I'm glad David brought up the variance in per-pupil aid to schools,
even though that is only a piece of the formula. The numbers on the
list David quoted include Special Ed money, too, I think. I'm not
exactly sure because when I asked the district for a list of the total
allocation for each individual school comparing 03-04 to the projected
04-05 they weren't able to give me a list. They did give me the
district's total budget report for 03-04 and about a hundred Excel
spreadsheet sheets in a dozen different emails; the spreadsheets
included the caveat that they weren't final and didn't include
everything. So, it's somewhat difficult to make comparison's between
schools' allocations.
One of the items that I don't think is included on anybody's
comparisons is the actual amount of teacher salary at each school. The
only number I've ever seen is one of about $75K per teacher, including
benefits. The problem with using an average like that is that schools
with long term teachers with lots of training will be spending more than
the average, and schools with a bunch of rookies will be spending
considerably less than the average. The difference could be as much as
$2500 per pupil.
There are a lot of variables in the school funding pie that more
people need to understand better. The job's too big to be left only to
those that have been doing it. Parents and taxpayers need to be asking
more questions and offering more ideas about how to manage our kids'
schools. The upcoming community discussions need to be about more than
values and attitudes; they need to include real numbers and real
dollars.
Which brings to mind the fact that the MPS has sent out RFPs for
someone to count the empty classrooms and make some recommendations
about school closings, it is available on the MPS web site. I hope they
get more responses than the last RFP. I would also like to see them
include greater consideration for the value that schools provide to
their neighborhoods - property values, general quality of life factors,
etc. The mayor and others need to chime in here...
Dan McGuire
Ercisson
David Brauer wrote:
Consider 2003-04 per-pupil aid and % in poverty for randomly
selected
elementary schools:
Armatage - $6,258 per kid with 35% qualifying for free/reduced
lunch
Bancroft - $7,029, 78%
Barton - $5,010, 20%
Bethune - $8,616, 91%
Bryn Mawr - $7,786, 76%
Burroughs - $4,881, 24%
Cooper - $8,298, 75%
Dowling - $8,399, 39%
Hale - $4,991, 24%
Hall, $8,577, 89%
So a high-poverty school such as Hall gets $3,500 per kid
more, or 71
percent more, than low-poverty Hale. High-poverty Bethune gets
almost
$4,000 per kid more, or 76 percent more, than low-poverty
Burroughs.
For high schools:
Edison - $7,162, 78%
Henry - $6,294, 76%
North - $6,864, 80%
Roosevelt - $6,908, 71%
South - $5,030, 39%
Southwest - $5,561, 37%
Washburn - $5,430, 53%
The gap is less dramatic here because of a smaller variation
in poverty
rates. Higher-poverty Edison receives $1,600 more per kid, or
30
percent more, than lower-poverty Southwest.
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