Sign of the Times

There is a Catholic school in the area where I live that has a large sign posted on the lawn in front. The sign proclaims:

"This school saved taxpayers Z thousands of dollars last year." (I'm using Z because I don't remember the exact figure.

Of course, being of curious mind, I wanted to find out how this was done. So I gave the school a call and inquired.

"Well, it costs the county Y dollars a year per student. We have X number of students who would have to attend county schools if it weren't for us, so it would cost the county Z thousands more dollars." I thanked the person for the info, and hung up.

I would never send my child to this school, because the people running it have terrible math skills.

Oh, they had the problem correct. The way they figure it, X times Y equals Z. It certainly works out that way.

The problem is that the equation is wrong.

That's because Y (the cost per pupil expenditure) of the public school system is an expression of an average, not an actual dollar cost. The school doesn't get a set sum of money for each student enrolled. They get an operating budget to pay for everything the school system needs, from books, to light bulbs, to salaries for custodians, to replacing the basketball nets when the thugs tear them off and wear them as a fashion statement.

The cost per pupil expenditure is also not a reflection of how much it costs to educate each child. Some kids cost a lot to educate. Some cost next to nothing. We have a school in our system that educates kids that are profoundly disabled, either physically or mentally. Because of the medical and other needs of these students, they can cost the system up to fifty thousand dollars a year to "educate". And if we have a kid in our county whose needs are beyond what the system can provide, we have to pay for him to go to a school that can provide for him, even if that school is in another state. I wonder if this Catholic school would accept any of these children into their care for the same cost they are charging the other students?

On the other hand, when the school I teach at had a kid transfer in from out of state last week, it didn't cost them any more money just because they had one more student. They didn't have to go out and buy extra books, hire a new teacher, or have a new locker installed just for this student, nor did the kid soak up more of the heat or light, causing the electric bill to jump up.

The kids enrolled in this private school come from all over the county, from all different communities. They have less than one hundred kids enrolled. If you closed their school and sent all the kids back to the public school in their home communities, it would amount to about four or five additional students for each county school, and the monetary impact would be negligible.

In short, the amount of money that this private school is saving the county taxpayers wouldn't buy these less than one hundred kids a pack of pencils.

And I thought it was just the PUBLIC schools that were poor at math?