A Fantastic Little School with a Big Budget

This photo is an aerial view of the hands down best little school in Oklahoma, Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM). Its located at 1141 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

This little powerhouse with a voracious appetite just scored 31.3 out of a possible 36 on the ACT, far and away the best of any school in Oklahoma, as reported locally by KJRH here.

No doubt. They get the best and brightest. And I am glad that we have such a prestigious school for juniors and seniors available to gifted Oklahoma students.

As I am getting more cynical as I mature, and with my typical jaded eye on government spending, I decided to do a little research. Here is what I found out. According to their own website, OSSM has a student population of about 134. This breaks down into 71 juniors and 63 seniors. They have 26 full time faculty and 11 adjuncts, for a generous student-to-teacher ratio of under 4-1! You can link here for their budget. They are spending $49,047 per student. Yes, that's right, $49,047 per student, ($6,572,319 for 134 students). And does this include the cost to construct the buildings on campus? I know that they have been supported by the Schusterman foundation from Tulsa, who is very interested in common education, so my guess is that there are even more dollars spent on this school that what flows through the budget.

The admission process is very competitive, by their own admission. I'm glad. I would hate to think we were spending 10 times the amount for any other student on anyone ordinary. But in this case, the requirement in the Oklahoma Constitution to provide a "free and appropriate" public education has been met. Our hard earned tax dollars at work!

Getting Our Money's Worth?

Brandon Dutcher is the Vice President of Policy for the Oklahoma think tank, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. He frequently writes scholarly articles about public education in Oklahoma. All too often he can point out misstatements and areas that need improvement. He is a proponent of school choice as I am.

Along with Steven Anderson, he has recently published an article regarding the hidden costs of public education. Here is an excerpt from it: "Unlike private-sector businesses, the government’s school accounting systems exclude many significant costs when computing expenditures. As a result, Oklahoma government officials routinely understate the cost of public education. For example, official reports indicated the per-pupil expenditure in FY-2003 was $6,429. This study, using generally accepted accounting principles to report expenditures that would be included on a regular financial statement, finds the real cost that year was more than $11,250".

The $6,429 figure is from Governor Henry's latest executive budget for FY 2003-2004. The $11,250 figure is from the OCPA's research. You can link to the article here. I encourage you to read the article, it is well done and very informative. By the way, some of the things that are not included in the Governor's figure includes such things as; a significant discrepancy between the State number and the Federal numbers, teacher retirement payments, non-appropriated payments, building depreciation, Career Tech common education expenditures, teacher retirement debt and OSSM (Oklahoma School for Science and Mathematics).

Having been intimately involved with the finances of a charter school, I can tell you that the all in cost to educate those 250 students was about $5,000 per pupil, for everything. And TSAS has consistently ranked among the top ten high schools in Oklahoma since its inception in FY 2001-2002. This shows that more money is not the answer to our public education woes.

Interestingly, at the end of the article there is an analysis of private school tuition. It has a weighted average per pupil weighted average of $4,162.40. I wonder if this number includes the cost of the buildings, I doubt it.

Any way you look at it, in the mainstream, whether the number is $11,250 or $6,429 for our traditional public schools versus $5,000 for charter public schools and $4,162.40 for private schools, IS THE OKLAHOMA TAXPAYER GETTING THEIR MONEY'S WORTH?
How much longer will we as citizens and taxpayers of Oklahoma continue to be duped by our elected officials into thinking that we need to continually pump more money into a failing system (at least here in Tulsa). Thank goodness that we still see some public schools doing their job in rural and suburban Oklahoma.

Is this man a villain?

I don't know Mr. Dan Hicks well, but he is an acquaintance. Actually, we each have sons that were in the same class and played on some of the same teams in the past number of years. Having observed him over those years, I was appalled by the personal attacks and names he was called as a result of his stand against pantheism, hinduism, etc at the Tulsa Zoo.

I know him to be a mild mannered and polite Christian man with a nice family. I respect him for standing up for all Tulsans who believe in the Creation account of Genesis found in the Holy Bible. He has never displayed any of the crusader arrogance of so many other Christians. There is no holier-than-thou attitude, no gossip, no slandering.

He is not a villain. He is a great example and a leader. Heck, I wish he would run for a local office. We sure could use more men like him! Check out this website for more information.