School District Spending Across the US per pupil

[Király]

I share your surprise. A 15% premium for the 'big city' seems reasonable. Is that enough of a premium. If it is, then the problem isn't funding, but execution.

It doesn't seem like much of a premium to me. 15% more money doesn't buy you much when a large majority is economically disadvantaged and is a helluva lot more than 15% more difficult to educate.

[Wesley Mouch]

It doesn't seem like much of a premium to me. 15% more money doesn't buy you much when a large majority is economically disadvantaged and is a helluva lot more than 15% more difficult to educate.

I don't disagree -- but also remember that once your fixed costs are covered [[buildings, administration, debt service, copier purchase) you incremental costs are minimal. a 15% premium might really mean a 50% increase in effort per disadvantaged student -- since the administrators and the copiers are not economically disadvantaged.

[ABetterDetroit]

I can't say that I disagree.

The only way to get something like that to fly is to effectively make the argument that $1.00 spent today is $10 we won't have to spend on prisons and welfare programs tomorrow.

But that will require these tri-linguals and quad-linguals to show that it's possible, show where it's been done before, and show how it can be scaled.

The good news is that it has done before. And the better news is that even mediocre improvement will make major differences. If your starting point is a broomstick on a floor, it doesn't take much to do better.

But that's only if it's done wisely. And that's where need the conversation to start from.

The national Cristo Rey program is an example of this, and we have one of their newly opened schools in SW Detroit. It's been one success story after another. Boarding school type solutions will also have large benefits, and that's been done before too.

I have friends out on the west side of Michigan. And I tell them "you don't need to support this out of the kindness of your heart". You need to support it because it's going to cost you one way or the other. Unless your plan is to secede from the state, then either support a way to solve this problem, or find ways to fund more prisons and welfare. There is no option to "not pay".

Unfortunately, only very, very, very rarely do I hear the arguments made in those terms. But that's the way this argument gets won.

Brilliant post.

Adding another cost to the list is the lost economic growth from young entrepreneurs that never get the chance to contribute in a positive way. Even an incremental change upward could create thousands of jobs while diversifying the economy and building a stronger tax base.

Obviously some school districts are broken in Michigan but that fact doesn't undermine the logic that quality education is a sound investment. Most people who do not believe that have never had one.