On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that Democrats have to answer for failures in the education system and that spending more money won’t solve the education issue.

Maher said, “I also read this week in the paper, one in three children in America cannot read at a basic level of comprehension. 85% of black students lack proficiency in reading skills. We already spend a lot of money on schools, so you’re going to keep telling me more money will fix this? … And it seems like a lot of times the solutions that come from the left seem symbolic. They don’t seem like we’re actually addressing what really needs to be done, [which] is get kids learning, get them reading, get them able to have a job.”

He added, “Why hasn’t the money we spent — it’s like when I pay my taxes here in California, it’s like wow, 13% on top of federal taxes. And the streets, I have to watch them like a hawk because there are so many f*cking potholes. It’s like, where did the money go? It doesn’t seem like the money is getting to this problem if 85% of black students lack proficiency in reading skills.”

Maher further stated, “Is part of the problem the fact that there really is no penalty for not educating your children well anymore? … I think the Democratic Party has to answer for partly that, because the Democratic Party, the teachers are the backbone of it, are they not?” And that “They kept the schools closed long after they should have.”

He concluded that he’d accept a deal of paying teachers more “and get more for your buck.”

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