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[quote=Anonymous][quote]I tried to find the DCPS budget for you, but DCPS does a better job hiding its actual numbers than many of the private schools. I find this (http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Budget+and+Finance), but couldn't find a clear statement of expenses. The Wiki page for DCPS says its budget is $1.22 billion for 44,000 students (a staggering $28k per student!). But I also see several news articles indicating the DCPS budget is actually just under $2 billion, which if true, means DCPS is spending $45k per student per year.[/quote]

PP again.  I did further research on this point because I got curious.  I initially assumed the DCPS numbers had to be wrong, because they are so high.  But they aren't; this is all related to how budgets are calculated.  It's weirdly complicated.

It seems that what's going on here is that lots of the education costs for county students (like MCPS and FCPS) are covered by state education budgets, so we never see them in the county education budgets.  Unlike MCPS and FCPS, DCPS does not have a corresponding state education budget to help cover costs, so [u]all[/u] education costs are included in the DCPS budget.  See [url=http://www.21csf.org/csf-home/DocUploads/DataShop/DS_86.pdf]here[/url] and [url=http://www.washlaw.org/pdf/DC_Public_School_Funding_Report_Feb2003.pdf]here[/url].  I'm not totally positive, but I suspect these state-level costs are things like construction funds and debt servicing: cost items not directly linked to education, but rather with the underlying infrastructure supporting that education.

MCPS and FCPS budgets focus on spending per pupil (i.e., costs more directly linked to educating students).  If you parse through the DCPS budget, and limit it to categories equivalent to MCPS and FCPS, DCPS spends about the same as MCPS and FCPS on students: $488m total, or $10k per DCPS student, versus $15k per MCPS student, versus $18k per FCPS student.

However, this all leaves unanswered a big question: If the "true total cost" of educating a MCPS or FCPS student is not fully reflected in local MCPS and FCPS budgets, because of the state-level budgets, then [i]what is the actual amount of education dollars being spent per student when those state-level budgets are included?[/i]  Is the "true total cost" of educating a MCPS/FCPS student closer to the $30-40k reflected by the DCPS?!?  That seems nuts, but I can't find a clear answer.  If anyone more informed can help me, I'd appreciate it.

Also, what does all this have to do with private school costs?  Well, if you think about it, private schools don't have any state-level budget help.  So when you see a private school charging $35k per student, that's an all-in cost that includes all the underlying infrastructure which seemingly is included in the DCPS budget, but not in the MCPS or FCPS budgets.  In that light, the $35k/student cost of private school may be pretty similar to what it costs local public schools to operate.

I'm sure I've misunderstood some of the details here, so if someone understands these DCPS budget issues better than I do, I'd appreciate hearing your input.[/quote]

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