Viewing Lakewood Schools from Cleveland Heights.

[stephen davis]

I noticed this letter to the editor at clevelandjewishnews.com.

Lakewood has CH-UH beat

Lakewood, like Cleveland Heights/University Heights, is an inner-ring suburb.

CH/UH spends one third more than Lakewood on its schools. Yet Lakewood’s doing a much better job with its students, both academically and expense-wise. According to the Ohio Department of Education’s website, in the 2005-06 school year, Lakewood spent only 7.8% of its budget on administrative expenses; CH/UH spent 11.9%. Building operations in Lakewood are 16.1%; CH/UH, 23.4%.

But the real kicker is instructional expenditures. Lakewood spends far more per pupil on instructional expenditures than we do. CH/UH spends only 49.1%, or less than 50¢ out of every dollar, for instructional expensitures. Lakewood spends 61.6% of every dollar on direct instructional cost for its students. Lakewood spends only $11,146 per pupil per year. CH/UH spends $15,488 per pupil.

We’ve got a levy on the ballot for CH/UH. I want to make sure every dollar I spend is being used wisely. Maybe you should, too.

Fred Weiser Cleveland Heights

Here is the link:

http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/arti ... er1019.txt



Unlike Lakewood City Schools, Cleveland Heights/University Heights Schools have not have not enjoyed the robust support of their community for many years.

You can't always trust these types of letters, especially with the politics of an upcoming school levy. More information would be needed to put these statistics into a context for true comparison. I certainly don't know enough about the CH/UH School District to make comment.

That said, I still thought this Cleveland Heights writer's take on Lakewood Schools was interesting enough to post here.