Rob, since I devoted quite a bit of my initial posting to rebutting (or at least attempting to) the notion that North Carolina?s state constitution mandates additional funding for our public schools, I?ll let you respond to those arguments before adding to or amplifying them.
As to the general idea that North Carolina school reform will founder without dramatically higher spending on public education, I just don?t think the facts bear out your case. First of all, by pointing out that lawmakers are giving to local schools with one hand and taking back with the other, you seem to be suggesting that the General Assembly hasn?t been generous to school budgets. While there is a little ?up here, down there? dynamic in the proposed 2004-05 state budget for schools, the trend line this year and for a long time points up, up, up.
As I mentioned, North Carolina public schools are spending roughly $6,700 per student on operations, which is up from an inflation-adjusted PPE of $5,320 in 1991-92. These numbers don?t include state and local funds for capital construction, which have also surged. The state reports a rolling five-year average on capital spending (which is reasonable given that it?s lumpier than operating spending), and in the most recent year that would add another $920 per student, taking the total to $7,620 (which still doesn?t include some additional government funding for schools, such as debt service carried on county budgets and the cost of school-board elections, for example).
Yes, ?elite? private schools might well cost more than that per student, but prep schools aren?t where the action is in private education. They comprise a small share of the private-school enrollment, even more so if you add in the burgeoning home-school population. The fact is, most private-school students attend schools that cost much, much less to attend and to operate than $7,620 ? try $2,500 to $5,000, depending on the grade and type of institution ? and nevertheless deliver high-quality results. Only about 24 percent of all private-school students attend schools where the tuition exceeds $5,000. And established charter schools as a whole, the good and the not-so-good, deliver at least similar outcomes to the district-run public schools while spending less money (because they don?t get government funds for capital needs).
Correctly measured, North Carolina public-school teachers already receive compensation significantly above the national average. Correctly measured, the benefits of class-size reduction outside of small groups for at-risk kids in kindergarten don?t come close to matching the exorbitant cost to the state and localities of implementing them.
Bottom line: I?m just not buying the notion that $160,000 to $200,000 per classroom (assuming a range of 21 to 26 pupils) is too little, on average, to provide the opportunity for a sound, basic education. Our policy focus should be on how we deploy the resources and the incentives within which schools operate.
