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What would you do with a school budget of "10,591 per student?


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If you had about 5-6 children, or students who wanted to school together, you could hire your own teacher for a small group. Or several small groups could hire teachers with specialities in different areas and switch off for different class periods.... Teachers would, in many cases, be making more money than they do now and would have fewer students so presumably be less stressed. I think students would certainly benefit....

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If I had to pay for multiple facilities, liability insurance, textbooks, classroom supplies, teacher salaries and benefits, administrative costs, printing costs, technology costs, school nurse, social worker, ESL instruction, and bussing then I could see how $10,000 per student would be rather easy to spend.

 

It is comparing apples and oranges IMO.

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If I had to pay for multiple facilities, liability insurance, textbooks, classroom supplies, teacher salaries and benefits, administrative costs, printing costs, technology costs, school nurse, social worker, ESL instruction, and bussing then I could see how $10,000 per student would be rather easy to spend.

 

It is comparing apples and oranges IMO.

 

:iagree:

 

BUT, if I did have a budget of $31,773/year, then I would hire tutors for a couple of subjects and do more traveling.

Edited by Mrs Mungo
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$10,000.00 Hmm....

 

Definitely a travel experience. Maybe dh would agree to a month in India with work paying all of his expenses because they would put him up in a two bedroom apartment owned by the company. We could camp out in a two bedroom no problem. Having somewhere to homeschool in the mornings and cook so we don't eat out all the time...if we might be able to squeak it out!

 

OR - We'd complete the balcony upstairs and move all of the science equipment to a permanent abode so that the mad scientists in the house could go UP THERE and SHUT THE DOOR instead of destroying my downstairs with experiments and projects covering every flat surface.

 

Faith

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If I had to pay for multiple facilities, liability insurance, textbooks, classroom supplies, teacher salaries and benefits, administrative costs, printing costs, technology costs, school nurse, social worker, ESL instruction, and bussing then I could see how $10,000 per student would be rather easy to spend.

 

It is comparing apples and oranges IMO.

 

ICAM. Don't forget to add in the extreme costs of providing services to medically fragile, developmentally disabled, autistic, deaf, and mentally and physically handicapped students that you are required by law to accept. I'm sure that kicks up the average spending quite a bit.

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ICAM. Don't forget to add in the extreme costs of providing services to medically fragile, developmentally disabled, autistic, deaf, and mentally and physically handicapped students that you are required by law to accept. I'm sure that kicks up the average spending quite a bit.

 

Those G&T programs cost money as well.

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ICAM. Don't forget to add in the extreme costs of providing services to medically fragile, developmentally disabled, autistic, deaf, and mentally and physically handicapped students that you are required by law to accept. I'm sure that kicks up the average spending quite a bit.

 

 

Yes it does. I know that if I had my two special needs boys at home that $10,000 would be gone pretty quick as I would have to pay for OT, a speech therapist and social skills groups.

 

But if I didn't have all that to pay for I would certainly travel. Experiencing the world is the way to learn.

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While I know the amount they get per student seems high I know it goes to lots of other things (out here more $$ is given to the school for every special needs coded student, but they still only give minor help to those students. even students like my son that are supposed to have a teacher's aide, they won't hire one, or if they do it is 1 aide for 5 kids as is teh case in the school ds8 was supposed to attend this year). And bussing the parents pay for. At $200 per semester per kid they have enough coming in from the parents to cover that, the school system doesn't need to. So theoretically that money is going to alot of things, administration wise, but I do not see it being spent on G&T programs (have to go to special schools for that, not available in regular ps), or special needs programs (if you want actual therapies you go to a special needs program at select schools, regular schools you are lucky to have them obey the IPP, other services are virtually non-existant) and the school gets even more funding per year for thos special needs kids.

 

 

As to the question at hand, For us that would be over $30K this year, $40k next year. We would travel as a huge portion of it, buy all the cool supplemental things I want for them, buy a pottery wheel and kiln, or other specialty art supplies, IF it was being used to cover facilities, pay off this house in 2 years, then sell it and buy something slightly bigger in the next town over that I love. $30K is 3 years salary for me, so to have that to spend in 1 year for their educations would make me feel extremely wealthy.

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my husband works on the construction end of school stuff, as far as I understand, the buildings are not part of that $10,000 per student amount- it's a totally different account and often includes special matching grants from the State and Fed governments. Some years, in our district, the school has borrowed money from the construction funds (this includes the janitor& maintain funds) to lend to the general school funds.

 

So no, the the $10,000 per student would not go for buildings. Oh what we could do with that much! Oh, what private schools could do with that much. There is so much waste at the ps, it makes me truly ill sometimes.

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The ps services are sometimes not of the same quality or duration as private.

 

Yes it does. I know that if I had my two special needs boys at home that $10,000 would be gone pretty quick as I would have to pay for OT, a speech therapist and social skills groups.

But if I didn't have all that to pay for I would certainly travel. Experiencing the world is the way to learn.

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their child. We could provide a greater allowance for kids with special needs and let parents choose their local ps, a charter, a private, an online option, or homeschool. Of course, if you agree to accept funding as a homeschooler, you'd need to satisfy some testing requirement.

 

Currently, charter schools here in NJ do a better job of educating at risk students with less money. They only receive 2/3 the funding as their local ps. Private schools also do a better job.

 

We need to bust up the cartel that runs public education in America and offer families real choices.

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If I had to pay for multiple facilities, liability insurance, textbooks, classroom supplies, teacher salaries and benefits, administrative costs, printing costs, technology costs, school nurse, social worker, ESL instruction, and bussing then I could see how $10,000 per student would be rather easy to spend.

 

It is comparing apples and oranges IMO.

:iagree:

 

If I had 10k per student to pay myself a salary, save for retirement, pay my health insurance, cover the mortgage for my home, the supplies and expenses of running a school, I would need more than my two kids in my "class". If one of my students had special needs and required professional therapy, it would not even begin to cover that.

 

Typically homeschooling mothers are subsidized by their husbands salaries.. I would NOT expect public school teachers to work for free and be supported by a spouse.

The comparison is ridiculous.

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ICAM. Don't forget to add in the extreme costs of providing services to medically fragile, developmentally disabled, autistic, deaf, and mentally and physically handicapped students that you are required by law to accept. I'm sure that kicks up the average spending quite a bit.

 

Yes. Fully 50% of my town's education budget goes to students marked "special needs." This includes ESL, aides, tutors, therapists, and even private tuition to schools that are designed for the most high-needs students.

 

Agree that it's an apples to oranges thing.

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my husband works on the construction end of school stuff, as far as I understand, the buildings are not part of that $10,000 per student amount- it's a totally different account and often includes special matching grants from the State and Fed governments. Some years, in our district, the school has borrowed money from the construction funds (this includes the janitor& maintain funds) to lend to the general school funds.

 

So no, the the $10,000 per student would not go for buildings. Oh what we could do with that much! Oh, what private schools could do with that much. There is so much waste at the ps, it makes me truly ill sometimes.

 

New buildings are funded by state and federal grants and overrides. But maintenance, heating, electricity, water, light bulbs, and everything required to keep the school standing and looking decent is part of that $10k a year.

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I would say that IS how much I spend, if not more.... to have the privilege of being home with my children...

 

If I had been working as a band teacher all this time, I would make much more than $30,000 per year (I have three kids), and have benefits and a pension as well. In my mind I am "spending" much more than the school would on educating my three children.

 

Backwards logic? I dunno. But in a "cost of homeschooling" discussion, I don't want to forget about the value of my prime working years which we are foregoing.

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If you consider what you pay for the home, books, insurance, etc. You discover that you are paying that 10,000 too.

 

Multiply that 10k per student by how many students are in a building. Average the cost of a teacher per 18 students (we are giving a large margin of error in their favor).

 

I found it shocking still. Perhaps the considerable cuts in their budget require administrative cuts versus teachers and supplies. I will be the first to tell you that IT is an intial cost and a cost over time, but not a significant bite of the budget.

 

I would have a large tangible and digital library with iPads and laptops. I would higher tutors for foreign language and build a room just for school.

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I would say that IS how much I spend, if not more.... to have the privilege of being home with my children...

 

If I had been working as a band teacher all this time, I would make much more than $30,000 per year (I have three kids), and have benefits and a pension as well. In my mind I am "spending" much more than the school would on educating my three children.

 

Backwards logic? I dunno. But in a "cost of homeschooling" discussion, I don't want to forget about the value of my prime working years which we are foregoing.

 

 

See and for me homeschooling is actually doing more for my finances than working was. Even working fulltime in my field puts me at only $24000ish per year, once you subtract daycare and school fees, lunches, travel to and from school/work, etc I end up way worse off than I do staying home. So for me I don't see it the same way you do.

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If you had about 5-6 children, or students who wanted to school together, you could hire your own teacher for a small group. Or several small groups could hire teachers with specialities in different areas and switch off for different class periods.... Teachers would, in many cases, be making more money than they do now and would have fewer students so presumably be less stressed. I think students would certainly benefit....

 

This is a really interesting idea. :)

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:iagree:It's apples to oranges. Still, if we could deduct what goes towards the building/bussing and disperse the rest in a voucher-type system....

 

 

I'd hire a housekeeper so I can devote more time to teaching and book shopping.

 

We'd need new bookshelves for all of the books we'd buy.

 

Each of my dc would do 1 sport and 1 artistic activity (instrument/drawing/dance/drama lessons) each year.

 

 

We'd purchase yearly passes to all of the zoo/museums in this area.

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Yes... it's true... when my kids were small I would have had to pay for daycare, but after they started in school, the daycare costs would have been much less. And my earning power over time has not increased as it would have if I had continued working. Now, if I wanted to get recertified and try for a teaching position, I would be starting at the bottom of the proverbial heap... back to tier 1.

 

Would I go back and do it again? Absolutely! But when we first chose homeschooling, I didn't carefully consider the long term effects it would have on my earning power. I was strictly thinking about the present --- my daycare costs/school related expenditures/work clothes/commute vs. my salary at that time.

 

I think about the implications to my husband's career had he been the one to stay home for a few years --- he would have gotten off the tech track and I wonder if he would have been able to get back on.

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And bussing the parents pay for. At $200 per semester per kid they have enough coming in from the parents to cover that, the school system doesn't need to.

 

Not here. Parents do not pay for busing in any of the places I've lived in the U.S. Is it normal to pay in Canada?

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Not here. Parents do not pay for busing in any of the places I've lived in the U.S. Is it normal to pay in Canada?

 

Not that I know of.

 

I live in Ontario. My SIL has a younger brother. He was sent to a school that was not on a local bus route. (I think it was a special school for some reason?). Since he was the only one in that area that needed to go to that school, the school paid for a taxi to take him to and from school everyday.

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If I had to pay for multiple facilities, liability insurance, textbooks, classroom supplies, teacher salaries and benefits, administrative costs, printing costs, technology costs, school nurse, social worker, ESL instruction, and bussing then I could see how $10,000 per student would be rather easy to spend.

 

It is comparing apples and oranges IMO.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

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Well, I would make sure my kids were on the free/included breakfast and lunch program first! :D

 

Then I would hire someone to tutor them.

 

I could easily spend $1000 each on curriculum, which I have always wanted to do.

 

Travel and extended field trips would certainly be on the list....heck, I could afford to get that travel trailer I have always wanted.

 

Dawn

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