Dear Editor:
I am pleased that both the President of the Hoboken Board of Education and a former member of the Board responded to my recent letter to the Editor. Please note that all of the figures used for Hoboken and other districts came directly from each respective district web site. The figures for Hoboken, just like the others, were calculated from the Board of Education budget as follows: total budget ($64.7 million) divided by the number of students (about 2,100). This means the Hoboken Board of Education spends over $30,000 per student per year. The President and former board member do not agree on basic cost issues in the aggregate, but if the President of the Board of Education is correct about student cost being in line with other comparable district, then that raises an interesting question. Why, if instructional costs are in line with comparable districts, is the total cost of the district so high, and what are the major costs contributing to this?
My aim here is to highlight what seems to be an unusually high per student cost, and expect that those decision makers in charge will bring about greater students performance at lower costs.
Michael Fischetti