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In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Paul Peterson wrote a piece entitled “Do We Really Need to Spend More on Schools?”
In it, he shows that nationwide, we spend an average of $12,922 per student each year in our public schools. It got me to thinking.
$13,000/year times 20 students per classroom (low by national standards) = $260,000
Let’s make a bunch of assumptions about the costs to operate that classroom (I’m pulling most of these numbers out of the air):
– a teacher costs $90,000 including all wages and benefits and payroll taxes, etc.;
– an adequate classroom is 30 feet x 50 feet or 1,500 square feet – let’s be generous and use 2,000 square feet and say we could rent it at $2.00 per foot per month. That would cost (2000 x $2 x 12 =) $48,000 per year;
– let’s use $500 per month for utilities = $6,000 per year;
– if we lease the classroom from a private individual he or she will want a net lease so we have to pay the taxes and insurance – use $5,000 for taxes and $2,000 for insurance and it adds $7,000 to our annual cost;
– Let’s also rent the furniture and equipment for $1,000 per student per year or $20,000 more;
– and let’s add $500 per student for books and supplies or another $10,000.
Did I forget anything?
So if we add it up, that is $90,000 + $48,000 + $6,000 + $7,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 = $181,000 per year.
So what makes up the $79,000 left over? My guess is that it is Administrative overhead and the cost of complying with all the federal and state mandates like “No Child Left Behind”, etc. If administration is $300,000 per year for a school with 12 classrooms that adds $25,000 per classroom to the mix but it still leaves $54,000. In a business, if that $54,000 was the profit on a revenue stream of $260,000, it would represent over a 20% profit margin. Nicw work if you can get it.
It seems to me that there is a business plan for a private school lurking in these figures. It also tells me that there is a disconnect between the constant pleas from the NEA and AFT unions asking for more money for our schools and the real needs to run our schools well.
What do you think?
Responsibility-Freedom Demands It 
2 comments
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August 7, 2011 at 8:06 am
Jennifer Roberts
Those numbers are interesting. Here in Colorado the per pupil spending is about half what you quoted. And $90,000/year for a teaching salary. Gosh, that would be nice. All the teachers I know make about $40,000-$50,000.
And you are forgetting that there are many other individuals who help to run a school. That per pupil is spread out to cover the costs of specials teachers – art, music, gym, library, technology (in schools that are fortunate enough to have them. The special ed teacher. The school social worker. School psychologist. Secretaries in the front office. Aides in the classroom. Custodians. Cafeteria workers.
$500 per student for books and supplies does not get you very far these days.
The cost of state assessments to comply with NCLB is actually a significant chunk of each school’s budget.
So, no. I do not think we are spending too much on education – at least in Colorado.
In fact, during my first year of teaching I paid out of pocket for all the notebooks and supplies my class used. Why, because the kids couldn’t afford to buy supplies and the school didn’t have the money to reimburse me. I was not about to teach without any supplies. I wrote a post about this yesterday: http://www.retrogradelearning.wordpress.com.
August 8, 2011 at 8:00 am
ttoes
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for commenting. I’m not sure I made my point properly so I may have misled you.
My main point was that there is probably plenty of money dedicated to “education” but it is not used in a “profitable way.” A business would identify a goal, allocate resources, and get the job done. It seems much more complicated than that in public sector education.
I think you are right, in a way, in saying that your State spends half of the $13,000 figure that I quoted. Much of the money spent on education never reaches the classroom. I did say I thought the difference between what it costs to educate a child and what is spent is probably due to, “Administrative overhead and the cost of complying with all the federal and state mandates like “No Child Left Behind”, etc.”
An interesting presentation by the Colorado Department of Education indicates that last year there was $11,400 in per-pupil-revenue in the State.
(http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeprof/download/pdf/P20FinanceOct18presentationPT.pdf)
When I was a member of my local school board in the late 80s in California, I remember a study that showed how costs were allocated for education in the state. At that time, all taxes collected for education were sent to Sacramento and then doled out to the districts. At that time, if memory serves me, only 27% of all revenue collected made it to the individual classroom. The remainder paid for State, District, and even School site Administration, curriculum studies, debt service on the bonds to build new high-tech schools, compliance with mandated programs to feed, transport, and provide day care for students.
I also think you misread my assumption about cost of a teacher, including benefits, taxes, etc. I am sure that you are right that a Colorado teacher gets paid in the $40-$50K range. But, to find the cost, you have to add the 34% benefits cost (per Colorado DE) and the 7%+ payroll tax. I also made the number high so that I would come out with conservative numbers.
So, unless I am shown evidence to the contrary, my conclusion is that there is sufficient money to properly carry out our goal to education our children well. I just think it is being allocated very poorly. Don’t you think you could do a better job without all the mandated programs? Don’t you think your school could run with half the administrative staff, if they did not have all those mandates and reports and requirements? I do.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment,
Tom