The Department of Education recently reported that students in the United States continue to rank well below their counterparts in the other industrialized countries in math, reading and science. At the same time, it was noted that the United States currently leads the world in per capita spending on education.

     This revelation really comes as no surprise and highlights a major misconception about the relationship between the resources allocated to an initiative (in this case, education), and the quality of what those expenditures precipitate.

     Clearly, as a society we need to make a much greater financial commitment to our educational institutions at all levels. Our collective future depends, in large measure, on how successful we are in educating each succeeding generation.

     The real problem with the relatively low performance in math, reading and science has more to do with motivation and attitude than it does with ability. When it comes to students in the United States, low test scores are not reflective of teacher dedication, instructional methodology, content selection, even extracurricular opportunities.

     The core issue is about desire. We seem to have lost the capability to create environments in which students want to learn.

     True education has always been more concerned with clarity and creativity than with conformity and control.

     Moreover, it is a non-trivial point that the decline (especially in reading proficiency) becomes much more pronounced after the fourth grade. One obvious question we need to be asking is, "What happens after the fourth grade?"

     And it is equally revealing, although not unexpected, to find that poorer students tend to exhibit much lower proficiency in math, reading and science than do their more affluent peers. As a society, we have yet to find an effective way to deal with this disparity.

     Although there are educators at every level and in every school who are dedicated, competent and enthusiastic about what they do, I tend to agree with Education Secretary Rod Paige when he observes that, overall, we "have become complacent, self-satisfied and often lacking in the will to do better."

     Unfortunately, this is exactly the same characterization that I hear many educators make about their students. I wonder if there is a connection?

     So do we need to be spending more on education? Yes. But until we find a way to instill more excitement in students about the learning process, we need to realize that more money is not necessarily going to make much of a difference.