They need to ask the question a different way. Government K-12 schools cost, say $13,000 per pupil per year. With say 20 students per class, ask instead, we pay $260,000 to run one school classroom for one year. And that does not include full funding for retirement.
Would your church be willing to do it for less? Would you? I could make a comfortable living teaching four students at government rates.
Actual numbers: (2008) Government (non-charter) K-12 children: 49,299,000 Government (non-charter) K-12 teachers: 3,180,396 Cost per student (non-charter K-12): $10,889 (does this include federal money?) Cost per classroom per year: $168,789 Government (charter) K-12 children: 1,407,421 Government (charter) K-12 teachers: 88,000 Cost per student (non-charter K-12): $6,585 Cost per classroom per year: $105,317 Direct cost of government schools $520,643,954,000It actually costs much more than that, as the opportunity costs of not educating our children properly may run to a net present value of $2-3 trillion per year in lost future productivity.