How is that for a title.
Long? It is. And it is as long as long winded legislators are when it comes to talking about all the “free money” that Alaska will lose if we don’t take all of the federal dollars.
First there was Representative Doogan talking about how “Un-Alaskan” it was to not take the “free money”.
He is my Rep. so I will go easy on him. Mike, it is not free money and what is this talk about Un-Alaskan if we don’t take the federal money. You aren’t going a little AIP (Alaska Independence Party) on us are you?
Be careful, you may wind up on the most wanted list of left wing bloggers.
Then there is Rep. Hawker. He’s the one that likes to complain about how high Palin’s budget is, but wanted to increase state spending by adding on other projects that would eat up 32 million on some Whittier project.
He is also the guy that lead the charge on education funding and increased it because some phony legislative audit that was done by a task force said we had to.
Well let’s take figures of the just past Anchorage School Budget. It will now cost the State of Alaska, the property owners of Anchorage and the federal government, 759 million dollars to teach kids in Anchorage and have at least a third of the kids fail when they reach high school.
Now how well is that money being spent? Let’s do a comparison with the FY 2006-2007 budget to the FY 2009-2010.
FY 2006-2007 numbers.
North Star Elementary School.
Enrollment was projected at 381 students. The cost per student was $12,000.00. The cost to operate the school was projected at $2,296,450.00. This was for everything from salaries to TERS and PERS, to the pencils, books and paper. Everything to include the heating, lighting and refuse.The generated income that is earmarked for the school is $4,576,000.00. minus-$2,296,450.00 going to costs to run the school. $2,279,550.00 is not going into the classroom.
Northwood Elementary School
It had a projected enrollment of 335 students. At $12,000.00 per student, the money earmarked for the school is $4,020,000.00.
$4,020,000.00-$1,962,382.00 costs to run the school---------------$2,057,618.00 not going into the classroom.
Willowcrest Elementary School
It had a projected enrollment of 364 students. At $12,000.00 per student, the money earmarked for the school is $4,368,000.00.
$4,368,000.00-$2,068,636.00 costs to run the school---------------$2,299,364.00 not going into the classroom.
Stellar school
It had a projected enrollment of 272 students. At $12,000.00 per student, the money earmarked for the school was $3,264,000.00. $3,264,000.00-$1,546,521.00 costs to run the school---------------$1,717,479.00 not going into the classroom.
Central Middle School of Science
It had a projected enrollment of 646 students. At $12,000.00 per student, the money earmarked for the school was $7,752,000.
$7,752,000.00-$3,902,699.00 costs to run the school-----------------$3,849,301.00 not going into the classroom.
That is less than 49 % of dollars making it into the classroom. However, the ASD stated that 8.77% of the budget is spent on pupil transportation and operations and maintenance. So you have about 49% of the money going to these schools and then 8.77%of the budget covering the costs of transportation and maintenance.
That was a total 57.77% of the school budget going to running the school, transporting the kids and maintaining the schools. Add another 13% for debt reimbursement and 2.3% for food services, then you have 73% of the budget going to the total package to run a school in the ASD.
Now what is FY 2009-2010?
First, the enrollment is projected at 48,548 students at a cost of $15,634.00 averaged per student. So when you look at each school, you take the student enrollment of the individual school and times it by the 15 thousand and you come up with the earmark figure of monies that go to the student.
The question is, how much of the money is budgeted into the classroom, transportation of the student, and to feed the student.
Here are the figures from the Anchorage School District for FY 2009-2010.
North Star Elementary
It has a projected enrollment of 403 students at $15,634.00. The earmark monies for the school based on the student population is $6,316136.00 The cost of salaries, employee benefits, purchased services, supplies, materials and capital outlay is $3,108,198.00
Northwood ABC
It has a projected enrollment of 314 students at $15,634.00. The earmark monies for the school based on the student population is $4,909,076.00. The cost of salaries, employee benefits, purchased services, supplies, materials and capital outlay is $2,708,327.00.
Willowcrest
It has a projected enrollment of 356 students at $15,634.00. The earmark monies for the school based on the student population is $5,565,704.00. The cost of salaries, employee benefits, purchased services, supplies, materials and capital outlay is $2,829,652.00
Stellar
It has a projected enrollment of 292 students at $15,634.00. The earmark monies for the school based on the student population is $4,565,128.00. The cost of salaries, employee benefits, purchased services, supplies, materials and capital outlay is $2,089,831.00
Central Middle School of Science
It has a projected enrollment of 598 students at $15,634.00. The earmark monies for the school based on the student population is $9,349,132.00. The cost of salaries, employee benefits, purchased services, supplies, materials and capital outlay is $4,776,114.00
As you can see, about half of the monies that go to teach a student finds its way into the classroom. And basically, nothing has changed from FY 2006-2007 to FY 2009-2010.
I can go into any school district in the United States and find the same results.
Moreover, special education is the "poster student" of those who want to increase funding and actually use it to destroy Palin.
The fact is, the monies that are designated for the student are put into a general fund and never find it being fully used for the student.
The school district has a figure of 1407 students who need the highest level of services out of 9,500 students who are considered to be special education students.
The figure of 48,458 includes all of the students.
The question today is the same question I had asked two years ago when I ran against Mike Doogan. So where is the rest of the money going?
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