[quote=all][quote=AN]CAR, my numbers were from greatschools.org 3-4 years ago. It was $12-13k back then. So, it seems like there are a lot of budget cut over the last few years. But based on the parents I talked to with kids in public schools, the class size has also risen over the last few years as well. So, although the expenditure went down, our children got the short end of that stick. At a private school, $10k will get you a class size that’s 1/2 of what it is in public school. So, something is not adding up. I actually don’t want spending cut for education, I just want to get more for our tax dollar. Maybe it’s the fact that public school is much more top heavy (as you stated) that’s the reason why we’re spending so much and get so little.
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You can check the numbers for the past 10+ years on the link CAR provided. SD unified maxed out at $10,500 few years ago. Poway unified is 20% lower.
Private schools keep the cost down by turning away high-cost students. When my friend’s kid fell behind the grade level in reading the administrator told my friend to get a tutor or take the kid out. There are far fewer subsidized lunches, special needs or remedial cases in private schools.[/quote]I’m not defending my greatschool.org’s number. I guess they were misreporting, which is why they took it down. But even with the actual number CAR posted, I’m still not satisfied w/ the status quo. We’re paying on par w/ some of the private school (excluding the elite LJCD, Bishops, etc). Those schools have class size that’s 1/2 of what the public school kids have to deal with. Why?
You and CAR like to point out special ed as a reason why the public school cost is so high. Something is not adding up. I don’t have special needs kids, so I don’t know exactly what it takes to educated them, but I do have some questions. What’s the % of students are special needs? How much does it really cost to educate special needs vs regular students? Do you think that if we move the special needs kids to a different spending pool, we can get public school class size to decrease by 1/2?
Lastly, I still stand by my original statement that I’m dissatisfied w/ the choice we have today. CAR and you are fine w/ the status quo, I’m not. But we can agree to disagree. But I like to ask you two who think the public school system is just fine and in many cases are superior than the private schools with more qualified teachers, then why not open it up to competition? If public school is as great as you make it out to be, then there’s nothing to be afraid of, right? People will naturally just stick with the public school, since it’s better.
