Doing the math...

[agilebrit]

So, the school voucher issue is heating up here in good old Utah, with the election being three weeks away. So I decided to get my calculator out and do some theoretical figuring.

I based it on a beginning class size of 30 kids, which was not out of the realm of possibility when I was growing up. I don't remember anyone bitching about class size back then either.

Apparently we spend $7,000 per student, per year, here. That comes to $210,000 per classroom.

Now, say 5 kids leave, and they're on the poorer end of the spectrum, so they get all $3,000 they're entitled to under the proposed voucher program (the actual amount is $500 - $3,000, so I'm being generous here). They take $15,000 out of the classroom, leaving it with 25 kids and $195,000, because that extra $4,000 per kid gets plowed back into the classroom.

Which now comes to $7,800 per pupil in that same classroom.

So...we've reduced class size, and increased the amount we're spending per kid. All without increasing the amount we're actually spending.

Seriously, someone explain to me how this is a bad thing?

Comments

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

But the way this law is written, that extra $4000 WILL go back into the classroom. So, I'm still not seeing the bad.

And the way this law is written, the poorest kids get the greatest amount of money for the voucher. In fact, I don't even have a dog in this hunt, because (a) we homeschool, and aren't eligible for the voucher; and (b) even if I wanted to send Da Boy to a private school, I still wouldn't get even the lowest amount of the voucher (which is $500), because we make too much.

I just found out that the average cost of a private school in Utah is $3800, if you take out the two highest priced ones. Which I find very interesting.

[perseph.livejournal.com]

Let me try again.

Starting from 210,000 per classroom. Five students leave, and there are now twenty-five. That's too many still to combine with the class next door, so the costs for the teacher, janitor, electricity, bus driver, payroll person down at district headquarters, building repairs, etc. are all the same. Maybe you save a $1000 or so total on printing and art supplies and such through the year as a result of having to print five fewer of each handout and such

So the bad would be that subtracting a $1000 for printing and art supplies still leaves a classroom that still costs $209,000 to run, but there is only $195,000 with which to run it.

Perhaps they can find a way to save on administrative costs and keep the small class size. Or if they can't (or won't) do that, raise taxes slightly or take money from some other budget to keep the small class size. More likely though, they'd either find a way to redistribute the students and keep classes large so as to cut staffing costs, or they'd start cutting any special programs they could.

Private schools usually do have funding beyond tuition. Mine did a ton of fundraising anyway. I think they got money from the diocese too, though I could be wrong about that. Private schools also tend to cost less to run due to not providing services for special needs students or transportation to and from school and a variety of other reasons (mine made us pay for textbooks and contracted out the lunch room to a for profit business). Although I suspect they also tend to waste less on administrative costs and such, but I suppose it depends on the school and the district being compared.

I googled the Utah voucher amounts out of curiosity, and it does look pretty fair, especially for the middle class. It leaves the lowest income people with no school choice though since it doesn't cover full tuition and even $800 can be a lot to a family who is barely making ends meet.