the-past/) to improve test scores. But at least with the Feds, we have a fairly good accounting of how much is being spent on K‑12 education. Unfortunately, at the state, local, and school-district level, it takes a [forensic accountant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_accounting) to discover how much we’re [really spending](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11432). Watch this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvKyfV3JtE) to get an idea of why *public K‑12 education is the most unaccountable, least transparent government service in the nation*: ##### 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/).