What your taxes bought

Massachusetts spends a lot of money on public elementary and secondary education. The recent austerity budget passed by the legislature protects state funding of schools, instead cutting much muscle (and quite a large amount of fat).

The American Institutes for Research just published a study that suggests this is a good funding priority:

The report, issued today by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), based on international performance benchmarks in math for 4th and 8th grade students concluded that only 4th graders in a handful of states – among them Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Kansas and Vermont – are learning at B or B- levels when compared with students internationally.

At Grade 8, only Massachusetts achieves a grade of B.

How can I be happy about Bs? The highest ranked unit in the world, Hong Kong, achieved only a B+. Of course I'd like to beat that. But we're still waaay ahead of the rest of the U.S. and among the elite of the world.

I expect to blog on this good news a bit more as I read the rest of the study.

(h/t Yglesias)