In my local school district there is a total population of 33,000 people. The school employs 569 “professional” staff and 596 “Support” Staff.
- The school district therefore employs 1,165 people – 51% of whom are support staff (i.e. not involved in the education of the children). Furthermore, notice that they call non-support staff, “Professional” which means that there are far fewer teachers than 569 (it appears to have 546 – but that too may be an overstatement).
- The average class size is 22.5 and it claims a median teacher salary of 60,423. I’d like to see the reported average salary and it would be even better if they reported total compensation – including pension and health care obligations for when these teachers retire.
- With its budget of $110 million and 6,040 students, they spend $18,212 per student.
- With 22.5 students per class at $18,212 per student, they spend almost $410,000 per class. If teachers are being paid a median salary of $60,000, suppose the average compensation is $120,000 per teacher, then there is still $290,000 per class being spent elsewhere.
If I had 22.5 students to educate in college it would not cost me anywhere near that amount.
Disturbing, yet they always cry about being “under-funded.” Our kids’ Catholic school spends about $3k/student
While 18k is a fair bit higher than the average public school spends, I think 60k is a bit more than the average public school makes as well. A good stylized fact to know and tell. I was surprised by it.