The Rochester City School District spends more than $20,000 per student, more than just about any other district in the country, according to recent US census data. That’s higher than neighboring Buffalo and Syracuse.
Shocking? Breaking news? Hardly.Â
This story comes around about once a year, and the city school district never comes out looking good. The district’s budget is now hovering around $800 million, but its graduation rate has only recently inched back above 50 percent. Though it’s moving in the right direction, the numbers are discouraging. Where does all that money go? And why are the results so, what’s the word? Lousy.
Jenny Sedlis, executive director of StudentsFirstNY, is quoted in the Democrat and Chronicle saying that the data should be a wake-up call, and that money alone cannot solve the state’s education crisis.
Hyperbole aside, the entire state is not in crisis. Most middle-class suburban school districts are doing just fine. Probably the most revealing point in D&C writer Justin Murphy’s story is at the end. He writes that most of the other local districts spend between $15,000 and $18,000 per student, with Victor the lowest at $11,801.
But how much does the RCSD have in common with the Victor school district? Frankly, not a lot.
How many of Victor’s students are chronically absent? How many are homeless? How many refugee students have relocated to Victor recently? How many non-English speaking students does Victor have, and how many different languages are spoken by students in Victor’s schools? How many millions does that district have to spend on busing students due to school choice? How much does Victor spend on special education services?Â
It’s disingenuous for Sedlis to say that money alone is not the answer. Money is never the answer when it’s not needed. But it shouldn’t be surprising that a city with one of the highest childhood poverty rates in the country is also spending more per pupil in its schools.
While many of RCSD’s critics use the data to lobby for more charter schools, it’s ironic that many charter school advocates are now seeking more money from Albany. They’re realizing that their continued success requires more funding.
And it’s worth noting that officials at the University of Rochester weren’t about to rush into a partnership with the city school district to turn around the troubled East High school on the cheap.
Yes, the census data is a wake-up call: poverty is expensive.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2015.
I remember poring over RCSD financials a few years ago, along with Paul Haney and others as part of the “Blue Ribbon Panel”. What we found, and is rarely discussed, is that the per capita dollar figure is the average which includes the special education costs which are significantly higher than the suburban districts. In fact, it is not clear to me that the suburban budgets adequately include costs for their students who are sent to BOCES programs (not typically a city option). The city is required to provide services for all students at all schools, which means that some neighborhood schools need to set up special classrooms for a small number of students – costs that the neighboring suburban school districts may not have. Comparing the per student cost, without complete context, does a disservice to all.
That said, I don’t believe that we can continue to increase school spending while enrollment is declining. Nor should we be eliminating the number of neighborhood schools in some parts of the city (three in the NE section, 1 or NONE in other areas) without looking at the impact on both the students and the community. This is far more complicated than most articles can capture.
Look at the required programs, resources available (BOCES), and enrollment. Higher enrollment of special education students (a topic to be explored on its own) dramatically increases per student costs – take out those costs, and compare the per average student costs and the difference becomes far less dramatic.
With all the spending, why isn’t RCSD focused on the best ideas? What don’t they share the best ideas with all schools in the District on their web pages?
I just found a very inspiring short talk on TED.com:
http://www.ted.com/talks/linda_cliatt_wayman_how_to_fix_a_broken_school_lead_fearlessly_love_hard
What would it cost RCSD to put inspiring talks like this on their web pages? How long would it take for them to do things like this? Why do we have to wait and wait for inspiration?
http://www.SavingSchools.org
The link sent by Harry says it all. It is not about money. It is about leadership and conviction, two things the RCSD has lacked systematically for years. Everyone should watch the speech Mr. Pearle references below.
http://www.ted.com/talks/linda_cliatt_waym…
It ‘s no surprise , when you add up all the adminstrative costs, teacher salaries, special education mandates, operating expenses, attorney’s fees, school board salaries, transportation costs, etc and divide that by the number of students enrolled in the didtrict , that you get such a high cost per student.
I hope people realize that many students do not consistently attend to take advantage of all these services and the costs to educate them, which accounts (in part) for poor graduation rates and a negative image cast upon urban schools.
So when you equate the high cost per student in urban districts with poor results , it’s easy to mistakingly conclude that less money spent per student should reap better results like found in suburban districts, where less is spent per student.
A culture of valuating education needs to be addressed and promoted; however, the arguement will still be, “What” is taught could be viewed as racist by some and therefore not accept able and so the cycle of devaluating education will continue throughout generations.
You are correct that the spending does not tell the whole story, in that it does not address the causes of the high spending. However, neither does your blog. victor does not have one in three ninth graders absent on any given school day. Why does the RCSD tolerate it? That situation impacts effectiveness more than efficiency however. And Victor does not spend its education money on school choice busing. Why does the RCSD? And I think that most of the local towns pay less per teacher in salaries and benefits. Why does the RCSD continue with an untenable situation. You also failed to address one of the most important factors leading to the high level of poverty. In Rochester, 62% live in one parent homes, and that is highly associated with poverty. Why no leadership on actively discouraging teen pregnancies? You can be sure that Victor and any other local town have a much lower rate.
$20,000? Are you kidding me? You all flunk math. First of all, $800,000,000 divided by 30,000 students equals about $26,666 per student. And further, only about 80% even show up. That makes it about $33,333 per student.