Per pupil funding among schools

Over on the list, the allegation has been made that the district is spending three times as much on students in some low performing schools as they are spending at others. This seemed hard to believe, so I rolled up my sleeves to check out the claim.

I went back into our archives and dug up a link to the 06-07 budget. Technically, the link was to the 2nd reading of the proposed budget, which was adopted. In that tome I found per-site spending information starting on page 47. I converted that table into a spreadsheet containing the 2006-2007 per school budgets.

The spreadsheet includes a column, not found in the original budget document, showing the per pupil budget for each site. Sorting on this data reveals the schools with the highest and lowest per pupil spending. The top ten are:

School	enrolled	Budget	$/pupil
Willie Brown K-8	142	$1,466,729	$10,329
Davis MS	179	$1,730,319	$9,667
Washington HS	1,192	$8,040,514	$6,745
Malcolm X ES	159	$1,054,292	$6,631
Drew ES	313	$2,022,385	$6,461
Everett MS	448	$2,788,148	$6,224
Sanchez ES	260	$1,560,282	$6,001
Revere ES	389	$2,161,557	$5,557
Muir ES	343	$1,874,434	$5,465
O'Connell HS	803	$4,378,831	$5,453

Followed by the bottom 10 schools:

School	enrolled	Budget	$/pupil
Lilienthal K-8	717	$2,658,033	$3,707
Washington HS	2,192	$8,040,514	$3,668
Marina MS	991	$3,627,943	$3,661
Clarendon ES	559	$2,027,456	$3,627
Roosevelt MS	753	$2,726,542	$3,621
Lincoln HS	2,420	$8,401,065	$3,472
Aptos MS	919	$3,155,805	$3,434
Hoover MS	1,244	$4,211,311	$3,385
Giannini MS	1,262	$4,222,744	$3,346
Presidio MS	1,205	$4,028,326	$3,343
Independence HS	362	$1,150,846	$3,179

Sure enough, when you compare the per pupil budget for Malcolm X to that of Independence HS you find the ratio is greater than 3x. Even if you compare against the lowest funded elementary school — which is a more valid comparison — the ratio is still above 3x.

But that paints a very misleading picture. Malcolm X and Davis MS are two statistical outliers. Their extremely low attendance completely distorts the per pupil figure. They are both schools undergoing active reforms that include an infusion of money at the same time that they have driven down enrollment. If we ignore these two anomalous schools, the ration between the more generously funded schools and the most cash starved is less than 2x. There are still significant funding differences among the schools, but they are no so unconscionable.

The other fact that jumps out at me in data is the fact that middle schools are so poorly funded compared to both elementary and high schools. Jane Kim made improving middle schools a prominent plank for her campaign. Let's see if the new board addresses this funding inequity.

Update:An observant reader found it odd that Wash was among the top ten, did some research, and found that the enrollment number was off by 1,000! Not only does that take it out of the top ten, it hurls it down into the bottom 10. Nice catch!