[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: The 67 Percent Solution

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
The 67 Percent Solution
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1225080121.shtml


   You may remember some legislative proposals to require that at least,
   say, 65 percent of K-12 spending go "directly" to the "classroom" -
   whatever that means. As I recall, these never got beyond the
   guidelines stage, probably because everyone realized how difficult
   this would be to calculate, let alone enforce.
   Take for example the Robbinsdale School District's claim that 67 cents
   of every tax dollar goes for instruction, specifically "teachers
   teaching our children and the books and other supplies needed to
   educate our students." This is from a recent mailing from the
   District. Is this really true? Let's try to find out.
   First, let's look at the tax dollar. Per the chart on page 37 of the
   2008-2009 budget which supplies most of the figures below, 90 percent
   of the revenue comes from state, property, and federal taxes, in that
   order. You could argue that the other 10 percent is largely for meals
   and non-academics like sports, but I'll use the worst case value of 90
   percent below.
   Now, how much are we spending? The total budget is $ 187 million, from
   which I'll subtract meals and Community Education (including ECFE) to
   get a net $ 173 million a year. Applying the 90 percent figure above
   says that $ 155 million tax dollars are being spent this year. The
   flyer says that 67 percent of that is for instruction, which is $ 104
   million. Dividing that by the enrollment of approximately 12,300 gives
   us $ 8,462 from taxes per student.
   Going back to the flyer, the lowest class size shown in 25.4, for
   fifth grade if both Referendum questions pass. That works out to about
   $ 215 thousand dollars per class. One teacher with benefits costs
   about $67,000, but since the average teacher only teaches during 4 of
   the 6 hours, I'll flex that up to an even $100,000. Subtracting
   another $ 5,000 for books and supplies leaves another $ 110,000 in
   taxes allegedly being spent on "instruction." Where, pray tell?
   Now I'm sure the District can show us how they came up with the 67
   cents of every tax dollar figure but given the language they attached
   in the flyer, it has to be rather contrived. I requote the flyer's
   definition of Instruction: "Teachers teaching our children and the
   books and other supplies needed to educate our students."
   The flyer does cite the preliminary District Audit Report as its
   source. I read the previous year's Audit Report and Management Letter
   which shows Instruction as 56.6 percent of 2006-2007 expenditures,
   55.6 percent for 2005-2006. I therefore infer that the 2007-2008
   percent is almost certainly under 60 percent. Their definition of
   Instruction appears more broad, possibly including some Community
   Education I believe, yet their percentage is significantly less than
   claimed on the flyer. Why, pray tell?
   I offer this to again say that District communications need
   significant improvement, as the Strategic Planning process has
   identified as Priority 4.