Today's stat of the day looks at the per-pupil spending for the Philadelphia school district in relation to surrounding districts.
$10,189: 2005-2006 per-pupil spending for the School District of Philadelphia. This places the district in the LOWEST quintile for all school districts in the five-county Philadelphia.
Surrounding school districts by comparison:
$19,543: Lower Merion
$15,093: Colonial
$15,687: Springfield Township
$14,757: Cheltenham
$13,125: Abington
Remember this when you hear conservatives insist that black inner-city children don't learn because they're lazy brats born to single-parent, welfare-queen, crack-whore mothers who think that being smart is bad because it's acting white. Remember this when you hear the argument that money doesn't matter in public schools. If you can't remember the text above, remember the chart below:
Now, if money doesn't matter, let's see how quickly those other school districts give up theirs.Source: Philadelphia Inquirer School District Report Card
1 comment:
Hello, Lower Merion School District currently spends $27,800 per child. The black population in the district has the highest percentage of students in special education and the lowest number of students achieving proficiency level on the standardized tests. Furthermore, even with this exorbitant amount of money being spent, Lower Merion does not rank first in the state in any of their test scores at any level. Consider, perhaps, that students in many affluent areas would do just as well if much less money was being spent in the public schools simply because of the families that they come from. Also, a school district like Lower Merion is so overloaded with administration, e.g. a principal for each grade at the high schools and at Harriton High School, there are only 200 students per grade level, that the money doesn't go to the students. In fact, a black parent recently asked for more help for her high school son who is lagging behind in high school math. The answer from the assistant superintendent was, "We wish we could help. We only have one math specialist between the two high schools." So, in essence, it all depends HOW the money is being spent.
Thanks.
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