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Back To School Time

Anne Wujcik —Friday, September 05, 2008

Well, no matter where you live in the U.S., school is now back in session. Even here in Chicago, which holds tight to its after-Labor Day opening tradition, children have settled into their new classrooms. The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that 56 million PK-12 students entered school this fall, breaking the record of 51.6 million students recorded at the peak of the baby boom era in 1969. Enrollments are expected to remain at record levels through at least 2015.

The Department of Education projects that current expenditures for public elementary and secondary schools will be about $519 billion for the 2008-09 school year. The national average current expenditure per student is around $10,418, up from $9,154 in 2005-06. While per pupil spending continues to increase, I’m one of those who believe there’s a limit to how far the expansion can go. In several of the high spending states, per pupil expenditures in the K-12 system are approaching the cost of a year of college. New York is spending more than $15,000 per K-12 pupil; tuition at Columbia University averages around $18, 500 a year. Looking at per-pupil spending raises another interesting question. There are huge differences in what states append. In 2006 New York ($14,884) spent the most among states or state equivalents, followed by New Jersey ($14,630) and the District of Columbia ($13,446). Utah ($5,437) spent the least per student, followed by Idaho ($6,440) and Arizona ($6,472). Some of the difference is accounted for by the presence of higher percentages of students who cost more to educate – English language learners, children living in poverty, special education students. But spending alone is not a sure indicator of quality education. Roughly the same percentage of 8^th grade students in NY, NJ, UT and ID scored at the Basic and Proficient levels on the 2007 NAEP reading assessment, the best cross-state measure we have.

The other frustration here is that I set out to compare these states on AYP measures, but the reporting is so varied and the state tests differ so dramatically that it would take someone a lot smarter than me to do a good job of that kind of comparison. I continue to think that with all the effort and money going into NCLB accountability we should be getting more than we are from the system. I don’t want less accountability, I want more intelligent accountability.

A few final back-to-school facts.

- 10.9 million children ages 5 to 17 speak a language other than English at home; 7.8 million of these children speak Spanish at home. I don’t have the source at my fingertips right now, but I recently read that today one-out-of-nine students is an English language learner. Within 20 years that number is projected to be one-in-four. I think the one-in-four could come sooner and it will represent even greater language diversity than we have today.

- 1.1 million students who are home schooled, 2 percent of all school-age students ages 5 to 17.

- Workers 18 and older with advanced degrees earned an average of $83, 320 in 2006. This compares with $20,873 for those without a high school diploma. In addition, those with a bachelor’s degree earned an average of $56,788 in 2006, while those with a high school diploma earned $31,071.