A truer cost of Government Education?

From the CATO Institute:

"Just as an example, the CATO study found that, while Washington DC public schools claim to spend about $17,000/student, the actual price tag is closer to $28,000. Just to put this in perspective, this is a higher price than the private Potomac School, Georgetown Preparatory School, Stone Ridge School and Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. In fact, it’s only $2,000 less than Sidwell Friends, the ultra-exclusive private academy where President Obama’s own daughters attend."

"In other words, parents in Washington are spending nearly as much on schools with a 41.8% dropout rate as they could be on a school that produced Nancy Reagan and Bill Nye and is widely regarded as one of the best private schools in the nation."

My local school system, according to the just published 2009 "Annual Report Card" has 1298 students in 3 schools (Elementary, Middle, and High School). Our hamlet just approved a budget of $18,085.44 for expenditures: just about $18,085 / student. State average is about $13,915 / student.

At least our dropout rate is about 0.88% / year. However, for academic results, SAT scores of our high school graduates have been consistently below the state average the last 4 years. NECAP scores (think NE regional standardized testing) aren’t up to snuff at the high school level: only about 30% are proficient or above in math, ditto in science (reading has 75% proficient or better).

Good value for a cost / results ratio in relation to state average?? For those that read the stats, probably nope. For those merely looking at the kids’ report cards/ Maybe?

You?

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Steve

Let me say this, I do agree that cost per student is high in a lot of public schools, however, like a lot of statistics this comparison can also be misleading. While comparing public to private schools, it’s important to know the difference between cost per student and tuition cost. My roommate from college has been a teacher and administrator at Georgetown Prep (noted in the post) as well as several other high ranking boarding schools here in New Hampshire. We had this conversation before and as he explained, the price tag of “tuition” does not accurately reflect the cost per student to run many private schools as many of these schools do receive some PUBLIC FUNDING (almost all federal grants) and also have large endowments like most high powered universities and colleges. Many of the funds in these endowments are used to build the facilities (picture the fundraising effort so some rich parent/alumni can put his name on a building) or develop scholarships to reduce the cost of tuition. Like you always say…there’s no such thing as a free lunch, while it may be a donation, there is still a “cost” to someone. While the tuition price tag may be similar to the cost in D.C. public schools, the “cost” may be wildly different after the donations, endowments and grants are factored. The private schools also don’t have to put money in to hiring personnel or creating programs to fight dropouts etc, because they can be exclusive in membership and can send a student packing whenever they want while the public school must take on all children who live in the city with no vetting process, a process that also needs reforming in our public schools!