An inner city grade school in Detroit gets 16,500+ per child a regular child in Michigan gets 9,500. Palo Alto spends 25,143 per child. New York spends $29,87

An inner city grade school in Detroit gets 16,500+ per child a regular child in Michigan gets 9,500. Palo Alto spends 25,143 per child. New York spends $29,873 per child. The states that spend the least Utah, Idaho are around 9,000. Part of the cost is localized like salary, utilities costs. Detroit isn't necessarily being under funded compared to Palo suburb when you normalize regional cost differences. It does affect the quality of teachers one can attract but so does the location in general. Bumping up Detroit to Palo Alto's spending wouldn't have much effect on the education for the average student. Palo Alto is home to many immigrant from many places who self select and place education as extremely important for the next generation. For the average Detroit kid education isn't cherished and valued over everything else. Until you can equalize those believes things won't change. You won't be able to buy a higher educational rate by painting the walls twice as fast or by hiring more educational assistants.