San Francisco Schools $578,572,407 Budget Discussions ($10,331 per student, 47% less than Madison)

Jill Tucker:

The San Francisco school board will face the unsavory task Tuesday of approving a budget that cuts virtually every program offered to the city's schoolchildren.

Art would be cut. Music too. Counselors. Physical education. Books. Summer school. Teachers. Custodians. Administrators.

All cut by a little or a lot.

The 444-page budget document up for a vote Tuesday, the board's last meeting before summer break, has been months in the works as district officials struggled to figure out how to balance the books despite a $113 million budget shortfall expected over the next two years.

"It's not a good budget," said board member Rachel Norton. "How could you say that cutting 20 percent of the programs is a good budget? But it really could have been so much worse."

The $578 million spending plan includes $255 million in restricted money that has to be spent on specific programs, including special education, school meals and facilities. The rest pays for salaries and the day-to-day costs of educating the district's nearly 50,000 students and running its 105 schools, 34 preschool sites and nine charter schools.

Madison's 2009-2010 budget was $370,287,471, according to the Citizen's Budget, $15,241 per student (24,295 students). More here.

San Francisco's 3.4MB budget document includes detailed per school allocations (numbered page 51, document page 55)

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 22, 2010 3:42 AM
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