Fun With Numbers: School Spending and Rankings

SouthKnox Bubba had a post Wednesday looking at Knox County schools that linked to State of Tennessee School System Report Cards, from the Department of Education. I cruised over and looked up Memphis and Shelby County schools. Ouch! Let's compare:

Memphis
Students: 126,923
Students with Disabilities 15,822 12.5%
Economically Disadvantaged 81,991 64.6%
Shelby Co.
Students: 48,540
Students with Disabilities 9,101 18.7%
Economically Disadvantaged 7,449 15.3%

Student/Teacher ratios
Memphis: 126,923/7045 18 to 1
Shelby Co.: 48540/2587 19 to 1
Teacher/Administrator ratios
Memphis: 7045/433 16 to 1
Shelby Co.: 2587/182 14 to 1

Per Student Expenditures
Memphis: $7,865.00
Shelby Co.: 6,322.00
State: $6,648.16
National: $8,383.00

Go look at the Federal Benchmark and Student Performance scores, where the differences are incredibly stark. When will this community's leaders put the same effort behind improving our schools that we put into sports arenas and downtown redevelopment?