Trickle-down economics in wealth creation is one of the favourite derisions of the left. Yet progressives buy the educational version of it wholesale, spraying money at schools and maximising inputs in the hope that the outputs in student results will take just care of themselves. But that idea has been proven wrong beyond doubt. Average spending per student is up 17 per cent in real terms since 2009 yet the performance of Australian students in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment has deteriorated more than almost any others. In maths and science, we are behind Latvia and Slovenia, in an era when the pandemic has focussed so much attention on scientific expertise. We are three years behind China’s best in maths. Gonski spending has not reached its peak, yet it seems clear what the outcome will be. Today’s students already lag behind their own predecessors of a decade ago.