kitchen table math, the sequel: $27,722.32 per pupil spending

Monday, June 1, 2009

$27,722.32 per pupil spending

Irvington Union Free School District

2008 - 2009
enrollment: 1888
budget: $50,583,424
per pupil: $26,792

2009-2010
projected enrollment: 1840
budget: $51,009,065
per pupil: $27,722.32


Over the weekend I talked to a friend I hadn't seen in a while.

She and her husband spend each school night getting their child through homework the child is not able to do alone. Then, each morning, they give their child a math quiz. Dad has a Ph.D. in a math-related field so he knows what math is and what kids must do to learn it.

Irvington teachers don't give math quizzes. Nor do they, as a rule, collect and correct homework. Providing distributed practice isn't their job.

I would like to know how high our per pupil spending would be if you included the tutoring fees and the lost salary of parents who are teaching instead of working.

5 comments:

Luke Holzmann said...

Crazy.

And for that, we could buy even the most expensive homeschool options and pay my wife a great salary to stay home with the kids [smile].

~Luke

Catherine Johnson said...

absolutely

This is madness -- particularly in that under the current superintendent the place has taken on the tone & practices of a big-city highly centralized urban school district.

I went to the Main Street School the other day to see the psychologist, who had asked me to come in.

When I went inside the office, which used to be a warm and friendly place, the administrative assistant said, without looking up from her work, "Wait in the lobby, please."

So I had to go back out into the hallway in front of the gym and wait there.

My feeling: next time you want to see me, you get in your car and drive to my house.

(The psychologist is great, btw -- he's not the problem. The administration is the problem.)

Catherine Johnson said...

Care to guess how many voters we have?

GoogleMaster said...

I'm glad we're not spending $27K/student. That would be triple what we're spending now, which means my property taxes would be 6% annually instead of 3% (only 1.5% is for the school district).

Sometimes I think Catherine lives in an alternate universe that's even crazier than the one the rest of us live in.

Catherine Johnson said...

Sometimes I think Catherine lives in an alternate universe that's even crazier than the one the rest of us live in.well, that's my question - am I living in an alternate universe???

I can't tell.

(seriously)