ARIZONA PUBLIC SCHOOLS RECEIVED THOUSANDS MORE THAN CHARTER SCHOOLS

Arizona's citizens have been subjected non-stop to the claim that Arizona's public schools are desperately underfunded. According to Matthew Ladner, vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute, the Superintendent of Public Instruction's finance report says otherwise.

On page six of that document, you will find a figure for all revenues collected by Arizona school districts from all sources. That number is $9,232,916,095. If you divide that figure by the enrollment number for districts on page nine of the same document, you get $9,707.45 in total revenue per pupil. For a bit of perspective:

• The average Arizona private school tuition in 2006 was $4,300 and the average total cost was $5,500.
• The same revenue per pupil calculation for Arizona charter schools is $7,800.

No matter how you cut it, average revenue per pupil remains well above what charter schools receive, says Ladner.

[And that's the scam: for all Obama's talk of increasing charter schools, seldom are we reminded that who they're often forced to 'charter' with is the public school system - which systematically sabotages their efforts. Hence my oft-repeated independent-universal vouchers plea.]

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