Swain County School District’s per pupil spending is the lowest in the state. For the 2011-2012 school year, Swain spent $399 per pupil, while the state average was $1486. This alone could be framed as a fantabulous demonstration of efficient operations. But of course it isn’t. The reader is supposed to cry, “Throw money!”
Continuing, the amounts reflect only expenditures of county revenues, and do not include state and federal expenditures, which actually are spent disproportionately highly in Swain, because it is low-wealth and low-pop. Since digging up comparisons for Swain’s supplemental $2.37 million is above my pay grade, this study could mean nothing. Worse, the lack of information on relative academic achievement and citizenship causes this blurb to have relevance only as a complaint about statistical presentation.
