Correction: A previous version of this article's headline incorrectly implied the spending changes resulted in more money spent on administration than instruction.
Dive Brief:
- A study analyzing the changes in New Orleans' school spending before and after Hurricane Katrina prompted a shift in the public school system to majority-charter found some surprising trends.
- The Lens reports New Orleans schools spent 13% more per pupil on operating expenses in the 2013-14 school year than a control group, with administrative spending up 66% and instructional spending down 10%.
- Researchers ascribe the increase in administrative costs to the loss of economies of scale when individual charter schools work outside of a bigger network, and the decrease in instructional costs can be attributed to lower teacher salaries and cheaper benefits.
Dive Insight:
One major criticism of traditional public school systems are the layers of administrative bureaucracy that slow down innovation and, theoretically, create waste. This study finds these large systems can actually realize savings because of bulk purchasing power.
Charter management organizations have been criticized for replicating the vast bureaucracies of the public school systems they aim to replace, but on the point of purchasing power, at least, this type of replication may not be a bad thing. In New Orleans, the cost conversation overlays an understanding that academic achievement has generally gone up since the system converted to charters. That is not the case in every other city that has charters.