The Moscow School District’s 2017-2018 budget is $32,965,234. They have an ADA enrollment of 2,227.77 last year. That’s $14,797 per year per child to educate each child in MSD.
Here’s my idea for how to combat the teacher shortage, low quality schools, and lack of choice in education: take the current cost to educate a child ($14,797) and pay every parent 50% of that to take their child elsewhere: private, co-op, online, homeschool, etc. That immediately covers 100% of tuition at every other institution, it allows the state of Idaho to save 50% on its largest line item budget, and it gives educational freedom and choice to parents. If they want to leave their children in the government school system, they may. But how many would really want to?
Via the Spokesman Review:
Desperate for candidates, many south-central Idaho school districts are recruiting more aggressively. And the struggle is more pronounced in rural towns, which have to compete with larger school districts on pay and community amenities.
Shoshone School District superintendent Rob Waite – a superintendent for 17 years in Oregon and Idaho – remembers when it was easy to find teachers.
Years ago, when he advertised in a local newspaper he’d receive up to 100 applicants for a single elementary school teaching job. Now, Waite said, “we’re lucky to get a couple.”
Which teaching jobs are hardest to fill in his 500-student district?
“At this point,” he said, “they’re all pretty challenging.”
To put enough teachers into classrooms, school districts are hiring more applicants who don’t yet have teaching certification.