A recent article by an educator referenced a letter to the editor where the parent shared what a "bargain" her child's education was, at the GROSSLY understated rate of $1.97 a day (referring to the district's taxation rate). I decided to evaluate the "value" of public education, and found it somewhat lacking.

Finding the per student expenditure for any state is difficult...the only sources I found were downloadable files, and since I am at a library computer, I am unable to download. So I will base my numbers on the per student expenditures in the state of Wisconsin as of 2003, as it is a neighboring state and the numbers are probably similar.

In 2003, Wisconsin spent about $7,800 per student. That's NOT counting the cost of buildings and maintenance, which were funded from separate budgets. So, for the sake of argument, we'll use $7,000 as a base figure.

Curriculum, which most would figure to be a substantial portion of that money, actually should only comprise a small percentage of it. As a veteran homeschooler, I can attest to the fact that the cost for a year's worth of quality curriculum varies from $200-1200. Since public schools can reuse the majority of these materials (let's assign them a 3 year lifespan before they're retired), then the curriculum costs should come to no more than $500 per student, per year. And that's for QUALITY curriculum, mind you. That leaves a budget of $6500 for other materials, teacher and administrator salaries...PER student. While higher level administrators make greater salaries, the actual cost per student should DECREASE rather than increase, as they serve a greater number of students. If we figure on $5000 per student allocated for salaries, that is $100,000 per year for a class of 20, and leaves $1500 for desks, supplies, and all of the other various expenses that a school will necessarily incur.

I know of many homeschoolers whose ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD INCOME does not reach the $7000 per student threshhold ($28,000 for a family of four). And yet, they manage to outperform their public school peers consistently. In addition, one can find several private school options that cost less than $7000 per year, especially when multiple children are considered. While I don't advocate for vouchers, I am STRONGLY suspicious of school systems that are spending FAR MORE than necessary for the education of their students, and producing FAR LESS than acceptable results.