Schools scraping by? Give me a break
The Huntsville Times ran an editorial by John Ehinger today entitled “Schools scraping by.” The gist of the column is not that school tax revenue is falling, although Ehinger leads off by saying there is a “downturn in the taxes collected to pay for public education in Alabama.” In the third paragraph you get the real story.
For the first nine months of the current budget year, education taxes grew only by 1.4 percent. But the budget passed by the Legislature had estimated a growth rate of 5 percent.
So there isn’t a downturn in taxes. Tax revenue is actually growing. The problem is that the legislature increased the education budget beyond the growth in the tax base.
But whether or not tax revenue is increasing, decreasing, or flat is beside the point. Ehinger claims our schools are “scraping by.” I say give me a break.
In FY 2008 the Huntsville city schools had a total revenue of $270,287,292. That’s right, over a quarter of a billion dollars. They have about 23,000 students enrolled. (The most recent number I could find on their website was 22,724 from a 2005-2006 report, but recent reporting suggests that number is still pretty close) That works out to a per pupil revenue of $11,752. That is the amount of money they received for every student they have. Let’s compare that to some private schools in the area to see if they are really “scraping by.”
We’ll start at the top with Randolph Academy – easily the area’s premier private school. Their operating budget is $11 million and they have an enrollment of 876 students which works out to $12,557 per student. That’s right, the best private school that money can buy operates on less than $1000 per student more than Huntsville’s city schools.
Madison Academy’s annual budget is $5 million with an enrollment of 785 pupils, which equals $6,369 per student.
Catholic High School doesn’t have it’s operating budget listed on its website, but tuition, which is a reasonable proxy for per student revenue depending on the amount of help from the church, is only $6,075 per year.
Schola Maxima, a very well regarded school for elementary school age children, only costs $4,250 per year for the first student and $3,750 for each additional student.
Here’s the summary:
- Randolph Schools: $12,557
- Huntsville City Schools: $11,752
- Madison Academy: $6,369
- Catholic High School: $6,075
- Schola Maxima: $4,250
So the government run schools in Huntsville get about the same financial support as the area’s best private school. They get roughly double two other good area private schools. When you get down into elementary education the government schools cost roughly triple what good privately operated schools cost. Yet despite the considerable funding, the Huntsville school system includes four high schools defined as “dropout factories.” People don’t pay $12k to send their kids to a privately funded dropout factory, but the taxpayers are paying that amount for the city of Huntsville to operate four.
Huntsville’s government schools get about half of their revenue from the state. What if the state simply cut them off completely? I’m not talking about increasing their contribution less than planned or even decreasing it just a little. I mean what if they flat out took it away? Then the city of Huntsville’s schools would have to get by on about the same amount of money that two very good area high schools get by with.
Are our schools are “scraping by”? Give me a break! Our schools are flush with cash. If Dr. Ann Roy Moore complains about needing any more money I say we just shut down their whole operation and ask the people who run Randolph School to take over. They manage to provide a much better education for the same money.
The public schools do have to deal with the handicapped kids and all the other issues which private institutions generally do not have to contend with. But, the enrollment of the Huntsville city schools has been declining for the last 25 years or so, from a peak of about 33,000 in the early 1980s. All the while building more facilities. Maybe the city schools should redirect some of their funds to the county schools.
You can count on any city school system defending to the last deputy assistant reading readiness supervisor its budget.
A few other notes, the private schools have much lower payrolls, less bureaucracy, a willingness to make do and generally not slaves to the latest in educational trends.
“Generally larger institutions are able to build economies of scale and cost reduce operations better than smaller institutions. How is the Huntsville City School System’s budget on par with Randolph when Randolph is such a tiny institution? Even that is surprising; the difference in quality makes it ludicrous.”
Yes, the government schools have to pay for busing, handicapped kids, and other such expenses that the private schools do not. But the per pupil revenue difference between HSV and Madison Academy is $124 million (difference in per pupil revenue times the number of kids in HSV schools). That is a hell of a lot of money to spend on buses, handicap accessible facilities, and specialized instructors.
Jeff’s point about economies of scale only adds fuel to the fire engulfing the “scraping by” hokum.
There is no way to avoid the plain fact that privately owned schools offer a high quality education for half the price of government run schools or can offer a superior education for about the same cost. A shortage of money isn’t the problem with the government’s schools.
IMO the biggest problem in public schools is lack of discipline. If your kid consistently misbehaves at a private school, he will be kicked out. The difference in discipline leads to a much better learning (and teaching) environment – better for everyone.
I think some form of alternative school for the ill-behaved kids is needed – get them away from the kids who want to learn.
Here’s some bits of irony: kids seem to perform better in overcrowded portables (compare Grissom and Bob Jones to Johnson); kids also seem to perform better with fewer teachers (compare MLK with IIRC 12 to 1 student – teacher ratio to Mountain Gap with 17 to 1 s-t ratio).
More money is not the answer – we need discipline.
Don’t the numbers for this year’s expenditures include a bankroll from the Tax Increment Financing packages? Since the school district is paying so much to renovate and build right now, those numbers might not reflect a typical year. The private schools figures might seem more typical.
Think of it like a student who just got a big student loan, and the money is sitting in his bank account and going to be spent over the next four years. College is a special time frame like building is a special time frame. After it’s over, he has to pay it back incrementally, making the reality seem more reasonable.
Just found this website while doing some research in the mayoral candidates. So far I like what I’ve read.
I have a wife that taught in both Huntsville city and Randolph schools. Both have their ups and downs. Huntsville city is “teaching to the test” meaning they teach students what they need to know in order to score highly on standardized tests. Randolph scores highly on standardized tests, which they don’t have to take but do, and they actually pay their teachers less on average than Huntsville City. There’s probably a lot of reasons for that they do well: higher level students, motivated teaching staff, flexibility in teaching methodology, parents who care about how their students perform.
I’m not advocating a lower wage for our teachers – in fact I think they’re underpaid by a long shot – but I don’t have a problem for one minute thinking that the bureaucracy can waste about $5000 to $6000 per student per year. Also, I think our schools could use a good redesign of their curriculum and teaching approach. Learning to take a test isn’t motivating or fun for students, and teachers need to motivate students to learn.