The Cost of ‘Investment in’ Education
The Cost of ‘Investment in’ Education
By Bill Furlong, Assistant Superintendent
I have had many conversations over the years with people who ask about our school budget and talk about the “cost of education”. They inquire about how much we spend on certain parts of our budget. They ask about teacher salaries, athletics, employee benefits and other expenditures we make. I welcome these conversations since they give me an opportunity to better explain our costs and what we do to manage them. However, I would argue that we do not “spend” on education, but rather invest in education. Expenditures do not have a future value. But an investment will create a future value that should far exceed the amount of the original investment. The money that we invest in public education creates the potential for a significant return on that investment for that individual and the community they live in. If upon graduation, a student is hired for a job at minimum wage and never receives a pay raise, that former student will still earn back the cost of their K-12 education within 9 years. If that student goes on to college and earns a degree that enables a $50,000 annual salary, then the payback period drops to under 3 years.