Posted on 07/06/2007 10:52:51 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
More spending doesn’t necessarily buy you better schools. With property taxes rising across the country, we took a look at per-pupil spending in public schools and weighed it against student performance--college entrance exam scores (SAT or ACT, depending on which is more common in the state), exam participation rates and graduation rates.
Winners in this rating system are counties whose schools deliver high performance at low cost. The losers spend a lot of money and have little to show for it.
Marin County, Calif., provides the best bang for the buck. In 2004 Marin spent an average of $9,356 ($6,579 adjusted for the cost of living relative to other metro areas in the U.S.) per pupil, among the lowest education expenditures in the country. But in return Marin delivered results above the national average: 96.8% of its seniors graduated, and 60.4% of them took the SAT college entrance exam and scored a mean 1133 (out of 1600). The others in the top five are Collin, Texas; Hamilton, Ind.; Norfolk, Mass.; and Montgomery, Md.
In Pictures: Best And Worst School Districts For The Buck
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alexandria City, Va., which sits just six miles outside of our nation’s capital, spent $13,730 ($11,404 adjusted) per pupil, but its high schools registered only a 73% graduation rate, with 65.0% of the seniors participating in the SAT for a mean score of 963. According to John Porter, assistant superintendent, Administrative Services and Public Relations for the Alexandria City Public Schools, their graduation rate is reflective of a large number of foreign-born students who may take longer than the traditional four years to graduate. He also noted that their performance measures are rising, along with their expenditures. Per-pupil spending in Alexandria City is now over $18,000. Others on the bottom of the list include Glynn, Ga.; Washington, D.C.; Ulster, N.Y.; and Beaufort, S.C.
Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., Forbes began with a list of the 775 counties in the country with populations greater than 65,000 that had the highest average property taxes. From this list we isolated the 97 counties where more than 50% of per-pupil spending contributions comes from property taxes.
(Click Here For Full Rankings)
I think you pretty much proved your point : )
Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, NY.
Bleh
Generally speaking, the counties with the most highly educated parents do better than those with less highly educated parents. Big surprise!! The question is whether the cause is the parents valuing reading and education, or their genetically better genes.
How do thje schools do in inner cities - uh sorry - I meant “democratic strongholds”?
It’s not about dollars and cents, is it? It’s not about balanced black and white faces, is it? What is it?
Don't know. Washington, D.C. - 79% take SAT, 73% graduate from HS. That's some 6% awful wishful thinking there.
yitbos
$18,000 per pupil??? Even at 20 students per classroom, that’s $360,000 per classroom. You might pay the teacher 60K...where the heck is all that money going??? The Catholic Schools around here run on 1/4th of that.
Really. No way 73% graduate unless they’re talking about the % of seniors that make it. Here in Prince George’s County, nest door to DC, only 60% of freshmen graduate.
It’s a lack of external(parents) reenforcement and some to do with the schools. Public Education will always be mediocre at best and failing at worst. We(I mean conservatives and liberals both) set public schools up for failure due to the mandate that all students pass and be educated. This leads to the catering of the “dumb” kid in the classroom and the leaving behind of the other students. I came to the conclusion during Junior(Middle school) High that if I and other students didn’t learn to self teach then we were doomed. In a capitalist school system there will defiantly be losers as well as winners. We either have to accept the lost of the “dumb” kid, which would create vast numbers of above average students, or we cater to him/her and everybody becomes mediocre.
To many people make the assumption that education can only take place in a regulated classroom. True learning is multi-faceted ever evolving.
“How do thje schools do in inner cities” do..
Number two, Collin Cnty is a suburb of number 84 Dallas cnty. Hee Hee
btt
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