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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Real Savings: Cutting Cybers vs. School Choice

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Post-Gazette have stories on the renewed push to reduce cyber school funding.

Rep. Karen Beyer and other proponents are touting that:

The most astonishing quote is when Rep. Beyer says "Any parochial school will tell you they can more than educate a child for $7,000." While this is true (parochial schools' tuition is in the $2,500-$5,000 range, and their total costs are likely around $4,000-$7,000 per pupil) it says less about cyber schools than it does about the overspending and Edifice Complex of school districts.

Consider that cyber schools educate 20,000 students at about $9,000 per-pupil, compared with school districts with 1,800,000 students @ $12,000 per-pupil. Where is the real taxpayer savings? Representative Beyer should either push for caps on school district spending, or push for more school choice programs - since school choice saves taxpayers.

More on cyber schools and how school choice saves students and taxpayers at SchoolChoiceSaves.org

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cyber schools don't have buildings? Then from where do all the teachers, administrators, and support personnel work? What about business office functions? What about shipping and receiving of equipment, books, and supplies? Where are the mainframes housed?

In other words, cyber schools have buildings. Some cyber schools in PA have enrollments approaching 7,000 students or more. Educating those students takes a lot of teachers and technology, and thus a lot of physical space.

Mrs. Beyer doesnt know much about cyber schools, has never visited one, and yet she is a self-professed expert on how to fund them.

And don't get me started on that parochial school comment...