If somebody pays for something, they want to see the results. If the effects are local, you see with your eyes and you hear things second hand; a kind of soft f

If somebody pays for something, they want to see the results. If the effects are local, you see with your eyes and you hear things second hand; a kind of soft feedback. If the effects are far away, you probably want to see a hard number, because you don't get the same kind of soft feedback. Is the number (teacher score) useful? Maybe not. But you can't simply take away a number, resulting in no feedback. You have to either come up with a new number that is useful, or localize it enough that people can see the results. Otherwise people won't want to pay. That's why these weird bureaucratic numbers usually come from state or federal requirements. People see the big pile of money going somewhere and they want "accountability" because they can't see the results for themselves. Let's stop shuffling around so much money, laundering it through state and federal agencies. The money, if it comes back, always comes with strings attached. This goes for schools, highway funds, and many other things.