How Much Money Does Your School Get?

This is an interesting follow up column by John Stossel on his 20/20 special "Stupid In America".

The NEA says public schools need more money. That's the refrain heard in politicians' speeches, ballot initiatives and maybe even in your child's own classroom. At a union demonstration, teachers carried signs that said schools will only improve "when the schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

According to the National Education Association, money, money, money is the answer. Plus, the desire to force the Armed Services to pander for money.

The truth is, public schools are rolling in money. If you divide the U.S. Department of Education's figure for total spending on K-12 education by the department's count of K-12 students, it works out to about $10,000 per student.

Think about that! For a class of 25 kids, that's $250,000 per classroom. This doesn't include capital costs. Couldn't you do much better than government schools with $250,000? You could hire several good teachers; I doubt you'd hire many bureaucrats. Government schools, like most monopolies, squander money.

Each kid is allocated about $10,000...so each classroom is allocated about $250,000 per year. Thats a lot of money. Most parents would love to take that 10 grand and go find a school of their choice. But, the NEA is a powerful lobby and is all against vouchers. So the government education monopoly squanders money on such things as "bureaucrats renovated school buildings, adding enormous gyms, an Olympic swimming pool, a robotics lab, TV studios, a zoo, a planetarium, and a wildlife sanctuary"

K-12 education in the US is falling behind faster and faster.