Spend More Money Of Course

For the last 40 years or longer I have been hearing how we must improve our schools, how we must give them more funding so they can give the kids a good education, and we have, gave them more money that is.  In 2008-09, state, federal and local expenditures for K-12 public education totaled $12.2 billion on a student population of 1.4 million.  In spite of this according to the Department of Public Instruction data, only 70 percent of 9th grade students who enrolled as freshmen in 2005-06, graduated four years later in 2008-09.

Cost of a High School Diploma in North Carolina’s 10 Largest local education agencies (LEAs):

Table I High School Diploma: How Much Does it Cost? Ten Largest LEAs in North Carolina
LEA	(A) Total  of Ave. Annual Expenditures Per Pupil, K-12 (1996-97-2008-09) (Inflation Adjusted Dollars)	(B) 4 Yr. Graduation Rate  2008-09	(C) Cost of High School Diploma (A/B) (Inflation-Adjusted Dollars)
Cabarrus	$85,092	72.9	$116,724
Char.-Mecklenburg	$101,586	66.6	$152,531
Cumberland	$89,740	71.3	$125,862
Durham	$124,321	62.9	$197,648
Forsyth	$102,379	70.8	$144,603
Gaston	$86,970	72.3	$120,290
Guilford	$101,585	79.5	$127,779
Johnston	$90,629	75.1	$120,667
Union	$85,123	77.2	$110,262
Wake	$96,277	78.8	$122,178
Median of Ten Largest LEAs	$93,453	72.6	$122,478

This data is from the Education Statistics Access System (ESAS), available on the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction web site.

This average, per student cost figures only reflect normal operating expenses. It does not include the costs of capital expenses, debt services, equipment purchases, transportation costs or the cost of community service programs.  Adding in these costs will raise per pupil spending another 25 percent or so. This with North Carolina ranking  45th in the nation in per-student spending on public schools in 2010, according to a U.S. Census Bureau.  We spend an average of $8,409 per-student in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, according to the report. That compares to national per-student spending of $10,615.

In spite of all this spending 2012’s nationwide high school seniors have the worst SAT reading score since 1972; with a of scored 486 on reading, out of a possible 800. In writing, students also dropped dramatically, down to 488. That’s a nine-point drop since 2006. Reading scores haven’t improved since the ‘60s.   So what do you reckon they are going to do to fix it?  What else but ask for more money?

70 percent graduation rate, what about the 30 percent that do not make it?  Flip buggers?  Welfare?  Crime?  Live with Mom and Dad for the rest of their lives?  Whatever it is I know that you doubt that most not fare as well as those who completes high school.  Being a high school dropout is not the end of the world; I was a high school dropout who after failing the 10th grade quit and went into the Marines, that rout is out now that the Marines require a high school diploma to enlist.  Sometime after getting discharged I got a GED, used that and the G.I. Bill to go to college and how hold a Master Degree and two undergraduate Bachelors of Science.  So no being a high school dropout is not a dead end, and many kids who do drop out will, like I, find a path to success.

It is the poor quality of skills that they are letting the graduates leave school with that concerns me, so bad that colleges are more and more requiring remedial courses in reading, writing, and math before the student is allowed to continue their education.  So what are we going to do about it?