Ok, so Loudoun County has advertised that it spends $12,780 per student in 2009 (this is approx. $7k less than the amount spent in Arlington or Alexandria).

Private schools are providing an education at approx $8k per student, as is the case at Dominion Academy in Leesburg.

Shouldn’t we demand more from our local government?  They are spending 50% more per student than their private counterpart.  Perhaps government should get out of the education business?

What’s even more depressing is the reported $13k spent per student for the Loudoun Head Start program that is only half a day.  Compare that with approx. $7k at Dominion.

While not sure how accurate it is, Wikipedia reports that Loudoun County serves 50,000 students from K -12th grade.  If Loudoun County issued vouchers to attend any school and we assume that the chosen schools had same/similar tuition as Dominion, that would be a savings of approx $4500 per student. If only 20% (10,000 students) chose to participate in the voucher program, that would save the county…hmmm…10,000 x $4,500 = $45,000,000.  Not too shabby.

I’m glad the Stelly tax finally has come down.

“This legislation is a tremendous victory for the people of our state,” Jindal said. “Allowing Louisianans to keep more of their hard-earned money in their own pockets not only benefits families all across the state, it is also one of the best ways we can grow and strengthen our economy and encourage increased investment. The elimination of the Stelly tax means we have cut more than $300 million in taxes, and more than $1 billion in taxes over the next five years.”

Over on Between the Lines Jeff Sadow defends Bobby’s recent voucher program.  As usual he is spot on.