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DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia Beats National Average
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia isn’t last - or even next to last - when it comes to spending money on school kids. Georgia spends on average $7,923 per child per year, a few hundred bucks more than the national average of $7,734.
This comes from a new report available Wednesday from Education Week. EdWeek’s source is the National Center for Education Statistics. The most recent year for which the data is available is 2001-2002. (This is a huge frustration when writing about education. Often, data is a couple years old.) And a key point is noted at the bottom of EdWeek’s chart: “Adjusted for regional cost differences.”
Who spends the most? Drumroll please. The District of Columbia, which ranks dead last in SATs, spends the most at $11,269. How’s that for irony? Among states, it’s New Jersey atop the list, spending $10,235. New York, Vermont, Wyoming (?!?), and Connecticut follow.
Georgia spends the most of any southern state. Most of our neighbors rank below the national average including Alabama ($6,755), Tennessee ($6,530) and Florida ($6,492). Ranking last is Utah, which spends just $5,132 per student.
What to make of these numbers? They’re interesting, but they should not be pondered in a vaccuum. Per-pupil spending is not a reflection of how good a state’s schools are. There are fine schools in states that spend less, such as Florida, Colorado and, yes, even Georgia. And there are some lousy schools in big-spending states like New Jersey and, yes, even Connecticut.
The report - No Small Change: Targeting Money Toward Student Performance - notes that every state has its own school funding formula. (Try understanding Georgia’s, known as QBE. I dare you.) Lawsuits are pending in at least 10 states, including Georgia.
The annual report includes all kinds of information on test scores and is full of buzzwords like “standards” and “accountability.” Georgia gets an average report card: B+ for “standards and accountability,” C for efforts to improve teacher quality, C for school climate and C for equity in resources. For an edugeek like myself, it’s fascinating reading. I’ll be chipping away at it over the next few days and using it as a reference all year.
More info: www.edweek.org. And you know they’re going to make you register…
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