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Doing the Math with Public School budgets
January 25, 2004Well-meaning people often suggest that we should fund our public schools better. We think this is a bit misguided.
In a November post from his blog, homeschooler Chris "Not the Actor" O'Donnell reports from the back of his property tax bill:
| School Operating | $171,059,126 | 63% |
| School Capital Projects | $37,644,885 | 14% |
| Public Safety | $21,058,812 | 8% |
Another interesting analysis comes from the campaign website of Ken Krawchuk, the 2002 Libertarian candidate for Pennsylvania governor:
To come up with hard numbers, I pulled out the Yellow Pages and called all the private schools in my local Abington area: the Catholic schools, other religious schools, Montessori's, community schools, Abington Friends school, etc. and asked what they charged per year. I heard numbers ranging from the $3,000s through about $6,000, with exclusive schools like the Friends topping out at over $10,000. Then I took the Abington school district budget of $67 million and divided it by the 6,600 students, yielding a cost of over $10,000 a child.$10,152 per student, to be more precise.
At this point critics usually point out that private schools get to "pick their own students," are "free to discriminate" and "don't serve special-education students and troubled youth" and all sorts of odious accusations. Straw men, all. Anyone ever see any serious reports of any of the preceeding happening at private schools across the nation?
Annecdotal evidence suggests the opposite. Rather than "creaming" Catholic schools, for example, often more than their fair share of discipline problems precisely because they're so successful at dealing with school discipline. You could make the same argument for the teaching of English.
Yet another argument for private school vouchers for poor parents, and for the elimination of the government monopoly on public education.
I know I'm setting myself up for some major flames but here goes...
First, if these school systems really are spending $10k and $11k per student, it sounds to me like an argument for auditing the books. If people in the community are really that concerned, they should do some homework, talk to their elected officials (and the local press) and raise hell.
Second, this issue is not one that can be discussed with simple arithmetic. For example, the system I work for has a large adult education program that, among other things, teaches English and job skills to large numbers of recent immigrants. Those numbers are never added to the K-12 students because state and federal regulations require they be separate. However, this a service the school system provides.
As to private schools, don't just ask what they charge. Also ask how much they raise in other donations. My wife taught in a private school for several years and they held two major carnivals, one "gala", and several raffles every years (and lots of "volunteers" like husbands of teachers :-)
Am I going to tell you there's no waste in public schools? Of course not. Am I someone who thinks public schools are fine the way they are and don't need reform? Hell, no! But simple arithmetic will not work in analyzing the cost of education. Dig deeper.
I'll go put on my fire suit now. :-)
Tim January 26, 2004 05:21 PMI strongly suspect that the figures are strongly affected by the set of students who suffer significant disabilities that must be covered by the educational system. These can, in cases like severe autism, or severe cerebral palsy can cost over $100K a year per student for the educational system to handle (they often require individual care by a full-time highly qualified worker).
Given that the private schools (or private institutions) that do accept such students charge comparable figures (and are never used for comparison purposes). You can understand how it only takes a few percent of such students to significantly increase the costs.
As well, generally students who are most prone to damaging schools (thus requiring the schools to take appropriate and expensive countermeasures) are not likely to be accepted (or stay) at private schools. That, and private schools are generally smaller, meaning that the critical mass of destructive students is harder to achieve means that private schools to do not usually have to take the steps required of public schools.
Tom West February 1, 2004 08:23 AM