The fact that the average expense per pupil in a Catholic school is much lower than that in a public school speaks either quite well for Catholic education and/or quite poorly for public schools. I heard a debate once in which a proponent of public schools tried to use those numbers to prove that public schools were superior. In my humble opinion private schools (including Catholic) are doing a far better job of educating at a much lower cost.
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In 1998 the Seattle School District spent $7,639 per pupil. (See: http://www.seattleschools.org/district/general/sps.pdf) At that rate Holy Family School saves taxpayers $2,024,335 a year! This saving to other citizens comes as a result of great sacrifices on the part of our parents as well as the the overall parish community.
Catholic schools can hardly be placed in the same class as expensive, elite private schools. In A National Study On The Viability Of School Choice David E. Kapel of Rowan University gave this analysis of per pupil cost: "The public schools per student average cost ranged from $6,365 to $7,874. The privates ranged from $6,365 to $9,150 and the Catholic school range was from $1,743 to $3,335." Holy Family is within that range - in other words, less than half the per pupil cost of the Seattle School District.
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