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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are reports today that the DC school system spends about $18,500 per stundent in direct costs.  A report last year estimated that the total cost (including capital outlays) was over $30K.

Thus, the direct cost to DC ($18,500) is about the same as tuition at Gonzaga and the total cost is approaching that of STA and Sidwell.

Does any think that the DC public schools provide that same value as private schools?  The difference I believe is that the purpose of private schools remains providing the best education possible.  The purpose of the public schools, on the other hand, has become to provide profitable employment and extraordinary benefits for the unionized public school teachers.  The retirement and other benefits of private school teachers doesn't come close to matching the public schools.

Let's pray that charter schools can help those poor kids trapped in the DCPS.[/quote]

I spent some time a few months ago trying to sort through all those numbers and develop a better understanding of them.  It's difficult to draw a one-to-one comparison between private school tuition costs and the public school costs, because a lot of the public school costs are linked to state and federal funding programs.  It does seem though that the total cost of public school per student (as distinct from what they spend per student) is much higher than most people realize.  On the one hand, public schools have massive infrastructure, they're required to provide education for all students, they're not nimble, and the retirement plans and non-compensation benefits they are required to give employees are hugely expensive.  On the other hand, they have big economies of scale, and so can often do more with less.

In the end, I could not draw many clear conclusions as far as comparing the two.  It does seem that charter schools may provide an escape route for local public school districts to reduce their excess employee costs, which is probably hated by employee unions, but may be a necessary step to control education spending.

The issues are very complex.  I can see why people spend so much time fighting over the details.

Sam2[/quote]

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