April 10, 2004

5thEstate.com examined and compared data organized by Standard & Poor (click to see site) which has data submitted by all 501 school districts across Pennsylvania. (Gee, wonder how long the New Era will take to have the great idea to do the same?!)

According to the latest data (2002), out of 17 school districts in Lancaster , Lancaster (SdoL) is #1 in administrative cost per student. $820 for everyone of their 10,865 students. That compares with Solanco that spends $560 for everyone of their 4,072 students. If Lancaster would lower their cost to Solanco's, city taxpayers would save $2,824,900 every year. If SdoL would trim their administrative costs to Reading's basement price of $499 per child, taxpayers would have almost $3.5 million savings! (not coincidentally, that is more than the project deficit for next year)

Lancaster has the most students. Normally, a greater number of students would mean that there would be cost savings because fixed costs - such as the superintendent's salary - could be spread out over more students. For instance, Hempfield has the second highest number of students in the county, but their administrative costs are only $561 compared with SdoL's $820 per student.

In addition to having the most students, Lancaster's morale amongst teacher's is so low that they have the 2nd highest absentee rate in the county @ 5.3%! When teachers are missing, it tends to point to a poor work environment.

Next, SdoL is number one in getting a free ride! Out of all school districts in the county, SdoL takes the least amount from local taxpayers as a percent of the revenue. The state and the federal governments make up the difference. SdoL pays 43.5% compared to Manheim Township's 79.36%!

Below is the chart with the different categories. To the left of the column is the rating in comparison to the other schools in the county. Thanks for reading 5thEstate.com!

SCHOOL DISTRICT	Admin Cost Per Child		# Students		Avg Teacher Salary		Absentee Rate		Yrs of Experience		% of local $
LANCASTER	1	820	1	10,865	9	48,925	2	5.30%	14	13.40	1	43.49%
COLUMBIA	4	720	17	1,521	17	44,544	5	5.00%	12	13.60	2	46.36%
SOLANCO	17	560	7	4,072	13	46,270	4	5.20%	8	14.60	3	50.68%
DONEGAL	8	687	15	2,496	15	46,060	1	5.90%	6	14.60	4	59.40%
ELIZABETHTOWN AREA	10	662	8	3,887	16	45,568	10	4.00%	16	13.10	5	60.68%
MANHEIM CENTRAL	14	579	12	3,088	6	49,743	9	4.40%	3	15.40	6	62.15%
WARWICK	15	574	5	4,603	3	51,301	6	4.70%	2	15.50	7	62.98%
PENN MANOR	9	680	3	5,306	7	49,529	15	3.40%	11	14.10	8	63.38%
EPHRATA AREA	13	636	6	4,238	11	46,999	8	4.60%	10	14.10	9	63.57%
OCTORARA	2	814	14	2,594	4	50,822	12	3.60%	5	15.00	10	64.53%
COCALICO	7	701	11	3,383	12	46,841	14	3.40%	13	13.50	11	65.16%
PEQUEA VALLEY	5	713	16	1,927	10	47,819	16	3.10%	1	17.30	12	66.28%
HEMPFIELD	16	561	2	7,267	2	51,559	3	5.20%	7	14.60	13	68.06%
ELCO	11	661	10	3,586	14	46,247	7	4.60%	17	13.00	14	68.34%
LAMPETER STRASBURG	6	709	13	3,079	5	50,209	11	3.80%	15	13.30	15	72.61%
CONESTOGA VALLEY	12	651	9	3,751	1	51,855	17	3.10%	4	15.30	16	77.49%
MANHEIM TWP	3	764	4	5,248	8	49,160	13	3.60%	9	14.60	17	79.36%

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