At 06:09 PM 07/05/2002 -0400, Doug wrote: >The CPI market basket is based on the Consumer Expenditure Survey ><http://www.bls.gov/cex/home.htm>, not what BLS economists deem it to be, >and it includes education, which they weight at 2.7% of spending ><ftp://146.142.4.23/pub/news.release/cpi.txt>. In the CES for 2000, >households spent 1.5% of after-tax income on education. These numbers seem >low, but that's what they say.
I may hold a very partial view because I live in California, which is currently ranked 49th in the USA for education -- just ahead of Mississippi. I have taught in the Oakland public schools (as a volunteer) for the last five years and can attest to the appropriateness of the ranking. There are some good teachers; there are a lot of awful teachers. The demographics are horrendous: there are schools in which 80% of the student body is in foster care!!! Overall, there has been no investment in the infrastructure of schools in well over a generation, and they look it. There is, of course, no money for the arts, for music, for science labs, etc. Middle class schools raise money for this stuff through the PTA; the schools that can't, have nothing. The gist of this is that if you can possibly afford to take your kid out of public school you do. My son attended public school till 9th grade; my daughter is in public school (4th grade) but not for very much longer. Private school tuition ranges from $8,000/year to $20,000/year...and it goes up every year. Joanna
