Spending Per Student Varies Widely by Town

What does your school district spend per pupil? And how does it compare with your neighboring towns? Many Boards of Education will be evaluating this type of financial data as they enter school budget season. Below is a list of 2009-10 per pupil spending for Main Street Connect's 10 cities and towns, based on data compiled by the state Department of Education. They are ranked in order of spending from high to low.

Town/city 2009-10

Weston $17,359

Greenwich $17,155

New Canaan $17,032

Westport $16,974

Stamford $16,127

Wilton $15,692

Norwalk $15,686

Darien $14,981

Easton $14,674

Fairfield $14,455

Every year, the Connecticut Department of Education puts out a list of per pupil spending throughout the state, ranking the cities and towns across the state. The range from Weston to neighboring Easton is $2,800 per student. New Canaan spends $2,000 more per student than neighboring Darien. Those four towns as well as Wilton and Westport are all in the same District Reference Group, which is the way the state groups towns with similar demographics. Greenwich and Fairfield are in the same DRG, as are Norwalk and Stamford, which receive more state and federal money than their neighboring towns. In 2008-09, the Connecticut state average for per pupil spending was about $13,000. Not surprisingly, all of Main Street Connect's towns were well above that average.

Kevin Cambers, an education consultant at the state Department of Education, helps to compile the financial data. Although the state ranks districts, Chambers says, "No two towns are alike."

"Towns have to justify their own budgets," he says. Each district has factors that affect per pupil spending, such as the number of student who require special education services, which can be costly. Sudden increases or decreases in enrollments can also affect the per pupil spending.

Do you think your town spends too much or too little per pupil on its schools? Would you like to see an increase in spending for education?

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