Kent Schumacher <kent at structural-wood.com> writes: > I agree with you in every particular, even to the point that my > numbers were inflated (although not in the way I expected). > > Class sizes are significantly lower than 24, and cost per student > is significantly higher than $11,000. From the Mpls web site: > > http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/about/facts.shtml > > # of teachers : 4,658 > Mpls school budget : $662,683,442 > # of students : 48,991 > > Some derived numbers... > > 'Revenue' per teacher: $142,268 > Cost per student : $13,527 > > Again, if you assume a teacher costs $72,000 / year (which > is the equivalent of a full time worker making $80,000/year), > that leaves $70,000 overhead per teacher. That seems a little > high but not extremely so. It does, when compared to industry. The overhead is different in running public schools. The money you're looking at includes the cost of the football team, and the school nurse, and guidance counselors, and probably the cost of the lunch program. It also covers the cost of special-needs students. It seems entirely reasonable that the overhead (not all of that is really "overhead", but it's money not going to the teachers) would be *a lot* higher than in a software company, say. Another thing on another aspect of the issue that nobody mentioned; how many credit-hours of continuing education a year do the teachers need to retain their certification? What does that cost them, and how many classroom hours and home-work hours do they have to spend doing it? I don't think it eats the whole summer, but I'll bet it cuts into it. -- David Dyer-Bennet / Welcome to the future! / dd-b at dd-b.net SF: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ Minicon: http://www.mnstf.org/minicon/ Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/