Automatically DOUBLE whatever stats are given on the cost of government K-12 education. Why?
Answer: Government school budget reports would make an Enron accountant blush!
For instance, in my state retired government teachers and government school employees are NOT, NOT, NOT counted as a school expense. They are listed as retired state employees and their retirement and health care benifits are accounted for in the general state budget. That's a biggie right there!
Then there are the school bonds. Our county has just opened a 70 MILLION DOLLAR Taj Mahal of a high school. Not one penny of that is considered a school expense in our school budget reports. Why? Answer: Because it is considered a county bond expense!
Add to that all the services that our schools use in our county that are NEVER reported as a school expense. These include, for example, police security in the schools, traffic control for games, lawn care, and county attorneys, just to name a few.
The government schools are the BIGGEST single employer in our county! This is true for many, many counties in our nation. Even my **dentist** and his 5 employees depend on government school dental insurance as a source of income for his office!
It is pernicious.
They are stacked with teachers themselves, family members of teachers, and people who the union backs.
In my county it is IMPOSSIBLE to get elected to the school board without the teacher's union support. And...To make matters even worse, having won the elected position of school board member is the spring board for every other higher elected position in this state. ( Geeze! And, we wonder why we get RINOs? )