2006-09-22

Detroit Spends More Per Pupil Than Rich Schools

Detroit has some of the nation's worst public schools. Neither money nor racism can explain this. The fancy white-majority subburbs around Detroit all spend *less* per pupil than does Detroit, but they get much better results. Only one district in Detroit's county gets/spends more than Detroit, and it's also a failing, black-majority district (Inkster).

Wayne County Government School Per-Pupil Spending from all sources (local, state, federal):

Inkster: $14,400 - Black/Fail
Detroit: $11,600 - Black/Fail
Grosse Point: $11,000 - White/Pass
Dearborn: $10,000 - White/Pas
Grosse Ile: $ 9,300 - White/Pass
Wayne-Westland $ 8,600 - White/Pass
Livonia: $ 8,500 - White/Pass
Northville $ 8,400 - White/Excellent
Plymouth-Canton: $ 7,900 - White/Excellent
Dearborn Heights: $ 7,500 - Whte/Pass

I omitted many of the Wayne districts, most of which lie outside of the Detroit metro area. I listed the most famous and largest Wayne County districts within Detroit metro: Detroit and its near western neighbors. The top two best-funded schools are both black-majority, and the two worst. At least by reputation, the best are Northville and Plymouth-Canton, which are heavily honkey, but among the least-funded. These suburbs lie to Detroit's west. If we look across Detroit's famous "8 Mile" border along its northern edge, into Oakland County, a slightly different picture emerges, but one that confirms my assertion:

Bloomfield Hills: $14,400 - White/Excellent
Birmingham: $13,000 - White/Excellent
Southfield: $13,000 - Black/Fail
Farmington: $11,500 - Whte/Pass
Troy: $10,600 - Whte/Pass
Novi: $10,500 - Whte/Pass
Royal Oak: $10,400 - White/Excellent
Pontiac: $10,300 - Black/Fail
West Bloomfield:$10,200 - White/Excellent
Madison: $ 8,700 - White/Pass
Ferndale: $ 8,600 - White/Excellent
Berkley: $ 8,600 - White/Excellent

What do we see here? All black-majority schools in the Detroit metro area are failures, they are all run by black folks and they all are among the best-funded. Inkster ties for best-funded, and only two honkey schools get more funding than Detroit; Inkster also rates as having one of the very worst-performing districts in the state, even worse than Detroit! All the four black-majority districts receive more funds than do several excellent white suburban schools. None of the white-majority schools are overall failures, and many of them obtain excellent results with just a fraction of the budgets afforded the failing Inkster and Detroit schools.

What is the answer? Clearly not money, and clearly not more discussions about racism.

SOURCES:
Per Student annual funding:
"2004-05 BULLETIN 1014 Michigan Public School Districts Ranked By Selected Financial Data Published May 2006" here & here [For Detroit, see page 50 (County = Wayne, Detroit City School District, code 82010), header "All Sources".]
Update: 2007-8 data for Detroit (p. 51): $12,100.

Academic rankings:
This shows No Child Left Behind "Meets" vs "Does not meet". Search by district, then look for the High School assessment rating.

3 comments:

Nadir said...

Are you saying Black people just aren't as smart?

Paul Hue said...

No. Many data disproves such an assertion, including those showing that black immigrants on average out-perform native American honkies. And even more data show that native born blacks in the USA are on average making poor decisions compared with other groups. These include children and their choices to study, read, and behave productively in class, and the decisions of parents to ensure that their kids enroll in the best classes and support teachers in conflicts with their kids.

Paul Hue said...

Nadir: Why would you even consider it possible that somebody presenting facts as I have would be suggesting an intellectual inadequacy on the part of blacks? When people present similar information showing that Asian immigrant kids behave better, study harder, and perform better than white kids, do you wonder if the news-bearier is suggesting that Asian kids are smarter than honkey kids?