DC Schools: We Need More $$ Because We Have Fewer Students

The DC public school system has asked the city [A.K.A. DC taxpayers] for an additional $70 million to add to the proposed $810 million 2008 budget, which was already a 4% increase over last year's budget. The reason? According to the Northwest Current (no links available online), the schools are,

Faced with budget cuts due to falling enrollment...

No rational enterprise would cite additional costs of dealing with fewer customers. But the DC schools are not rational as they cannot fire employees even if they are not needed anymore so we taxpayers are stuck paying for them and their out-of-market retirement and health plans.

It is time for DC elected officials to stop the insanity of buying votes with union endorsements.

In related news, a Wash Examiner's article on dropping DC enrollment is here. George Washington University granted nine DC students full tuition, but did not let DC charter school students apply. Finally, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation allocated $122 million to DC high schoolers', including charter students, but did some racial profiling by limiting those grants to Wards 7 and 8.

P.S. the $14.7K that DC spends per student is the highest in the country.