Thursday, September 22, 2005

The real cost of Public Education in Indiana

The real cost of K-12 education in Indiana.

Last year I decided to research the annual average cost per student for K-12 education in Indiana. I ended up using two sources for all of my statistics; I used Stats Indiana and The National Teachers Association.

Below is a summary of the average cost of Education in Indiana for 2004:

Expenses per student (Not counting Capital Outlays or Debt Service) = $8592 per year.
Capital expense per student (New buildings and large projects) = $1026 per year.
Interest expense per student (Interest on school bonds) = $836 per year.

LAST year, the cost to educate the average student in Indiana was $10,787 per year per student! This cost is paid each year K-12.

This money comes from a variety of sources, some is Federal taxes, some is State taxes, and the majority of the funding comes from Property taxes.

Real spending (Adjusted for inflation) on Educations has tripled in the last forty years. Forty years ago we had the best education system in the world. Today our education system is mediocre.

We need to fix our education system. Education is critical. Spending more money on education is not the way to fix the system. If spending more money on education was the answer, our education system today would be three times as good as it was forty years ago…
By at

11 comments:

Jim Wetzel said...

Let government, at all levels, cease operating schools.

Problem solved.

22 September, 2005 18:21
Debbie H. said...

You're right, Mike, education is critical.

That's why it's so crazy to let the government do it.

I agree with you bartleby.

The best thing any parent can do for their kids is to avoid sending them to a government school.

22 September, 2005 21:31
LP Mike Sylvester said...

I will not argue with the two of you at all.

The government has failed at public education; it should get out.

22 September, 2005 21:33
Anonymous said...

I do not think the problem is with public education being run by local governments as we have it today. I think the problem lies much deeper.

I spent many years in private education as a student and was actually at a disadvantage when I got to college. The public education affords most students more than they would get in a parochial school. There are other options besides parochial schools available. A parent does have the option to pay over 10K a year to send their student to a private non-parochial school. However, that does not mean they will receive the same advantages as a student in a public school system.

I currently work in a local public school as a teacher. We feed each of our students a free breakfast daily. We also have many of our students on free/reduceds lunch. Along with this, I also personally provide pencils, notebooks and other misc items to students that do not have the money to purchase such things. Money is needed at the lowest levels of education. We can feed a child, but we do not provide him with paper, or pencils.

After having just spent a week giving the ISTEP test for the year, I do not think the problem is with the local school system. I think the problem started long ago with individuals making decisions for schools when they had no idea how a school was run. When was the last time any of our politicians spent a few weeks in the classroom observing. A day observing does not give you a honest idea of what teachers face. I invite any politician to walk a week in my shoes or in the shoes of any teacher teaching in a public school.

Do you want to know what we teach? Just take a look at the ISTEP test, we teach little else. Perhaps this is why we have a mediocre educational system?

26 September, 2005 23:32
LP Mike Sylvester said...

I enjoyed reading your comments Kathy. Any local teachers have both my respect and my sympathy's.

I agree with you that the problem runs deep.

I do not agree with you that Public Education is EVER better then private education. The statistics do not support that at all...

I know that schools prvide a variety of services for students they should not:
Free and subsidized meals

27 September, 2005 21:34
LP Mike Sylvester said...

I enjoyed reading your comments Kathy. Any local teachers have both my respect and my sympathy's.

I agree with you that the problem runs deep.

I do not agree with you that Public Education is better then private education. The statistics do not support that at all...

I know that schools prvide a variety of services for students they should not:
Free and subsidized meals
Free and subsidized text books
for SOME students
Programs that have NOTHING to do
with education

I do not put all of the blame on the local school system. I put a lot of the blame on parents. I put a lot of blame on the needless bureaucracy that is involved with the schools. Did you know that we currently spend LESS THEN HALF of every education on classroom education? That is absurd!

I think ALL POLITICIANS should spend some time in the classroom. That is a great idea.

I think the reasons we have a mediocre education system are different:

Lack of respect
Lack of parental support
Needless layers of bureaucracy in the school system
The schools are teaching silly things and political correctness!

27 September, 2005 21:38
Anonymous said...

I have to still disagree with you on private education Mi (no not a typo, since my name is not Kathy). Have you ever spent some time in private education? I have at one time taught in private education. The amount of lack of $ and supplies in private education is scary. I had to teach middle school science with archaic instruments and NO budget. I think I would have made DaVinci proud.

My point is not that public education is better, my point is to have someone that knows about education making the decisions about education. Do you realize we have police officers stationed in a good many of our local school? Perhaps a politician needs to see the war zone we call education first hand. I still believe that if a politician would spend a good two weeks or more in the classroom with a teacher, they would see what some of the problems really are. (OK, I will climb down off my soap box now)

On another tangent, when you make education mandatory for children 6 to 16 yrs of age, you have to treat it like an education and not a baby-sitting service. Students should have to be accountable at every level of education, not just in high school when taking the GQE. I have middle school kids that are reading at a 2nd and 3rd grade level. It is incredibly hard for these students to keep up with the class not to mention we want them to "succeed." WHO are we helping by passing them on????
(OK, I will climb down off my second soap box now.)

28 September, 2005 21:35
LP Mike Sylvester said...

I agree with you 100% on several of your points!

Of course politicians should spend some time in "war torn" schools. No doubt about it.

I think that local schools should have more authority to run themselves. We need to completely eliminate several layers of WASTED school bureaucracy.

Schools needs to be held accountable, teachers need to be held accoutnable, parents need to be held accoutnable, AND children need some accountability. I agree with you!

28 September, 2005 21:41
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27 October, 2005 15:50
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22 February, 2007 14:21
Marc Callan said...

An open question for any of you who might know the answer . . .

Exactly what is the cost per student for administering ISTEP each year?

20 October, 2007 17:44

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