School budget raises some questions
Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006
Arnold Kling, Silver Spring
The Dec. 13 article on the school budget contained some very interesting facts, which in turn raise some questions.
For example, if you divide school enrollment of 137,798 by number of employees, 21,840, you get a ratio of one employee for every 6.3 students. My daughters have been in classes that are four or five times that big. Apparently, the vast majority of school system employees do not teach in a classroom.
The story said that 89 percent of the $1.98 billion budget goes to employee compensation. Dividing this by the number of employees gives average compensation of $80,686 per employee. If the non-teaching staff are bus drivers, cafeteria workers and janitors, then they are very well paid!
If the county should ever elect an official who represents taxpayers and parents rather than being teachers union-approved, that official might want to ask questions about this. Start by asking what all of the non-teaching staff are being paid to do, and whether it is really worth as much as the work of classroom teachers.
gazette.net
Fewer Kids, More Money
One in a series of posts looking at the proposed county budget, released this week by County Executive Isiah Leggett.
From the anguished cries of the Montgomery County Education Association (the teachers’ union), you would think that the county executive’s proposed budget for the school system envisions 60-child classrooms and eliminating mathematics from the curriculum. “It’s devastating,” complains MCEA president Bonnie Cullison.
You’d at least think the budget was actually being cut from last year. However, Leggett proposes a 6.3% increase over the current budget. Leggett’s budget is also 3% higher than the Spending Affordability Guidelines approved by the County Council 4 months ago. The per-student cost is the highest ever, 7% greater than last year. And the county projects an additional 170 personnel work-years over the current year. And, to top it all off, that increased spending budget is to serve fewer students than the current population.
Here’s a look at the relevant figures.
FY 07 FY 08 proposed Change
Pupils 137,798 137,007 - 6%
Budget $1.852 B $1.969 B + 6.3%
Per-pupil spending $13,436 $14,370 + 7%
Personnel workyears 19,406 19,576 + 0.9%
Somebody get Bonnie a tissue.
leviathanmontgomery.wordpress.com
both links found at
econlog.econlib.org |
