Monday, July 23, 2007

This just in: RICH KIDS DO BETTER IN PUBLIC EDUCATION!

…if Forbes is The Capitalist Tool™ maybe all the socioeconomically deprived children (tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore" – ie: The Usual Suspects) are being tooled?



Taxes:

Best And Worst School Districts For The Buck

California by the Numbers:

Marin children, not surprisingly, fare the best

by Christina Settimi – from Forbes

July 7th, 2007 — More spending doesn’t necessarily buy you better schools. With property taxes rising across the country, we took a look at per-pupil spending in public schools and weighed it against student performance--college entrance exam scores (SAT or ACT, depending on which is more common in the state), exam participation rates and graduation rates.

Winners in this rating system are counties whose schools deliver high performance at low cost. The losers spend a lot of money and have little to show for it.

Marin County, Calif., provides the best bang for the buck. In 2004 Marin spent an average of $9,356 ($6,579 adjusted for the cost of living relative to other metro areas in the U.S.) per pupil, among the lowest education expenditures in the country. But in return Marin delivered results above the national average: 96.8% of its seniors graduated, and 60.4% of them took the SAT college entrance exam and scored a mean 1133 (out of 1600). The others in the top five are Collin, Texas; Hamilton, Ind.; Norfolk, Mass.; and Montgomery, Md.

In Pictures: Best And Worst School Districts For The Buck

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alexandria City, Va., which sits just six miles outside of our nation’s capital, spent $13,730 ($11,404 adjusted) per pupil, but its high schools registered only a 73% graduation rate, with 65.0% of the seniors participating in the SAT for a mean score of 963. According to John Porter, assistant superintendent, Administrative Services and Public Relations for the Alexandria City Public Schools, their graduation rate is reflective of a large number of foreign-born students who may take longer than the traditional four years to graduate. He also noted that their performance measures are rising, along with their expenditures. Per-pupil spending in Alexandria City is now over $18,000. Others on the bottom of the list include Glynn, Ga.; Washington, D.C.; Ulster, N.Y.; and Beaufort, S.C.

Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., Forbes began with a list of the 775 counties in the country with populations greater than 65,000 that had the highest average property taxes. From this list we isolated the 97 counties where more than 50% of per-pupil spending contributions comes from property taxes. (Click Here For Full Rankings)

by Dan Walters – Sacramento Bee/Capitol Alert

Friday, June 22, 2007 — Here's a big surprise: children in Marin County, the state's wealthiest with a median family income well above $100,000, fare the best in terms of poverty, education, health care and other measures of kids' well-being.

Equally predictable: Children in rural counties where median family incomes are around $30,000 fare the worst.

The county-by-county rankings are contained in a new report from Oakland-based Children Now, the latest in a series of studies and reports from the organization which campaigns for improving education, health care and other services to children.

Marin has the state's lowest level of children in low-income families, just 16 percent, while the statewide average is 43 percent and remote Siskiyou County, on the state's northern border, has the highest rate of 65 percent. Siskiyou, not surprisingly, is tied for the state's lowest level of median income at $30,356, according to Children Now calculations.

On every other measure, Marin ranks at or near the top, such as in the percentage of young children enrolled in preschool or nursery school; it's 74 percent while Tulare brings up the rear at 23 percent.

Marin, at 98 percent, plays second fiddle to San Francisco (100 percent) in the proportion of its children with health insurance, but the statewide average is 93 percent, thanks to "Healthy Families" and other government programs that provide health care to children, and even the lowest-ranked county, Shasta, has 83 percent of its children with health insurance of some kind.

Children Now's latest study on children's well-being is available here.


(Forbes story continues:)

Since it costs more to educate a student in New York than Alabama, we adjusted expenditures for each metropolitan area based on Economy.com’s national cost of living average. We then chose to compare spending to the only performance measures that can be used to compare students equally across the country. With a nod toward recognizing the importance of education, performance was weighted twice against cost. Performance and cost numbers are county averages; individual school districts within a county can vary greatly.

Just getting the raw data is no small task; in many counties you have to call dozens of high schools one at a time to find out how many kids drop out, how many take the SATs and how they do on the exams. Since no standard method to calculate a graduation rate is enforced nationally, and the college entrance exam boards will only release data below a state level directly to the schools, not the public, we were left to trust county, district and school officials to honestly and accurately report their results.

During this process it was interesting to hear about the amount of effort and the number of creative ways that schools take to report the best possible results. For instance, high school guidance counselors can encourage poor-performing students to take the ACT exam over the SAT exam, so that their SAT score remains high. Graduation rates can be calculated based on the number of seniors still enrolled in school on the date of graduation, compared with looking at a cohort that began freshman year four years earlier or even looking at the number of seniors enrolled at the beginning of the year. If only as much effort went into improving performance as it did into fixing performance measures.

The caveats to our methodology notwithstanding, our study shows that there are big differences in the quality of education relative to spending among counties and is further proof that money is not the only--or perhaps even the most important--factor when it comes to the quality of education.

...ya think it would make any difference if one added three columns to the chart below?

Average Household Income | % of students on Free and Reduced Lunch | % of English Language Learners

-smf


Rank

County

State

Per Pupil Spending 1

College Entrance
Exam Score2,3

College
Entrance Exam
Participation Rate3

Graduation Rate3

1

Marin

CA

$6,579

1,133

60.40%

96.80%

2

Collin

TX

$7,048

1,103

69.40%

92.20%

3

Hamilton

IN

$8,897

1,075

76.00%

95.00%

4

Norfolk

MA

$8,845

1,090

87.80%

89.20%

5

Montgomery

MD

$8,824

1,101

76.50%

91.40%

6

Fairfield

CT

$8,376

1,051

82.70%

92.00%

7

Howard

MD

$9,488

1,113

72.00%

93.80%

8

Monmouth

NJ

$10,081

1,059

83.30%

98.90%

9

Williamson

TX

$7,163

1,066

72.40%

88.80%

10

Fort Bend

TX

$6,906

1,034

73.10%

90.90%

11

Morris

NJ

$10,642

1,092

85.30%

98.40%

11

Loudoun

VA

$8,223

1,073

78.00%

87.00%

13

Hunterdon

NJ

$11,198

1,104

91.00%

97.50%

14

Somerset

NJ

$10,084

1,112

87.20%

88.30%

15

Denton

TX

$7,039

1,081

62.20%

89.70%

16

Ozaukee

WI

$9,959

24

72.20%

96.80%

17

Johnson

KS

$7,756

23

66.20%

95.50%

17

Santa Clara

CA

$5,500

1,098

49.70%

88.40%

19

Chester

PA

$11,314

1,075

79.60%

95.90%

20

Bergen

NJ

$11,712

1,072

87.50%

99.00%

21

Frederick

MD

$6,686

1,052

55.00%

95.00%

21

San Mateo

CA

$5,916

1,062

46.50%

92.60%

23

Middlesex

MA

$9,485

1,074

82.10%

87.50%

24

Albemarle

VA

$8,497

1,098

74.00%

84.00%

25

Sussex

NJ

$9,932

1,039

73.60%

97.70%

26

Kendall

IL

$7,826

19.8

97.70%

92.70%

27

Lake

IL

$8,985

22

94.60%

94.10%

28

Fairfax

VA

$8,438

1,114

70.50%

84.00%

28

Napa

CA

$6,328

1,055

31.70%

94.60%

30

McHenry

IL

$7,980

21.2

93.90%

92.00%

31

Nassau

NY

$11,711

1,073

86.00%

90.20%

32

Will

IL

$7,520

20

94.10%

91.10%

33

Martin

FL

$6,420

1,055

65.00%

84.90%

34

Middlesex

NJ

$10,143

1,030

75.30%

97.40%

35

Montgomery

PA

$11,758

1,068

74.00%

94.80%

36

Kane

IL

$7,665

20

95.10%

88.80%

37

Carroll

MD

$7,833

1,046

62.00%

93.80%

38

Galveston

TX

$6,756

1,048

68.20%

84.60%

38

Travis

TX

$7,795

1,054

78.20%

81.30%

40

Washington

RI

$10,648

1,062

67.70%

93.30%

41

Geauga

OH

$9,503

22

73.40%

96.50%

41

Montgomery

TX

$6,685

1,051

62.60%

85.90%

43

Waukesha

WI

$10,013

23

67.20%

95.60%

44

Rockland

NY

$13,956

1,071

86.80%

87.40%

45

Bucks

PA

$11,158

1,054

65.80%

94.60%

46

Westchester

NY

$14,352

1,084

81.50%

84.90%

47

McLean

IL

$9,508

21.3

91.20%

92.00%

48

Hanover

VA

$6,979

1,025

67.00%

86.00%

49

Chesterfield

VA

$6,977

1,030

69.00%

84.00%

50

Hartford

CT

$10,347

1,022

76.80%

90.40%

51

Calvert

MD

$7,166

1,050

57.00%

90.00%

52

Comal

TX

$6,938

1,015

65.60%

87.10%

53

Randall

TX

$6,644

1,046

33.70%

89.00%

54

Barnstable

MA

$8,896

1,038

77.20%

83.10%

55

Sarasota

FL

$6,822

1,057

60.90%

81.70%

56

Cumberland

ME

$9,625

1,050

65.60%

88.70%

57

Monroe

FL

$6,072

973

76.80%

76.70%

58

Brazos

TX

$7,968

1,091

54.80%

82.40%

59

Putnam

NY

$12,616

1,050

72.30%

88.40%

60

Newport

RI

$9,725

1,021

65.10%

91.40%

60

Knox

TN

$7,048

22

85.00%

75.80%

62

Brazoria

TX

$6,830

1,033

62.10%

82.40%

63

Dane

WI

$10,576

23.9

63.10%

87.80%

64

Arlington

VA

$11,855

1,085

72.00%

81.00%

65

Delaware

OH

$10,256

22.4

64.20%

95.50%

65

Hays

TX

$7,342

1,017

62.20%

86.60%

67

Indian River

FL

$6,455

1,018

45.00%

85.30%

68

Ocean

NJ

$8,920

999

69.30%

86.90%

69

Tarrant

TX

$6,891

1,018

59.50%

85.20%

69

Palm Beach

FL

$5,995

1,005

58.50%

69.00%

71

Cass

ND

$8,641

22

70.60%

85.00%

71

St. Johns

FL

$7,034

1,043

63.00%

76.80%

73

Collier

FL

$6,126

1,018

49.00%

74.30%

74

Cook

IL

$9,238

18.8

92.80%

83.10%

75

Henrico

VA

$6,990

1,033

57.30%

82.00%

75

Anne Arundel

MD

$8,217

1,056

51.00%

83.00%

77

Lancaster

NE

$9,106

22.6

76% 5

81.20%

77

Monroe

PA

$7,137

954

56.00%

90.00%

78

Suffolk

NY

$10,423

940

82.60%

87.00%

79

Delaware

PA

$10,959

1,003

65.10%

91.40%

80

York

ME

$8,616

999

58.50%

88.50%

81

Charlotte

FL

$6,458

996

44.40%

76.70%

82

Lee

FL

$6,213

965

43.80%

69.40%

82

Minnehaha

SD

$7,139

22.7

61.70%

81.80%

84

Dallas

TX

$6,883

971

55.80%

81.30%

85

Harris

TX

$7,143

981

60.60%

80.10%

86

Kent

RI

$10,012

1,032

57.50%

88.00%

86

Lake

OH

$10,358

21

64.00%

92.90%

88

Jefferson

TX

$7,790

926

66.70%

82.40%

89

Baltimore

MD

$8,599

1,025

55.20%

84.80%

91

Walworth

WI

$10,261

22.2

56.40%

91.30%

92

Davidson

TN

$8,686

19.3

67.00%

61.90%

93

Beaufort

SC

$9,278

971

64.00%

63.80%

94

Ulster

NY

$12,482

1,032

62.10%

83.60%

95

District of Columbia



$10,473

968

79.00%

73.00%

96

Glynn

GA

$9,126

975 4

56.50%

57.00%

97

Alexandria City

VA

$11,404

963

65.00%

73.00%

1Based on Fiscal Year 2004, adjusted for the cost of living in the county's associated Metropolitan Statisical Area
2Mean score of exam more common in the state (SAT score out of 1600, ACT of of 36)
3For the high school class of 2005
4Combines SAT and ACT (converted to SAT scale) results
5State average
Sources: Tax Foundation, Economy.com, counties, school district officials, high school administrators, SchoolMatters

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