School Is Turned Around, but Cost Gives Pause (More in adventures in charter schools)

[groovedaddy]

LOS ANGELES — As recently as 2008, Locke High School here was one of the nation’s worst failing schools, and drew national attention for its hallway beatings, bathroom rapes and rooftop parties held by gangs. For every student who graduated, four others dropped out.

Now, two years after a charter school group took over, gang violence is sharply down, fewer students are dropping out, and test scores have inched upward. Newly planted olive trees in Locke’s central plaza have helped transform the school’s concrete quadrangle into a place where students congregate and do homework.

“It’s changed a lot,” said Leslie Maya, a senior. “Before, kids were ditching school, you’d see constant fights, the lunches were nasty, the garden looked disgusting. Now there’s security, the garden looks prettier, the teachers help us more.”

Locke High represents both the opportunities and challenges of the Obama administration’s $3.5 billion effort, financed largely by the economic stimulus bill, to overhaul thousands of the nation’s failing schools.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/education/25school.html?th&emc=th

[mzteris]

1. is saving lives worth the cost?

That school was in pretty dire straits. It was going to take A LOT! to overcome the problems. What were the choices?

Let it go.

Let it die.

Underfund the measures and the changes wouldn't be very effective, so you may as well save your money for something else.

At what cost saving the lives of the 3200 students who attend and the surrounding community?

[noamnety]

2. I'm not seeing the problem with the cost.

15 million over 4 years for 3200 students

$15,000,000/4 = $3,750,000 per year total for the school.
$3,750,000/3200 = $1,171 per student per year to turn around one of the worst schools in the nation, and give girls a chance to attend school without worrying about being raped if they have to go to the bathroom. I don't even know how you put a price tag on that.

Look at the funding inequities in California alone:

Palo Alto’s base funding (the Revenue Limit) provides it with almost $3000 more per student than Lynwood. Adding funds from Local, State, and Federal sources, the difference grows to almost $4000 per student. http://justschools.gseis.ucla.edu/crisis/funding/index.html

I don't know if those inequities still exist in California. That article is undated, but fairly recent - it reference studies from 2004. The inequities in my state are higher than that.

For a fun comparison: Cost of deploying one U.S. soldier for one year in Iraq - $390,000.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Here's the problem:

But progress is coming at considerable cost: an estimated $15 million over the planned four-year turnaround, largely financed by private foundations. That is more than twice the $6 million in federal turnaround money that the Department of Education has set as a cap for any single school. Skeptics say the Locke experience may be too costly to replicate.

You and I both know no one bats an eye at the cost of deploying troops to Iraq, regardless of how high that gets. But spending money on education is not going to happen. Not this kind of money.