Why schools needed $100 billion?

November 8, 5:28 PMSeattle Homeschooling ExaminerLisa Russell

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Correct me if I'm wrong. In the US, schools are funded by property taxes. The recent crash in the real estate market made house values and seubsequently, property taxes, go down.

So the US government gave schools $100 billion.

However, according to a report in Education Week, the way that money is spent isn't really resulting in a better education for children.

Homeschoolers are sometimes shocked to learn that schools are given thousands of dollars per student, in exchange for seat time. If they decide that your child has special needs, they get paid even more.

According ot the report, 14 billion dollars has been spent on teacher salaries, $600 million has been spent on outside purchases (mop heads, dry erase markers, bleach, I'm just guessing here) But the transparency that taxpayers were promised isn't exactly happening, since school districts are leaving some of their form fields blank.

Interestingly, about $50 million was spent sending kids with special needs to other schools. I think it's part of NCLB that if a district isn't meeting the needs of special ed students, they're required to pay their tuition at a private school that can meet their needs.

Unfortunately, the headache of transparency gets even worse, since each state is following different guidelines for reporting, for example, in some states the "teachers' jobs saved" includes higher education, not K-12.

When I see things like this in the news, so much time and attention being paid to such nonsense issues, I'm so glad we homeschool.

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