So much this! Please remember this when you hear people contrast private school tuition and even when you hear people talk about average cost per pupil (a number that is distorted by the more expensive kids)

From Public School Apologist

“One of the easiest ways to make a public school more cost-effective would be to stop educating the children who cost the most money.

Think about it.

A business can decide a customer is too expensive to serve. It can close an unprofitable location. It can discontinue a service that doesn’t generate enough revenue.

Public schools don’t have those options.

That bus route that travels miles down a rural road to pick up a handful of children? It costs money.

The specialized equipment, additional staff, and individualized services that allow a child with a disability to attend school? They cost money.

Keeping a small school open in a community where there simply aren’t enough children to make the numbers look attractive? You guessed it: money.

We should expect public schools to spend taxpayer dollars responsibly. Waste is waste, and nobody should defend it.

But there’s a difference between spending money unnecessarily and spending money on something that doesn’t produce a financial return.

Public education was never supposed to be a business that selects its customers based on profitability.

It’s a public commitment to educate children, including the ones who are difficult to reach, expensive to serve, or unlikely to make our performance numbers look better.

Sometimes the most expensive thing a school does is also one of the most important.

And before we start demanding that public schools operate more like businesses, we ought to ask ourselves this:

Which children are we willing to stop serving to save money?”

Originally posted on facebook on October 15, 2026