Lisa,
I live in a suburban area in a low cost region (the southeast). 4 years ago the city (pop 60,000) spent 70 Million!, yes thats right, 70 Million dollars to build a high school that serves approximately 1800 student. Student teacher ratio is 16-1.
Starting salary for a teacher is 46,000. That would be 70% to 80% of the average income for a family of 4. If they were teaching in the math or sciences they would be also receiving a supplement of several thousands a year.
Despite the princely sum that was spent on these facilities and the above average spent on teachers compared to the general population of my state, the academic achievement of these students is still abysmal. They ranked 85th out of 350 schools in a state that has a 50% drop out rate between the 9th and 12th grades.
So you can see why I’m less than enthuastic about spending more money given the current results that are being obtained via those methods.
