Education spending

I'm going to do something that gives me the willies, and quote from an American Enterprise Institute (boo, hiss) publication. What can I say, they've got a good summary of difficult-to-find statistics:

American schools are actually well funded, by any reasonable standard. After inflation, education spending in the United States more than tripled between 1960 and 2000.

It may surprise some to learn that, in fact, we rank at the top of the international charts when it comes to education spending. In 2000 (the latest available data), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calculated that the United States spent significantly more than any other industrial democracy, including those famous for generous social programs.

In primary education, on a per-pupil basis, the United States spent 66 percent more than Germany, 56 percent more than France, 27 percent more than Japan, 80 percent more than the United Kingdom, 62 percent more than Belgium, and 122 percent more than South Korea. High school figures were similar.

Despite this spending, the United States ranked fifteenth among the thirty-one countries that participated in the OECD’s 2000 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) reading exam. Ireland, Iceland, and New Zealand were among those that outperformed us while spending far less per pupil. The results in math are equally disquieting: on the 1999 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the United States ranked nineteenth of thirty-eight participating countries. Most troubling is that America’s standing actually deteriorates as students spend more time in school.

The article claims that many schools costs are, rather duplicitously, not included in per-pupil spending estimates. For instance, the interest paid on school bonds, renovation costs, land purchases, and new school construction costs are all not included. Thus, New York City's $12,000 per pupil expenditure is in fact over $14,000; Los Angeles actually spent about $13,000 per pupil yet reported less than $7,000 per pupil expenditures. They conclude:

A reasonable estimate is that widely reported per-pupil spending figures represent only 70-80 percent of what the United States spends on education. Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby has estimated that in 2000 we actually spent more than $9,200 per pupil, compared to the widely reported “official” figure of $7,392.

Just some back-of-the-envelope thoughts here: multiply $9,200 by 25, and you're spending close to a quarter million dollars per year per classroom ($230,000). Now, I don't know how much that space costs in terms of a mortgage, maintenance, and so on-- but let's say $2500 / month for the room (considerably more than my house payment, for instance). Let's additionally stipulate $60,000 for the teacher's salary, $500 / month for supplies (only during the school year), and throw in $25,000 for desks, books, maps, and a few computers. Still with me? We have $110,000 left. Say it takes $40,000 to operate a school bus, per year (roughly the cost in Wake County, North Carolina, which I picked at random)-- we still have $60,000 left. Where is this money going? According to the American Enterprise Institute, US public education spending grew by more than 50 percent from 1995 to 2003. What is going on? Well:

In 1949-50, schools employed one non-teacher for every 2.36 teachers. By 1998-99, there was one non-teacher for every 1.09 teachers. In Washington, D.C., the school system employs eleven thousand people (for sixty-five thousand students), less than half of whom are teachers.

Washington DC schools are not in good shape, physically or academically. They can't even afford to fix the plumbing in some schools. Yet they employ one adult for every 5.9 children-- less than half of them teachers. And what is the proposed solution for boosting academic success in the district? Mixed age classrooms? Peer tutoring? Training teachers to give students more choice and self-determination? Montessori-style learning? Firing some administrators and hiring some teachers (hello, isn't this obvious)?

No. In 2002 a DC councilman drafted legislation that would have required mandatory preschool starting at age 3. I guess reform in the classroom is too radical, whereas carseats on the schoolbus barely raises an eyebrow.

The more time goes on, the more I just think this system cannot be reformed.