More on the WABEs
When we started growling about the Fiscal Year 2010 Washington Area Boards of Education on November 30, we started with the cost per student for the nine school districts in the region. There is a lot more information in the annual WABE guide for FY 2010 that taxpayers can use to evaluate whether government officials are spending tax money wisely.
Take for example, average class size. Obviously, the larger a school district’s average class size, few classrooms and fewer teachers are needed. Page 28 of the FY2010 WABE computes average class for classroom teachers as well as “teacher-scale” positions. In addition, the WABE Guide provides the average class size for elementary, middle/intermediate, and secondary/high schools. For today, let’s look at the average number of students per classroom teacher:
Students per Classroom Teacher
School Distric Elementary Secondary/High
Arlington County 18.6 17.6
Alexandria 19.8 25.0
Falls Church 21.1 20.6
Montgomery County 20.7 28.5
Fairfax County 21.2 24.9
Prince George’s County 17.5 25.1
Manassas City 16.0 21.4
Loudoun County 22.4 24.8
Prince William County 22.3 28.9
Average 20.0 24.1
The numbers seem remarkable. While the combined average for the nine school districts show their secondary/high schools have just over 20% more students in their secondary/high schools than in their elementary schools, the Arlington Public Schools actually have fewer students per classroom teacher in the secondary/high schools than in the APS elementary schools. Although the Arlington Public Schools don’t have the highest beginning teacher salaries, APS has the highest average teacher salaries among the nine school districts. A good life?