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Click Here 54 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, February 14, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend December 21, 2003 Schooling by the numbers With a surtax ballot measure looming, many people have a distorted picture of how much schools spend per student Larry Baines is skeptical that the Medford School District spends only $6,844 on each student per year. The retired Medford resident believes Oregon spends $10,000 per student, a figure touted among anti-tax advocates. He thinks the district isn’t telling the whole truth about the budget. "There’s been deceiving going on for years and years," said Baines, 66. Baines’ sentiment typifies what many Oregonians think about government in general — that it is hiding something, or that it doesn’t calculate all of its funding sources in order to justify higher taxes. However, he acknowledged that the cost per student in the Medford School District for 2002-03, if true, indicates there might be inequities in funding among districts. "If they’re getting $2,000 more per student in Portland, then we’re getting cheated down here," he said. Advertisement Contrary to the perception by Baines and others, Oregon Department of Education officials calculate that the widely disseminated $10,000-per-student figure — often cited by Portland radio talk show host Lars Larson — is a complete distortion based on bad accounting. "It’s not real," said Brian Reeder, financial analyst for the Department of Education. "It’s bogus." He said the real expenditure per pupil in the state averaged $8,247 in 2001-02, the last year for which the figure was available. For the same year, Medford’s was $7,190. Despite the inaccuracy of the $10,000 figure, Medford school board members and school officials recently have been hammered by anti-tax advocates, chastising them for spending so much on each student. "It is always a struggle to come back and say that it’s not true," said school board member Peggy Penland. "Saying we don’t spend $10,000 a student doesn’t fit into a 30-second sound bite." To combat the perception that it costs so much to educate Medford’s school children, the district calculated its total 2002-03 budget of $84,910,765, made up of money it receives from the state, federal funds and construction bonds. Then it divided that by the number of students, 12,406, to come up with the average cost. Some critics say the calculation for the cost per student should include the state Department of Education’s annual budget of $40 million. Adding Medford’s share would raise the cost by $73 to $6,917, district officials said. While anti-tax advocates think schools are spending too much, they don’t necessarily think teachers are overpaid. In Medford, the average teacher gets $58,000 annually, including benefits. "That should depend on the teacher," said Baines. "If they are a good honest teacher, say, and teach the history of our country, without too many ad libs, or some of the crazy things they put into those books." He does think there are too many assistant principals at schools, saying that maintaining three at each of the high schools is unnecessary. Baines also thinks schools are too permissive, and that if teachers had more authority in the classroom, they could handle having more students. When he sent his own children to school, he said, "I told the teacher if this kid does anything wrong, they should spank them." Medford resident Chuck Beck, 73, also thinks that if schools had greater authority as they once did, more students could be taught by one teacher. "Back then, the teachers had a lot of authority," he said. "Now you threaten a kid and they give you the finger. If the authority was there, when the teacher walked into that classroom, there wouldn’t be any problem." Penland said many people have the sense that children are unruly, but she invites anyone to take a walk through a school to see what is really going on. "This is not a lawless land run amok with kids who have taken over the system," she said. Schools would be subject to legal action if they tried to reinstate corporal punishment. Beck, an anti-tax advocate, suspects the average student cost is probably a lot but that Medford’s seems lower than other areas. "The Medford School District is probably one of the better ones in the state," he said. Beck doesn’t necessarily begrudge teachers for their salaries, saying that in many cases they deserve $60,000 or $70,000 a year. But the threat of local teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and a shorter school year won’t mean he’ll vote for the statewide $800 million surcharge in a special election in February. "The thing that bugs me — and I don’t want to blame the teachers — is that the government sector in general always wants more money," said Beck, a semi-retired architect. "The average state government employee has a better working environment, better salary and better retirement than the average worker." Joe Frodsham, a Medford school board member, said no matter what the cost is to educate a student, people will be concerned it’s too much. "I don’t care if it’s $5,000 a head," he said. He thinks the district spends its money efficiently. For people who criticize the district for how much it spends on support services, Frodsham points out that the money isn’t just for administrators and principals. "I tell them how much of that goes to aides, librarians, music teachers — things that are directly tied to classroom activities," he said. Frodsham thinks teachers in the district are well paid for the area. "If you want to attract the best and brightest, you need to pay them a good salary." He concedes that it is an uphill battle trying to persuade anti-tax advocates to vote for the $800 million tax surcharge in February, particularly with their suspicion that districts are hiding something. But, after reviewing the books in his own district, he found every service provided benefits students, he said. "When you break some of these things out, they relate back to the classroom," he said. While some argue that education costs more than ever, Frodsham said that calculating inflation, "you’d probably get a whale of a deal." Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! 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