Today in our discussion, we
mentioned the expenditures per pupil of school districts in Central Ohio. I
decided to research this further to see how some of these schools in the area
stack up against each other. What I found was very surprising and also contrary
to what was said in class. Columbus as a district spends about $15,000 per
pupil (2012 year). This puts them at third in Franklin County behind Upper
Arlington and Grandview Heights. Columbus City schools have the highest total expenditures
for the state and highest amount of enrollment in the state as well. In
comparison, New Albany spends about $11,500 and Dublin spends about $13,000. These
monetary values are found by taking the General Operating Budget of the school
district and dividing it by the total student population of the district. This
link http://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/01/17/see-how-much-each-ohio-school-district-spends-per-student/
shows the expenditures for all districts in Ohio.
These
numbers should prompt us to reconsider exactly how we are thinking about per
pupil expenditures. Is a good way to compare schools only by how much money
they are spending on the students or how well the money is being used to help
students get the most out of their education? I think we should be looking at
exactly how the money is being used to see if there could be ways to better
allocate it to improve the schools. The well-off suburban schools are not
spending as much on their students as our inner-city district is; however,
these schools are getting “better” results with less money. While I know that
the money spent per pupil is only one of many variables in a child’s success, I
feel that these numbers get easily thrown around to try to rank schools. It
might be very interesting to compare where the highest and lowest amounts spent
are in the state based on how “well” the school district is said to be
performing. It is clear that there is not a direct correlation between how much
money is spent per pupil and the outcome of the school district at large.
I have found this blog very interesting. I never really realized that there was such a difference in money per school for each student. I am from a Northwest Ohio and I always found it weird that my school was so technology advanced from all the other schools around us. After doing some research, I found out that my school gets just shy of $12,000. While the rest of the schools around us recieve just under $10,000 per student.
ReplyDeleteI also found these numbers interesting. My school gets $9382 per student. I am actually shocked that Columbus City schools receive so much more but are considered a lower achieving district. You definitely have to consider the other factors contributing to the districts but it doesn't seem like money should be an issue for Columbus.
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