School Funding Forum and Notes

Remember to mark your calendar and make time to attend the School funding forum.

"Education Funding 101"

Tuesday, May 19

6:00 to 7:30pm

Golden Valley Library

830 Winnetka Avenue North

I think it would be an excellent use of your time. Especially if you think your taxes are too high, and you think the money is being poorly used by your public school district. Besides, bring your questions and challenge the experts....

Remember my simplified and totally unverified Student cost accounting:

• Avg cost per student: ~$11,000/yr
• Avg cost per "normal/typical" student: ~$6,000/yr (little variation)
• Avg cost per "at risk/challenged" student: ~$12,000/yr (moderate variation)
• Avg cost per "special needs" student: ~$25,000+/yr (high variation)

Why does relative cost matter:

• Privates and charters often have fewer of the higher cost students... Watch out so you do not compare apples and oranges.
• Public school funding should probably be increased so that the "normal/typical" student funding is closer to private schools. (ie ~ $8,000 to $10,000/yr)
• The public schools should be able to take advantage of some benefits of size/scale... If the state's schools worked together... Which they do not do very well at all... Many folks seem to want "their/special" local school with all its inefficiencies...
• Bringing all students into the "mainstream" of public education is really expensive. Do you have a better idea?

My biggest problem with raising school funding is it seems to me that many schools have no clear boundaries / priorities / goals / metrics. (priorities, fallout) The reasons why this is problematic:

• There are an unlimited number of techniques, programs, levels of training, etc that can be requested or offered. (ie wants)
• How do you stop program proliferation as the budget is raised, if you do not have clear stated boundaries / priorities / goals / metrics?
• I am pretty sure we could quadruple public school funding and the educators, parents, politicians, etc would find a way to spend it. It is human nature to spend what is available on that "good" program.

As always, thoughts and corrections are encouraged !!!