How much is BV per-pupil spending...Really?
You may have read or heard the claim that BV per-pupil spending is over $17,000 a year - but the district website clearly says it was $9098 last year. Which is it?
If you look at operating expense per pupil: staff salaries (mostly teachers), utility payments, day-to-day stuff - it’s $9098.
If you add in Bond costs plus interest (approved by a wide margin of BV voters), and Capital Outlay costs (local property tax, also approved by voters via election of local BOE representatives), the number is over $17,000.
But - let’s think apples to apples. If your neighbor sends their kids to Barstow, they pay tuition (operating expenses per pupil). Barstow doesn’t charge them for the new buildings they’re adding. That money comes out of a capital campaign. A new building doesn’t nearly double yearly tuition! Think of operating expenses as tuition, and Bond and Capital monies as an entirely separate “bucket” that’s funded separately.
Who is behind this spread of misleading, apples-to-oranges inflated spending claims? An organization itself funded by dark money (purposely organized in a way they are NOT required to disclose who owns or funds it) who seeks to turn voters against their local public schools. Why?!? This dark-money (reportedly Koch-backed) organization aims to privatize/profitize schools and decrease or eliminate taxes for their wealthy donors. By any means possible. They’ve been misleading and lying to Blue Valley voters for years and no one before us has countered their claims.
The district website has much information about how much money they use in various ways. It’s detailed and may be hard to understand - like any organization might be that has a huge budget and serves over 23,000 students. But it’s fully transparent - UNlike those who are spreading lies using an apples to oranges comparison. https://www.bluevalleyk12.org/Page/34299
