Font ResizeW"‰ITH money for public education in California becoming tight, there is increasing concern that local schools may take a hit to their budgets soon.
Still, for those who follow such weighty matters, spending on public education in San Mateo County has not been quite as restricted as you may have been led to believe by outspoken proponents, who tend to dominate the conversation in any dollar debate involving the classroom.
According to statistics provided by the county Office of Education and the state's Department of Education, per-student expenses have increased countywide by $5,205 since 1982.
In that year, county public schools, for grades kindergarten through 12, were spending an average of $3,140 per pupil. In 2006-2007, the most recent year for which data is available, that figure had risen to $8,345.
That is a 175 percent increase. Taken over that quarter-century stretch, the actual expenditure increase per year throughout the Peninsula was a relatively robust 7 percent. That's because the official U.S. inflation rate during that period averaged roughly half that amount.
However, there is a wide variance in spending among the county's 23 public school districts. On an individual district basis last year, per-child spending ranged from $6,736 in South San Francisco Unified to $15,959 in Woodside Elementary.
In terms of total cash spent on local public schools, nearly $737 million
It is important to note that in 1981-1982, county public schools contained almost 79,000 children. Last year, there were in excess of 88,000. In 1970, on the other hand, there were 125,000.
Statistics for 2007-2008 are expected to be provided by the state toward the end of the summer.
NONPROFIT MOVING — Good news: The Center for the Independence of the Disabled has found fresh digs.
The nonprofit organization that helps the county's disabled is scheduled to move to a new location later this month on the 1500 block of South El Camino Real in San Mateo.
For years, the center and its important services have been headquartered in rented facilities in Belmont. That property is going to be redeveloped, however. Hence the center's shift north.
CHICO CHIT-CHAT — Burlingame's Paul Constantino was at a San Francisco hotel the other day on business.
He said tourists were all over the place. They hailed from Spain, France and other countries.
But there was one notable exception. According to Constantino, "I asked one couple where they were from, and they responded, 'Chico.'"
Not exactly a foreign country, but, perhaps, the next best thing in a state where regional differences can be exceedingly marked.
John Horgan can be reached by phone at 650-348-4334, by fax at 650-348-4446 or by mail at 477 Ninth Ave., Suite 110, San Mateo, CA 94402. Check out his blog, Read It and Rant, at www.sanmateocountytimes.com.
