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Idahoans for Choice in Education Expanding Educational Choice for Idaho Families
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MSD: Bloated costs and poor performance Moscow's schools are well funded. A more descriptive term would be "cost bloated." In 2002-03, Moscow School District's total spending was $8,735 per pupil. The state average, also bloated, was $7,872. MSD's current costs, which exclude capital expenditures, were $8,141 compared to the state average of $6,709. In the meantime, Idaho's charter schools do quite well on about $5,495 per student. Moscow's only charter school operates at a per pupil cost of about half of MSD. Nationally, comparable private schools generally operate at about 60 percent to 70 percent of public school per pupil costs. The Idaho OffICE-PAC of Performance Evaluation found that among 27 comparable Idaho school districts MSD ranked highest in general administrative costs, school administrative costs, total administrative costs, educational support costs and non- instructional costs. Excluding Idaho's richest school district, Blaine County (Sun Valley), MSD ranks highest in instructional costs, current total costs, and elementary and secondary teachers' average salaries. Most MSD's teachers are packed at or near the top of the salary grids. While student attendance fell 14.22 percent from 1993 to 2002, employees were up 21.9 percent, total noncertified employees were up 43 percent, and certified employees were up 8 percent. MSD overpays its non-classified employees 22.1 percent compared to north Idaho private sector wages and 13.22 percent compared to the state average for other school districts. Moscowans pay the highest property taxes per student among its peers (excluding Blaine County): $3,157 per student versus an average of $1,302 for the others. MSD ranks the highest among its peers in both current and total property tax rates. The response to these bloated costs is: "But Moscow schools have high performing students." MSD certainly has high performing students. According to MSD's latest ISAT scores, MSD's students scored higher in every grade, and their rank averaged in the top fifth percentile of school districts. But high ISAT scores and rankings are not evidence of school superiority. The major determinants of student performance are not school variables such as per pupil spending, class size, etc., but outside factors, such as community demographics and family socio-economic status. School quality is not measured by the level of student performance but by school value-added: before and after testing of the same students, in the same environment, that largely eliminates the influence of SES and other outside factors. Value-added performance can be assessed by comparing the annual increase in MSD students' average ISA T scores to the state average. For 2003-04 MSD's value-added was below the state average in 25 of the 27 grad observations. This is apparently not a one-shot occurrence. For 2002-03, MSD's value-added also was below the state average for 22 of the 27 observations. Value-added by grade may not be an accurate indication of school performance because MSD's level of ISA T scores was well above average for each grade, and generally value-added decreases with a higher level of scores. A better analysis takes student prior achievement into account in reckoning MSD's value-added relative to students comparable in initial achievement level. When this adjustment is made, MSD's relative performance improves, but is still well below average. MSD's value-added scores were above the comparable average for only 11 of the 27 grade observations. Further, if one believes Moscow's high student SES should be taken into account in comparing their value added to other schools, then this analysis over-estimates the effect of MSD's schools on measured value added. MSD's relative performance is in fact worse than implied by these results. Simply put, Moscow's parents and taxpayers have paid well above average property taxes for below-average school value-added performance. Over the years, MSD mismanagement has dissipated millions of taxpayer dollars into bloated current expenditures and failed to make adequate provision for school maintenance and depreciation reserves, all for below-average performance. The Moscow School Board is now busy setting up the local electorate with political foreplay in preparation for another big school tax levy next spring. Before asking for more, the school board should bring both current spending down and school performance up to the state average. Reducing current spending by $1,000 per student would still leave MSD above the state average and provide ample monies for any needed building maintenance and construction. Jack Wenders is an economist who lives in Moscow. Daily News: 11/22/04 John T. Wenders Professor of Economics, University of Idaho Senior Fellow, The Commonwealth Foundation |
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ICE-PAC P.O Box 933 Boise, ID 83701 |
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