The cost of free education.

[peilthetraveler]

To go to community college, it costs the person on average $5,000 per year(book included)

To go to K-12 it costs on average $10,000 per year.

Why is it twice as expensive to to teach a 5 year old kindergartener how to finger paint than for someone who is taking 5 or 6 classes at the community college?

Everyone seems to think K-12 is "free" but that $120,000 that was paid for each and everyone of your k-12 educations is coming from somewhere and since 99% of us went k-12, that means everyone has to pay for it. I think all the people that keep crying how we need more money for education, if they got a tax bill every year for $10,000, they would quickly find where the wasted money is going and states would not be running at such deficits. A class of 25 kids getting $250k seems a bit much especially when you are paying the teacher only around $40 or $50k per year. Where is that other $200k going? Its going to someone who is getting paid too much to do nothing.

 

[piezoe]

Quote from peilthetraveler:

To go to community college, it costs the person on average $5,000 per year(book included)

To go to K-12 it costs on average $10,000 per year.

Why is it twice as expensive to to teach a 5 year old kindergartener how to finger paint than for someone who is taking 5 or 6 classes at the community college?

Everyone seems to think K-12 is "free" but that $120,000 that was paid for each and everyone of your k-12 educations is coming from somewhere and since 99% of us went k-12, that means everyone has to pay for it. I think all the people that keep crying how we need more money for education, if they got a tax bill every year for $10,000, they would quickly find where the wasted money is going and states would not be running at such deficits. A class of 25 kids getting $250k seems a bit much especially when you are paying the teacher only around $40 or $50k per year. Where is that other $200k going? Its going to someone who is getting paid too much to do nothing.

You're stating the opinion that "...someone is getting paid too much to do nothing," as though it were a fact. The only fact here is that you haven't a clue where the other 200K has gone. Your only justification for your absurd assertion is your own ignorance of actual K-12 budgets.

You've taken numbers with little understanding of where they come from and drawn a ridiculous conclusion. All of the information you would need to be able to make an intelligent and informed post is available at the government's Dept. of Ed. site broken down by State. To assume that 15 hours a week in community college should be the cost equivalent of teaching and supervising children for 30 hours per week does not make much sense. With regard to K-12 education you have conveniently ignored such things as special ed, child nutrition programs, transportation, counseling, books, classroom materials, etc., all of which figure into the total cost of K-12 education that are not parts of community college education cost. You've also ignored any administrative and facility cost differences between K-12 and a community college. You have casually thrown numbers at us as if playing a game of pig knuckles, and than made a silly statement.

You might have noted, but of course you didn't, that over the eighteen year period 1992-2010 K-12 costs per student have roughly doubled from an average of about 5,000 to an average of about 10,000. This is completely explained by real inflation over that same period. In fact, the cost increase has lagged real inflation by a bit.

The cost of a mediocre education is an expensive undertaking. A good education is even more expensive. The cost of a bad education is the highest of all.

 

[peilthetraveler]

Quote from piezoe:



The cost of a mediocre education is an expensive undertaking. A good education is even more expensive. The cost of a bad education is the highest of all.

Very well...perhaps I should've compared it to charter schools. A charter school which provides just as good an education (if not better) costs roughly half the price as a government run school.

Same hours, books, and everything else at half the price (sometimes as little as 1/3rd the price.)

Now explain how a classroom of 25 costs $125,000 less per year, but still gets the same job done.

 

[Clubber Lang]

Quote from peilthetraveler:



Now explain how a classroom of 25 costs $125,000 less per year, but still gets the same job done.

Not paying for the obscene pension costs of the teachers union.

Chris Christie is a national hero!

 

[gwb-trading]

Quote from peilthetraveler:

Very well...perhaps I should've compared it to charter schools. A charter school which provides just as good an education (if not better) costs roughly half the price as a government run school.

Same hours, books, and everything else at half the price (sometimes as little as 1/3rd the price.)

Now explain how a classroom of 25 costs $125,000 less per year, but still gets the same job done.

You do realize how charter schools are budgeted in most states? The state provides a set number of dollars for each student (usually around $6000) that attends the school. Public schools get the same amount of dollars per student from the state. When a student decides to attend a charter school this amount of money is simply moved from the public to the charter school.

The charter school must raise the money for their facilities/electricity/sports/etc. privately. The state money can only be spent on teacher salaries.

The public school systems get money from the local county/town for their transportation/buildings/facilities/electricity/sports/etc. This added money, of course, comes from taxpayers -- and raises the total cost of publicly funded K-12 education to above $9K per student.

This drives an situation where comparing public and charter funding is not realistic. Charter schools are funded with both public and private money. Public schools are all public money. When the total cost of charter education is compared to public schools - taking in account both private & public funding - then the cost per student of public and charter are about equal.

I should also note that most charter schools do not provide transportation, do not serve food (you must bring your lunch), and do not handle special needs students.

 

[mr double]

o, something free is here?

 

[burn8]

There are private high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area that cost the same or less per student as public schools and offer twice the education.

-burn8

 

[Deadwood]

There are many private schools in the Chicago area that charge less than the local schools spend per student. The local schools are beyond horrible. The private schools range from very good to spectacular. Anytime you have a union bureaucracy to feed you're going to pay more for less.

 

[zdreg]

Quote from piezoe:

You're stating the opinion that "...someone is getting paid too much to do nothing," as though it were a fact. The only fact here is that you haven't a clue where the other 200K has gone. Your only justification for your absurd assertion is your own ignorance of actual K-12 budgets.

You've taken numbers with little understanding of where they come from and drawn a ridiculous conclusion. All of the information you would need to be able to make an intelligent and informed post is available at the government's Dept. of Ed. site broken down by State. To assume that 15 hours a week in community college should be the cost equivalent of teaching and supervising children for 30 hours per week does not make much sense. With regard to K-12 education you have conveniently ignored such things as special ed, child nutrition programs, transportation, counseling, books, classroom materials, etc., all of which figure into the total cost of K-12 education that are not parts of community college education cost. You've also ignored any administrative and facility cost differences between K-12 and a community college. You have casually thrown numbers at us as if playing a game of pig knuckles, and than made a silly statement.

You might have noted, but of course you didn't, that over the eighteen year period 1992-2010 K-12 costs per student have roughly doubled from an average of about 5,000 to an average of about 10,000. This is completely explained by real inflation over that same period. In fact, the cost increase has lagged real inflation by a bit.

The cost of a mediocre education is an expensive undertaking. A good education is even more expensive. The cost of a bad education is the highest of all.

gigo

 

[jordanf]

The national average is $10,000 a year? Some places must be really cheap because the district I live in spends $29,865 dollars per student in K-12.

And on top of that it is one of the worst districts in the state, and probably among the worst in the country.