DCPS pays over $28,000 per DCPS student per year

In an update to a previous story the libertarian think tank Cato Institute has crunched the number for the 2008-2009 school year and has come up with an all in number of over $28,000 spent per DCPS student. The Cato numbers take into account not only operational costs (~$15,000 per year, the number usually cited when talking about how much a school district spends) but also capital costs (building costs, etc) and transpiration (the court run Special Education buses). A spreadsheet with all the gory details can be found here.

John Stossel (of 20/20 fame, now with Fox Business) recently did a show about public education and weighs in on DCPS costs here.