There seems to be some confusion regarding my last commentary on the issue of increases in spending at WPS versus Woodstock Academy, so to further clarify the issue:
 
The chart in my previous post showed PK-8 spending versus WA tuition for the years 2004-5 through 2008-9, with 2008-9 being based on the budget.  PK-8 spending was determined by subtracting “All High School” costs from the total spent.  All High School costs included SPED and Transportation expenses so that PK-8 does not, I repeat, DOES NOT, include any SPED or Transportation expenses related to the Academy or any other High School alternatives.  

The point of the graph was to show that, despite claims to the contrary, increases in spending at Woodstock Academy have NOT been at the expense of PK-8.  In fact if you look carefully at the graph you will see that PK-8 spending has been increasing at a much higher rate than the increase in tuition at the Academy.
 
Now some have suggested that by not including SPED and Transportation in the tuition numbers that the graph may not give an accurate comparison of the two.  To help address this, the following chart compares PK-8 spending with total High School spending.  This means that both PK-8 and Total High School Spending include SPED and Transportation costs. 



The orange line divides the Total High School Costs by all high school students.  The green line excludes (doesn’t count) the Ellis Tech students as there is no tuition cost for this group; it does include all transportation costs and so does slightly overstate the actual cost per High School student.  But that is not the issue here, the issue is the rate of increase in spending – the slope of the curve.  Again, you can easily see that spending by WPS for PK-8 is increasing at a much higher rate than High School costs – the slope of the curve is greater.  In fact, it would appear that the rate of increase for all high school costs is slightly lower than for tuition alone – this would imply that SPED and transportation costs for High School students has actually been increasing at a much lower rate over this period making the increase rate of spending for PK-8 even more out of line. 

The cries of the BOE, and others, that the Academy is taking money at the expense of WPS simply do not match the data.
 
Dave Richardson