BCT Editorial – 7/29/07

This page was last updated on August 25, 2007.

Revenue gap; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 29, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Clearfield County has eight school districts.

“Here’s a breakdown of per pupil revenue from local and state sources as reported on the Standard & Poor’s SchoolMatters Web site. The state’s contributions are in parentheses:

“Clearfield, $3,530 ($4,799); Curwensville, $2,819 ($6,127); Dubois, $4,888 ($3,979); Glendale, $3,084 ($6,614); Harmony, $2,449 ($7,493); Moshannon, $2,482 ($6,258); Philipsburg-Osceola, $3,657 ($5,748); and West Branch, $2,495 ($5,496).”

[RWC] Did you notice some local school districts missing from the editorial’s list? Among them were Aliquippa ($4,177 local/$6,614 state), Beaver Falls ($4,217/$6,121), Monaca ($3,596/$5,426), New Brighton ($2,801/$5,832), and Rochester ($3,510/$5,754). Since these are urban/suburban school districts, citing them would not have advanced the editorial’s action line.

Keep in mind these figures omit federal taxpayer dollars, which can be substantial for some districts. For example, Aliquippa received $2,263/student (17.3%) from federal taxpayers.

“Here are the figures from more well-to-do districts: Beaver, $5,771 ($3,227); Center, $5,645 ($2,073); Hampton, $8,222 ($2,500); Moon, $8,577 ($2,389); Mount Lebanon, $8,966 ($1,784); North Allegheny, $9,840 ($2,062); Peters, $9,840 ($2,008) and Quaker Valley, $12,080 ($1,536).

“Feel free to draw your own conclusions.”

[RWC] In addition to drawing your own conclusions, you should also feel free to check the editorial’s data. For example, the editorial said the state taxpayer revenue allocated to Center was $2,073. The SchoolMatters website says it was $2,873. I didn’t check the rest of the figures cited in the editorial.