What is good for General Motors ... is good for education.(from the editors)

"What is good for the country is good for General Motors--and vice versa," pronounced proud Charlie Wilson, the former GM chief who became secretary of defense to President Eisenhower.

Now we might say it a bit differently, "If restructuring is necessary for General Motors, it's no less needed for the country--and its schools."

For years, our public schools have paid as little attention to personnel costs as General Motors has. Instead, school districts have attempted to enhance student learning (and address many other problems along the way) by hiring more people--more teachers (for smaller classes) and more teacher aides, guidance counselors, bus drivers, lawyers, accountants, special educators, bilingual specialists, and others.

Back in 1950, school districts hired one teacher (or other instructional employee such as an administrator or guidance counselor) for every 19 pupils. The number of pupils per teacher dropped to 14 by 1970, and to just 8 pupils by 2005. If class-size reduction were the solution to America's education crisis, that crisis would have passed long ago.

It's not just the size of the instructional staff that has grown relentlessly, however. Clerks, maintenance workers, lunchroom employees, bus drivers, crossing guards, and others too numerous to mention are joining the district payroll. The number of pupils for each support staff member dropped from 58 in 1960 to 43 in 1970, to just 27 in 2005.

All of these folks cost money. Between 1960 and 1975, the amount (in inflation-adjusted dollars) spent nationwide on K-12 education per pupil nearly doubled, rising from $3,300 to just short of $6,100. Between 1975 and 2005, expenditures nearly doubled again, to reach $11,470.

Even those numbers don't include costs hidden away in pension promises to "instructional personnel," who are typically eligible to retire as early as the age of 55. In this issue, Michael Podgursky and Robert Costrell (see "Teacher Retirement Benefits," research, page 58) show that pension benefits for teachers have risen rapidly even in the past four years, outpacing those provided by the private sector by 40 percent.