The Conservative Desert spends less money on public school education than any state in the entire country. Yeah, that's right ... dead last. In case you don't know, the Conservative Desert is Arizona. Arizona spends $6,232 per student per year (this amount is for Kindergarten through 12th grade) and the Legislature was forced to maintain that amount this past budget session rather than reduce it even more! The majority of legislators whined loudly about the unnecessary waste of tax money that this expenditure was representing during these tough economic times.
Many of the letters to the editor in one of our local papers complain about both sides of the too much money/too little money issue. A recent opinion letter piqued my interest resulting in my own letter to the editor last week which has not been printed to date. I've decided to submit my letter to you. I've redacted names because they are irrelevant:
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to a letter by ___________ published on October 16th. In his letter, Mr. _______ states, "Public education in America just isn’t working, and more money isn’t the answer." I reviewed several of the Websites that he recommended and found that the articles published on those sites were opinion pieces that appeared to be driven by ideology rather than research based studies. Mr. _______ advised your readers to get educated, so I did some research of my own.
Arizona spends $6,232 per year per student. This amount is for Kindergarten through 12th grade. My review of private school Websites showed that they charge substantially more than that for tuition. Brophy Prep and its sister school, St. Xavier, in Phoenix charge $12,000 and $10, 675 per year in tuition. Lexis Prepatory in Scottsdale charges $17,000 annual tuition, and Rancho Solano charges $9,350 a year for their five, full day pre-Kindergarten program; $9,860 for their 5th through 8th grade tuition; and $15, 450 annually for their high school tuition. St. Gregory’s Prep School in Tucson charges $15,750 tuition annually.
This trend continues into the college level, as well. According to www.collegeboard.com, the average yearly tuition for a private college in the U.S. is $25,143. This figure includes Baylor at $22,722; Stanford at $36,030; Harvard at $33,600; Yale $36,500; Notre Dame at just over $36,000; Vassar at $41,930; and Duke at a whopping $51,000 per year. According to these schools’ Websites, this is the tuition and does not include room and board, books, or any other fees!
The question that this information raises in my mind is this: If additional funding does not provide a better education, why do the wealthy spend so much money on their own children’s schooling?
Sincerely,