The cost of free schools

Read this article.
Pay attention to this line:
"In 2005, DCPS spent $118 million to send 2,283 special-ed students to private facilities."

Let's see: 118,000,000 / 2283 = $51,686.38 per student, per year.

According to Steven Greenhut by way of the Washington Post, the school district spends on average "$12,979 per pupil each year."

Actually, you would do well to read the entirety of the Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/09/AR2007060901415.html

That school district has 11,000+ employees, and they teach 55,000 students. That's one employee for every 5 students. When class sizes are approximately 1 teacher to 30+ students, that equates a lot of overhead.

Even the administrators themselves are frustrated by the amount of overhead:

Walking down the hallway recently, Vega stopped and commented: "Hear that
singing? Coming from the gym?" said Vega as a lone voice echoed down the
hallway. "That's my literacy coach." The coach "was given to me" by the central
office, Vega said, adding that the coach does not work with students, and, in
Vega's view, doesn't contribute much to the school. "That person is totally
useless. . . . That $80,000 is something I could have used for my
students."
The coach, Cheryl Mabry, said she has been with the schools for 34
years and has been trained to help teachers work with students who are
struggling to read and write. She said she was sent by the central office to
Powell because, like most D.C. public schools, it did not meet academic
targets.
"As far as what I'm doing, I think I'm making an impact," Mabry
said, but she does not expect to be back next year. "Ms. Vega has other ideas. I
don't think I fit into her plans."

The principal charged with running the school is not allowed to make staffing decisions--which means she has the responsibility of running the school even after being deprived of the most basic authoritative power she should have to do it.

The headline of this article says it all: "Pittsburgh schools drop 'public' from name to boost image"

Charter schools are subject to the same oversight and testing standards that public schools are, and are engaging in the same cheating tactics that public schools are. If government money is involved, you are going to see these same kinds of problems regardless of who administrates the school system.

Part of the problem is the contradictory goals that people have for the school system. Many regard the purpose of public schools to "socialize" the young--which is a euphamism for "make Good Citizens" out of students. For others, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are of paramount importance. For still others, it's important to teach "Intelligent Design," so as to preserve a place for religion in public schools. For still others, the purpose of schools is to provide students with the experience of "diversity." For still others, it's purpose is to provide children with a sense of self-esteem. In the founding day sof public schools in Massachussets, it's purpose was to undermine Catholicism by retraining the children of Irish Catholic immigrants as Protestants. In dictatorships, it is often noted that the first thing the dictator does is sieze control of the newspapers; it is not often observed that the second thing he does is sieze control of the schools.

I will do another post later about why this drive toward indoctrination is inherent in the nature of public schools. This post should give you a bit to think about now.

All the best...