You can find various statistics on the average per pupil expenditure for public school students. A figure I came across for the 2004/5 school year was $11,470 (source)

Andrew J. Coulson of the Cato Institute argues that the actual expenditure per pupil in DC area public schools is about $24,600, comparable to the most elite private schools.

As a homeschool mother, whose per-pupil budget rarely ever exceeded a few hundred dollars per year, I often daydreamed about what I could do for my daughters educationally with that kind of money.

Tom McClintock, a state senator from California, was thinking along the same lines when he wrote his “Modest Proposal for Saving Our Schools.”

His budget was based on $10,084 per student, (2005 expenditure in CA) and included college professors as teachers, health club memberships, and leased luxury commercial office space for classrooms.

Here’s his “bare-bones” budget:

According to McClintock:

“This budget leaves a razor-thin reserve of just $216,703 or $1,204 per pupil, which can pay for necessities like paper, pencils, personal computers and extra-curricular travel. After all, what’s the point of taking four years of French if you can’t see Paris in the spring?”

His proposal is a real eye-opener. Read the entire article for full details.

Throwing more money at the public schools is not the answer to the problem!