PTA Answers FAQs on K-12 Education Funding,
Jan. 12, 2007
Get ready for the blockbuster debate over funding education as we move into the 2007 legislative session. Because so much is at stake, we urge folks to get smart about some basic concepts in K-12 education funding. To help plain folks – like us PTA-types – know their ed funding as well as their cuts of meat, we have answered a series of FAQs. The first set, listed below, deal with how much the state spends and on what.
1. Do we know the average amount spent educating a student in Washington State ?
Yes. In 2004-05, Washington State spent an average $7,876 per pupil to finance the routine and current expenses of K-12 education.
Some folks might report a different figure, depending on which education dollars are included in the spending figure.
The best practice recommended by school finance experts and used by nearly all private and public education groups is to separately report and analyze outlays for current and capital expenditures.
Current dollars are for the routine costs incurred each year in providing education services to the 1 million students in Washington state’s public schools. Such costs include those for instruction, the maintenance of school buildings and facilities, administration at districts’ central offices and schools, food services, and pupil transportation.
All current education funds come from the state’s General Fund account and include federal, state and local dollars. General Fund expenditures in 2004-05 totaled $7,724,204,969.
2. Are Basic Education programs financed by the state’s General Fund?
Yes. The General Fund pays for all Basic Education and some non-Basic Education programs.
Programs defined as “basic” are entitled to be fully funded by the law. Regular instruction, special education, bilingual education, the learning assistance program which targets students from poverty, some pupil transportation, and education programs for institutionalized students currently fall within the legislature’s definition of basic education.
Non-basic education programs include, for example, those funded by the Student Achievement Fund (I-728), food service, and cost-of-living adjustments for teachers (I-732).
3. Do districts pay for anything else besides Basic Education and other routine education services?
Yes. School districts pay to renovate existing school buildings or build new ones, purchase new buses, and repay debt. In school year 2004-05, school districts spent a total of $2,228 per pupil on these expenses.
Funds for these different purposes each have their own state account. The funds raised by students for extracurricular activities are also kept separately in the Associated Student Body account. None of these funds are included in comparing the cost of educating students across districts or states.
4. Why use 2004-05 spending figures and not school year 2005-06?
School year 2005-06 data in its entirety are not yet available.
The state needs time to collect and complete its quality checks of the data for the most recent school year, which just ended August 30, 2006. The state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has not yet published all 2005-06 data on its website.
5. Isn’t it true that school districts spend too much on administration?
No. Administrative expenses at the central offices for the state’s 296 school districts accounted for just 6.8 percent of General Funds in 2004-05. Administrative costs for principals in the state’s 2,200 schools accounted for another 6 percent.
By state definition, administrative dollars pay for superintendents, assistant superintendents, the managers of district-wide programs, school principals and assistant principals, and all administrative secretaries, clerks and supplies. Amazingly, not much variation exists in the share that administrative costs consume in each of the state’s 296 school districts.
The superintendent and other central office administrators are responsible for ensuring that over a million students are engaged in learning the appropriate curriculum, that students are safe on campuses and in schools that are properly maintained, that buses safely deliver students to school on time, that food services are nutritional and adequate, that schools and districts properly report their performance data to federal and state agencies, that school employees regularly receive their pay and benefits, and that all the utility and insurance bills are paid on time.
With all they are required to do, the consensus of school finance experts across the country is that public school administrative costs are surprisingly lean.
Unfortunately, public opinion surveys usually show that the public has the opposite view.
6. So why do surveys in this state and across the nation indicate that the public thinks there’s too much bloat in administration?
It seems to be a case of, in the absence of better information, assume the worst.
To counter this perception, school finance experts have urged educators to “think differently about how they track and spend the nearly $500 billion that goes toward American precollegiate public education each year.” This advice was reported by Robert Johnson, author of a January 2005 Ed Week article on the pressures school districts face to make every dollar count.
7. How much does the state spend on teaching versus everything else?
Teaching and teaching support accounted for 69.3 percent of the General Funds in school year 2004-05. However, it’s 75.3 percent if school principal costs are included in this category.
Teaching and teaching support includes the staff and learning resources associated with all instruction, extracurriculars, health, guidance, counseling and pupil management and safety. Some argue that school principals should be included in this category (can you imagine running a school without a principal?) and if so, that leaves less than 25 percent for everything else.
The next largest share is for the operation, maintenance and security of school buildings, totaling 9.2 percent.
As described earlier, central office administration accounts for 6.8 percent.
Finally, pupil transportation and food services each account for less than 4 percent.
The very small amount left over is for information services, printing, warehouse and distribution and other such activities.
Source:
Except where noted, all data was obtained from the website for Washington State’s Office of the State Superintendent for Public Instruction,
www.k12.wa.us.
