*gasp* Private Houston schools not suffering?
The elite schools, which charge annual tuition of about $12,000 for high schoolers, say they are keeping a wary eye on income and expenses. Their endowment funds -- Kinkaid School apparently has the largest, more than $80 million -- have taken a hit from stock market losses. The cost of health insurance and other benefits for teachers keeps going up at the same time.But while the public school systems in Houston and Pasadena lay off workers, and the Houston Independent School District targets its magnet schools for 20 percent budget cuts, the top private schools say they are not being forced to cut back on classroom instruction and enrichment programs. Nor is demand for admission fading, they report.
In other words, economic problems in Houston are not diminishing the number of families willing to pay the tuition, or seek scholarship help, for the highly respected education that is offered.
At Houston's best-known private schools, tuition and fees cover 70 percent to 85 percent of annual operating costs.[...]
Many parents think of contributing to the school as a way of supporting St. John's as its $43 million endowment suffers the same stock market investment losses as private schools everywhere, he said.
At the school, which educates 1,220 students from kindergarten through 12th grade, tuition and fees cover 77 percent of costs. The endowment yields about 15 percent, and fund raising covers the remaining 8 percent.
[...]
"We are continuing to be very sensitive to the costs, to the economy," [Director of Advancement, John] Marshall said. "I think our parents would believe it would be a little bit strange if we were trying to do anything major in this economy."
[...]
"In general, we have been kind of shielded from it," [Awty International School Headmaster, David] Watson said of the economic gloom.
[...]
At all of these prestigious schools, small class sizes and experienced, prized teachers are among the main attractions. None of the schools said economic pressures are forcing them to change those factors.
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[The difference between a socialistic system and a capitalistic system.]
Before I agree to that I would like to know first how much money the public and the private school spend per student.
But aside of that, yeah, what our schools need is not more money 'in some cases they do' but more competition, setting up priorities the right way, cutting of on extra things that aren't that necessary for a good education.
I mean why do schools have to buy things way more expensive than a privat man does? things from even the same brand.
And why the heck do they spend our money on stupid stuff? Schools don't need luxury. I don't think a 4000$ sculpture that looks like rosted steel from a junkyard helps increasing neither our intelectuel nor comfort level ~~ 'My old school did that, and it pissed me and my friends off back then.
There were even other stuff, way more outrageous, like when our headmaster asked me and a friend to guard an projection machine that was just delivered and waiting to be moved to the art room. He then told us with a fat satisfied grin on his face that it was worth 10,000DM, means 5,000$. We were like: What the fuck? They could have also bought one of those overhead projectors for only a few hundred Dollars. Sure the projections wouldn't have been of such a good quality but that wouldn't affect the classes in any way.
So to make it short...yeah there are a lot, lot more ways for schools to save money, what we need is indeed more competition. But it should not affect the quality of the education negatively.