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A few readers commented on my last blog post and I recieved many emails over the past day. However, one reader put a lot of time into addressing my comparison of rural and metro schools. I wanted to place it onto the front page because the information is good and some claim I am not comparing apples to apples. I will comment in the "comment" section later on today.
 If you look at the state report cards:
http://education.state.mn.us/ReportCard2005/index.do
there is a section for each district that outlines the financial numbers - it is a good place to get an apples to apples comparison. The data includes the averages for the state, both in per-pupil funding, and property taxes per $100,000 of home value.
Minneapolis and St. Paul are not good comparison points - they get more than everyone else. Generally, the suburbs get less per pupil than the state average, and make a large part of it up with local taxes, but overall per pupil spending tends to be lower in the burbs. Local fund-raising to pay for classroom needs also tends to be higher in the burbs - the parents do fundraisers to buy computers for the school, playground equipment, sports equipment, etc.
If you look at the state report cards for 2007:
State average - state aid per pupil: $7489
State average - prop taxes per $100k: $333
State average - total per pupil funding from all sources: $9458 (includes fees, etc)
Minneapolis:
State aid per pupil: $9151
taxes per $100K: $341
Alex:
state aid: 7082
prop tax: 197
(so local taxes are far below the state average)
Bertha:
state aid: 7867
prop tax: 336
Browerville:
state aid 7876
prop tax 210
Eagle Valley:
state aid: 7978
prop tax 317
LPGE
state aid 7978
prop tax 415
Edina
state aid 6739
prop tax 347
Farmington
state aid 6922
prop tax 465
Lakeville
state aid 6911
prop tax 419
There is a lot of very interesting data there - about the various sources of the state money, comparisons for fees, operating costs, etc.
The point is, comparing yourself to Minneapolis, and saying the formula is unfair to rural areas is not very accurate. Most of the metro school districts get LESS from the state than the average - many get $1000 less per pupil. Rural districts tend to be fairly close to the state average in state aid, and sometimes well below the state average on local property taxes.
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