• In the budget he released this month, President Bush proposed increasing spending by $1.5 billion, to $13 billion annually, for his signature No Child Left Behind law. Congress, in passing the law, authorized the president to spend nearly $23 billion a year.
• Per-student costs for the 15,000 public school districts across the United States rise each year, although there are different ways to measure them.
Below is a calculation by Washington Area Boards of Education on how much local school districts spend per student, excluding transportation costs. It did not calculate D.C. figures; these were provided by Mary Levy, budget analyst for the D.C.-based education advocacy group Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, using the same methodology as the boards of education.
• Twenty-two of the 40 states with legal lotteries earmark revenue to support public schools, according to the Education Commission of the States. This year, California's lottery contributed about $133 per student -- less than 2 percent of the budget, a nonpartisan analysts group said. California law requires that 34 percent of lottery revenue go to education. In Illinois, 100 percent must be spent on kindergarten through 12th grade, although the state's overall education funding has not increased. The total was $570 million last year, or 3 percent of the education budget, the commission said.
• The average tuition at a Catholic parish elementary school this year was $1,787, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.
• Nationally, the median tuition for independent day schools -- private schools without any religious or other affiliation -- in 2004-05 was $12,528 for first grade and $16,250 for 12th grade, according to the National Association of Independent Schools. There are regional differences: In New York and New Jersey, first grade costs an average of $18,200; in comparable western states, it costs $13,793.
• Cost of tuition, book and lab fees and meals for 2005-06 at Riverdale (N.Y.) Country Day School: Pre-kindergarten tuition, $24,500; kindergarten through fifth grade, $27,150; sixth through 12th, $29,500. If a family invested $29,500 a year for 16 years at 8 percent annually, the cumulative value in contributions and interest would be $1,067,196.
