Have you ever wondered how school districts spend the
dollars given to them by their communities? One criticism
that is often made about some charitable or public organizations
is the percentage of their budgets which they devote to
administration. This anti-administration feeling can be
seen in one of the latest educational fads. This movement
is gaining momentum across the country. It would require
districts to devote at least 65% of their operational budget
to the classroom. There is no research that indicates that
this magic figure is the right target for which to shoot.
However, it is resonating popularly in many places. Using
this as a target, our schools locally and throughout the
state fare well.
According to information from Morgan Quitno Press the national
average of district expenditures that are used for direct
instruction is 60.5 percent. In Nebraska the percentage is
64. When you look to our neighbors around us Nebraska does
particularly well: Iowa spends 59 percent of its educational
budget on instruction. South Dakota is at 59.6. Kansas is
at 60.3. Wyoming is 59.7. And Colorado is at 57 percent.
Though Nebraska as a whole devotes a proportionally high
percentage of its educational budget to instruction, Columbus
does even better. The Columbus Public Schools devote 66.99
percent of its budget to direct instruction. This means out
of every dollar that is spent in the school district, about
67 cents goes to the core instructional process.
The additional 23 percent of the budget goes to such areas
as school library services, guidance services, transportation,
custodial services, nursing support, teachers’ aides
and administrative services (including principals’ offices,
business office, student services, technology, curriculum,
and the superintendent’s office).
This figure may not tell the whole story about how efficient
a school system is. However, it does show the focus CPS has
on student learning. Other expenses that do not directly
impact this goal are minimized.
What this tells the taxpayer is that the money devoted to
K-12 education in CPS is devoted to helping student learning.
This has been a focus of our school board for many years,
and they have held the course in directing funding to it.
This is particularly impressive when you consider the Columbus
Public Schools per pupil cost is one of the lowest in the
state’s public school districts. The state average for
the 2004-2005 school year was $8,013 per student. CPS’ per
student cost that year was $6,925. This is the last year
for which comparative financial statistics are available.
The school board and the employees of CPS take the charge
seriously to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ investment.
Means are constantly pursued to contain costs and find efficient
ways of providing service to our students. The school system
is very thankful for the generous support of our community.
The district is doing everything it can to be good stewards
of this generosity.
Providing ever-better education for our students at a reasonable
cost is the goal of the Columbus Public Schools. Let us know
if you identify ways to reduce this cost or improve this
service. The ideas from the community are not only welcomed,
but are used to make our schools effective learning institutions.
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