Costs and enrollment

In his June 14 Point of View article about the Wake County Public School System's budget, Bob Luebke failed to account for inflation. One should not compare cost through time without accounting for the changing value of the dollar, especially when comparing changes in cost to changes in non-dollar quantities such as enrollment.

Using the consumer price indexes for July 2000 (172.8) and 2009 (215.4) to recast all figures to 2000 dollars shows that between 2000 and 2009:

1) The operating budget increased from $653 million to $963 million, a 47 percent increase much more in line with the 45 percent rise in student enrollment than the 84 percent increase that unconverted figures suggest;

2) The increase in salary and benefits is not a whopping 85 percent, but 49 percent from $544 million to $810 million;

3) A disproportionate share of that rise is the cost of benefits, which increased 63 percent from $104 million to $170 million; and

4) The average teacher salary in North Carolina actually fell.

It seems that the budget increase tracks rising student enrollment with the difference explained largely by the cost of health care benefits, which have risen faster than the consumer price index. And teachers are losing ground.

George Hess

Knightdale