The specialist I bumped into at Bixbies told me a very interesting story. San Antonio, the ninth biggest city in the US, is offering a big school building bond (that their voters will get to vote on) that would cost San Antonio a whopping $692 million. However, that is only 2 and a third times what JCI wants us to spend in Duluth although we are eighteen time smaller than San Antonio not 2 and-a-third times smaller. San Antonio had 1,450,000 inhabitants in 2000 Duluth had 86,000.
Where Duluth has plateaued at 10,000 students, San Antonio is bursting at the seems with 82,000 students. According to this story:
“The first new schools funded by School Bond 2007 will open in 2009-10, when enrollment is expected to be pushing 95,000 students. Enrollment, now 82,767, is growing by about 4,000 students per year, and last month, Northside surpassed Austin ISD to become the fourth largest district in Texas.”
Duluth is ranked 285th in U.S. city populations well behind San Antonio’s ninth YET WE”RE SPENDING ALMOST HALF AS MUCH ON REBUILDING OUR SCHOOLS! Does something seem out of whack here?
