Growls

A little number-crunching of the “operating indicators” in the county’s audited financial statements for FY 2010, officially the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), demonstrates that government bureaucrats can always find a way to spend every last taxpayer dollar given to them. Take a look at the “education” indicators on page 182 of the FY 2010 CAFR, which provides the trend of spending over the period 2001 to 2010.

Enrollment in the Arlington Public Schools (APS) was 18,808 students in 2001 while APS employed 1,737 teachers, or 92.35 teachers per 1,000 students. By 2010, enrollment increased to 20,233 students while teacher staffing increased to 2,096, or 103.59 teachers per 1,000 students. The jump from 92.35 teachers per 1,000 students to 103.59 teachers per 1,000 students is an increase of 12.2%. Looked at another way, it's a 12.2% decrease in operating efficiency.

If the Arlington School Board and the Superintendent had managed to keep the number of teachers at the 2001 rate, APS would have needed 227 fewer teachers in 2010. According to the latest WABE numbers available at the APS website, the FY 2011 annual employer cost for one teacher position in Arlington is $82,158, thus putting the cost of those 227 teachers at just over $18.6 million or roughly the equivalent to a reduction of 3 cents in the real estate tax rate.

By the way, the ratio of teachers was worse in the middle of the decade. For example, in 2005, APS employed 107.66 teachers per 1,000 students. What an efficient system of government schools managed at 1426 North Quincy Street!