Class 1 Schools

So I was doing some research on the Class 1 school districts recently, and here's what I found out:

After doing some spreadsheet work, I found that the average cost per student of a school (based on Average Daily Membership) for Class 1 schools is about $10,805. (Schools with $0 reported as the cost per student were not included in this average.)

This is about $1,631 higher than the average for Class 2-6 schools, and about $1,972 higher than average for Class 2-5 schools. Class 6 schools are the most expensive in this state with a $13,754 average cost per student.

Clearly, consolidating districts has the potential to save almost $2,000 per student per year! Since the majority of people in these rural districts strongly oppose high taxes, it would seem that they should support these consolidations! Now if only people could use logic instead of emotion in this heated battle...

Click here for the stats from the NE Dept. of Education.

For anyone who doesn't know, the legislature recently passed (and overrode the subsequent veto of) a bill to consolidate Class 1 school districts and close the smallest of the Class 1 schools... Gov. Heineman has dramatically publicized his recent entry into this battle (as well as one between Omaha and a couple of districts Omaha wants to takeover). This is likely a desperate political measure to gain ground on Tom Osborne, a man who has no qualifications whatsoever but is likely well in the lead for our next gubernatorial election.