Texas School Spending Tops $11000 Per Pupil

Texas Insider Reports Yes you read that subject-line right Texas taxpayers now spend $11084 per year per child on public education. As we close out this school year many taxpayers may wonder what kind of bang they are getting for our educational buck asks Michael Quinn Sullivan President & CEO of Empower Texans.   Ten years ago Texas was spending just $5857. (If per-pupil spending had increased with inflation itd be just $7542 now not $11084.) But less than half of it makes it into the classroom. So where is the money going? Looking at data on the Texas Education Agency website its not going to the classroom.

• Texans now spend more than $11000 per year per student on public education -- with less than half going toward instructional expenses.
• In the 2008-2009 school year -- the last for which data is available -- Texas schools spent $11084 per kid; 10 years ago Texas spent just $5857 per pupil.
• If per pupil spending had risen with inflation the cost after 10 years would have approximately been $7545.  

So where is the money going?  Well its not going to the classroom says Sullivan: 

• If you think of each kid the way school bureaucrats do -- as bags of money -- and consider your average third-grade class capped at 22 students per teacher thats $243848 sitting there.
• But the money isnt going to the teacher; average teacher pay was $47313 in the 2008-2009 school year (up from $34357 a decade ago). 

So wheres the other $200000 derived from our average classroom going asks Sullivan: 

• Of the $11084 spent per pupil on public education in 2009 only $4831 went for anything that could even remotely be considered instructional expenses as defined by the Texas Education Agency.
• Over the last decade student enrollment has risen 15 percent -- from 3.9 million students to 4.6 million students.
• In that same period the number of teachers grew accordingly at 19.3 percent.
• We now have 14.4 students for every teacher (in 1999 it was 15.2 students per teacher). 

But non-teachers?  Thats where the growth is.  We had 22 more in 2009 than in 1999 says Sullivan.  So for all this spending and for all these new non-classroom employees surely theres been some marked improvement in academic performance.  Actually theres been a decline in results says Sullivan: 

• The average Texas SAT score in 1999 was a 992.
• Over 10 years it has fallen to 988.  

So when your superintendent or school board next asks you for more money bigger budgets and growing staff we should demand they show us precisely how it will directly improve the education Texas kids receive. Were clearly not getting our moneys worth.   The place to make these changes is at the local level. Your school district has a lot more power over their spending than they might want you to believe. Its time for us to demand a lot better. Source: Michael Quinn Sullivan Texas School Spending Tops $11k Per Pupil Empower Texans May 19 2010.  For more on Education Issues Click here.