$28k per student is more than enough to run a school in San Francisco. Let's assume we cannot take advantage of the economies of scale available to SFUSD, and we're running a school with just one classroom: 22 7th graders. That would cost SFUSD $616k ($28k x 22). What would it cost us?

  Teacher (all-in cost):                            $150k
  Teaching assistant:                               $100k
  Rent for commercial space in SF (~1,200 sq ft):    $60k
  Curriculum, books, supplies:                       $23k
  Technology (22 Chromebooks, projector, software):  $18k
  Field trips and enrichment:                        $10k
  Utilities, internet, insurance:                    $27k
  Furniture and equipment:                           $20k
  Admin/legal/accounting:                             $8k
  
  Total:                                            $416k

That leaves $200k unspent.

AND ... these numbers are deliberately conservative. Teachers work ~40 weeks per year, not 52, so the $150k all-in is really $3,750/week - very competitive for SF. The $18k technology budget assumes replacing every Chromebook annually, but they last 3-5 years, so amortized cost is more like $5k/year. The rent estimate of $5k/month assumes market-rate commercial space, but you could find cheaper options in underutilized buildings or negotiate with a church/community center. Furniture lasts decades, not one year. The $1k per student for curriculum and supplies is also high - you're not buying new textbooks every year, and open-source curricula exist.

If you were trying to minimize costs rather than be conservative, you could probably run this one room school house for $350k/year ($16k/student/year).

▲ brettcvz 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The big thing you’re missing is special education, and to a lesser extent English Language Learners. School districts are obligated to teach every student, some of whom cost the district dramatically more than they receive from the state.

Your admin costs are also low - you need to account for each teacher being coached and managed, running school operations and front desk, facilities management, finance, IT, etc.

▲ brettcvz 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Also this is an area where first principles analysis is likely to lead you astray - I’d recommend starting with SFUSD’s public budget to understand what their cost structure is.

▲

rahimnathwani 4 hours ago | parent [-]

You're recommending I look at SFUSD's public budget when:

- that budget is how I was able to calculate per-pupil spend

- in another comment you admitted to having 'no idea' where the $28k/year number came from, suggesting to me that you haven't looked at the budget yourself

The granularity in SFUSD's published budget is not sufficient to analyze what is useful and what is waste.

	▲	brettcvz 29 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I did some research into this - the public budget is actually reasonably detailed. The biggest gap between your analysis and the actual expenditures are the SFUSD faces much higher facilities costs, higher admin cost due to Teacher coaching, and specialized programs for English language learners and special education

▲ brettcvz 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Finally, I have no idea where people are getting $28k/year; most schools in CA operate on closer to $14k-$16k per pupil

	▲	rahimnathwani 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		To get the number, you just need to divide two numbers: SFUSD's budget and the number of students. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41711345

▲ jorts 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

As the son of a teacher and a friend of several teachers, you're way underestimating their workload.

▲ rahimnathwani 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I estimated that a class of 22 children would require one full time teacher and one full time teaching assistant.

What am I missing? My table has $200k left over so we could add another full time teacher at $150k?

▲ lazyasciiart 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Any specialized teaching: art, languages, in high school I understand they have a different teacher for each subject, a librarian, a substitute teacher on sick days, an individual aide for one of the kids to represent the special education budget…

But I remember you previously and you appear to want a school system that spends money on exactly what your child needs and nothing else.

	▲	rahimnathwani 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		`you appear to want a school system that spends money on exactly what your child needs and nothing else.` Providing for my child's educational needs is my job as a parent, not the job of the government 'school system'. But if the government is going to operate schools and demand that we all pay for those schools, I'd prefer it if those schools were run for the benefit of students (and specifically to maximize academic achievement) and not for the benefit of government employees.