Have to disagree GeoW. I recently saw numbers (I forget where - I'll see if I can find it later) that shows SDoL does spend the most per student. Like anonymouse said, it is into 11,000.
And as for pml's rant about the tax deduction, do you really think people with kids get back as much as they put into their kids all year long? The 1,000 tax credit won't even cover our dental and orthodontic bills this year. I know you hate paying for other people's kids, actually I am begining to think you hate kids period. Now you want parents to pay exclusively for their child's education. How is that going to work when all those people are on welfare to begin with? Do you really want to deny a child an education because his parents can't pay? As long as it doesn't affect you right? And what if there is a sales tax? Are you going to stop buying stuff just so you don't have to support everyone's "precious little angel"? Education for all children is for the benefit of society.
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edit to add: Here is a link to an article about schools raising the per student spending. SDoL is the highest and it mentions MT's spending as well. http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/29116 And here is Tugrad's response when I posted this info before in another thread:
Any attempt to compare SDoL with the county school districts is like comparing apples to oranges.
While I agree with Twinmom that parental involvement is important, in truth the single most predictive factor for educational attainment is poverty. Children living in poverty universally do worse in school then children living in moderate, mid and high income homes. This is not because they are less intelligent. It is not because their parents don't care. It is because when parents are busy attempting to meet basic needs they don't have time or energy to read a book to a child.
The SDoL is more expensive because they serve a higher percentage of children living in poverty. And these children deserve an education just like the children in the county do.
http://talkback.lancasteronline.com/index....22&#entry264922

QUOTE(cyberscribbler @ Feb 28 2007, 08:07 AM)

The cost to educate SDL HS students is then $59,389,000
For Hempfield HS students it's $18,976,000
Hempfield's school tax rate should be 32% of SDL, are they?

No,because the difference is in the state aid. Although it might surprise you to learn that both districts are considered poor by the state (aid ratios above .4) SDL will receive $39,020,582.00 in BEF (basic education funding) while Hempfield only gets $11,191,258.

http://www.pdeinfo.state.pa.us/education_b...8_Feb07_Web.xls
For SEF (spec ed funding) SDL gets $8, 299,422 while Hempfield gets $3,188,182.
Overall, Hempfield taxpayers pay $63,651,280 in taxes and will receive $20,709,382 in state aid next year. They also receive $854,000 from the feds. http://www.hempfieldsd.org/hempfield/cwp/v...sp?A=3&Q=286891
Overall, SDL taxpayers will pay $63,651,280, but receive $55,979,648 from the state and another $17,543,907 from the feds. http://www.lancaster.k12.pa.us/documents/2...tionSummary.pdf
(The Hempfield numbers are 2007-2008. SDL's 2006-2007)

It would be helpful to be able to post an excel list comparing the 2 districts side by side in compatible pcs support costs

In short SDL is spending more for support services (the 2000 support costs) & special & other instructional costs compared to Hempfield

1200 special education $14.8 million to $9.1 million
*1400 Other instruction $14.3 million to $1.2
2100 pupil personnel services is $7.4 million to $2.6 million
*2200 instructional staff support services $6.9 mil to $1.6 mill
2300 administrative services $7.2 to $4.6

*It's been noted in the past that instructional support are teacher's aides. I'm not sure which category they're covered in 1400 or 2200 - so they make up for the difference in teacher/student ratios noted earlier.

While the 1400 category of expenses does include things like driver's ed and adult education, almost all the money (over $800,000 in Hempfield's case) is in federal grant accounting. Since SDL got so much federal aid, the costs associated with those grants are moved into the 1400 category when they might ordinarily be somewhere else.

The 2200 category is primarily for libraries and staff development. This is also where purchased professional services (i.e. consultants) goes.

When the PCS support costs are compared as a percentage of the total budget
PCS (description)_____SDL %, Hempfield % Percentage Difference
1400 (Other instruction) 10.8% 1.4% difference 9.3%
2100 (Pupil persnl svcs) 6% 3% difference 3%
2200 (Inst staff support) 5.6% 1.9% difference 3.7%