Kentucky ranks high for bloated school staff in new Friedman study

The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice has released a new, 50-state study of “The School Staffing Surge” in the nation’s public schools.

Having often presented graphs like this one to our readers in the past

KY Rank for Teacher to Staff Ratio to 2009

The Friedman findings really are no surprise.

Here are some quick summaries of Friedman’s findings for the 50 states:

• Comparing the Increase of Students to the Increase in Public School Employment, FY 1992 to FY 2009 – Kentucky ranks #4 for some of the worst bloat in school employment

• Comparing the Increase of Students to the Increase in Teachers, FY 1992 to FY 2009 – Kentucky ranks 9th for the increase in teachers relative to the rather small increase in students

• Comparing the Increase of Public School Students to the Increase in Non-Teaching Staff, FY 1992 to FY 2009 – Kentucky ranks 4th from the top for the bloat in non-teaching school staff

If we are going to get our school costs under control, we have to very carefully examine this explosion in school staff. While some of the increase may be justified, the facts are that Kentucky’s school staffing is way out of line with US norms. That provides a pretty strong indication that something needs to change.