Texas district schools “mimic” charters . . . by spending more money

by David Safier

Some of Houston's district schools are looking to emulate effective strategies of charters, which include longer school days, a longer school calendar and tutors to help struggling students.

Nine Houston elementary schools adopted the "reforms." The pricetag? $19 million for the year. See, you have to pay teachers more if you want them to work longer hours and more days. And tutors? You have to pay them as well.

Houston's main "reform" model is the KIPP charter schools, which are praised as the best charter model for improving student achievement. Serious studies question whether KIPP's success is more a feature of its selective enrollment and high number of students who leave each year than its style of education, but let's forget that for now. Let's just focus on the fact that, nationwide, KIPP spends about $6,000 more per student than neighboring district schools.

Conservatives who praise charters tend to overlook the higher cost per student of the charter schools they praise so lavishly. I wrote a post about the three charters praised in the film, "Waiting for Superman," for doing what district school won't or can't (Again, a questionable assertion). Here are the big three in the film, and what they spend.

1. The Harlem Children's Zone. The school spends about $16,000 per student in the classroom on top of thousands more outside of the classroom. The kids get medical, dental and mental health services. They get special, nutritious cafeteria meals. Parents get food baskets, meals and bus fares. The school is in session 11 months, has longer school days and gives the kids tutoring when they need it. And still, though the students outscore similar students on standardized tests, the increases aren't huge.
2. SEED School of Washington. This is a public boarding school. It spends about $35,000 per student. The kids are taken out of their homes and have 24 hour adult supervision as well as medical and mental health services and a variety of enrichment programs. [I haven't seen a scholarly analysis of student achievement at SEED, so I can't say how well the kids do.]
3. KIPP: As I mentioned earlier, it outspends neighboring schools by about $6,000 per student.

Please, Mr. and Ms. Conservative, show me how charters prove we can raise student achievement by doing education on the cheap, because your favorite examples give the lie to your asertions.