Posted on 07/18/2005 4:51:17 AM PDT by Tribune7
On June 28, 2005, the Marple Newtown School Board approved a budget for the 2005/2006 school year at $53,035,000. This is an increase of 7.3 percent over the estimated cost of running the schools this year.
Fortunately, because of the significant growth in the tax base, the tax rate and your taxes will be increased by only 4.1 percent.
During the past five years, school enrollment has remained virtually unchanged. In the school year 2000/2001, total enrollment was 3,476, this year total enrollment was 3,482.
In spite of total school enrollment remaining virtually unchanged, the cost of running the schools over this same period has risen more than 27 percent and will rise another 7 percent next year. Since the year 2000, tax millage has risen from 10.88 to 13.61, an increase of over 25 percent
(Excerpt) Read more at zwire.com ...
And the price is going to continue to rise.
MN is in the Philadelphia suburbs and its cost per-pupil is probably higher than average in the state, but not by that much.
School Choice ping
school choice ping
ping
We were literally taxed out of house and home.
It's time for a tea party
On the other hand, if the voucher is qual to $14,000 or $19,000, well, I imagine a private school education could be within reach.
IIRC, the cost per pupil in a Catholic school is about $5,000 for roughly the same quality education as here. Of course, in the city the quality is a vast improvement over the public schools.
Seems some of these districts are now approaching college tuition levels.
With that change your kids could go private, and I think thats just the way it should be.
Dang. That's more than we paid for HS tuition at a well-regarded private school in a north Atlanta suburb.
http://www.wesleyanschool.org/
See my previous post; you are correct, as you suspected.
Now, I will say they had a significant capital campaign during our years there. But they also built the whole thing from scratch since 1996.
That works out to about $7 an hour, 40 hours a week, 51 weeks a year to PAY for this education.
2. The Teacher's Union. Whenever a district tries to at least hold the line on teacher's salaries or benefits, they are faced with a strike at the beginning of the school year. The teacher's know that they will not be replaced and that pressure from parent's work schedules will eventually bring the district to settle. Have you considered making teacher's unions illegal or at least make it illegal for them to strike (like police and firemen unions)?
3. Many of us do not agree to what is being taught in the public schools today (abortion is a birthright, George Washington who?, etc.) and struggle to put our children into private schools. As we are in the middle class, your reforms will make it almost impossible for us to have enough money for this.
4. I am sorry that seniors are being forced out of their housing due to high taxes. Have they voted for candidates for lower taxes? Have they run themselves? Have they promoted any kind of alternatives? Have they done anything except whine and complain that someone else should pay for their share?
5. All the above problems could be easily handled with school choice, but that would take away power from the legislators and unions and give it to the taxpayers.
6. Your proposal to raise taxes does nothing to solve the fundamental problems of school funding in this commonwealth.
It instead shifts the burden to those who can least afford it (working families with children). Regards,
2banana
Is there a breakdown as to how much of the cost goes to administration, insurance, upkeep, etc.?
Most good private schools in Georgia (ATL Metro) range from $8K to $14K per year depending on which grade......
Grades K-8th is typically $8K-$10K and 9-12th grades are $10K-$14K....
NeverGore :^)
The problem with this comparison is that Catholic schools have low-cost labor which has taken a vow of poverty.
The government schools are a disaster, and there should be plenty of comparisons with secular schools which have "normal" labor costs but still beat government schools.
We're in the Great Valley district. Our tax bill went up huge again this year. I think the student spending is close to or above MN.
Even with all that, only 66% of the 8th graders were passing the state mandatory standardized (regents) exams. So what did the school administrators and the teachsers union say to that?! ... That's right ...you guessed it.... "We need more money!!!".
As a Pennsylvania resident, I can sympathize with this. The big problem in this state is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO taxpayer input into the process. The school districts make up their budgets and submit them to the school boards. If the budget exceeds the amount available---BAM!--the school board raises property taxes. It happens like clockwork every year. There is NEVER any discussion about cutting the budget--it's just "give us more--it's for the children".
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