📜 LADY BUDGETDOWN: SOCIETY SPENDING EXPOSED 📜
Dearest Readers,
There has been quite a bit of discussion lately about "context."
Apparently, presenting spending numbers isn't enough. We must consider staffing. Enrollment. Where the money went. Whether spending increased in classrooms or elsewhere.
Splendid. Lady Budgetdown happens to agree.
So let us add the context.
💰 ROCHESTER'S SPENDING
From FY2021-22 actual spending to the FY2026-27 budget:
Total Instruction
$117.67M → $139.48M
⬆️ +$21.81 MILLION | +18.5%
Instructional Support
$9.48M → $12.26M
⬆️ +$2.78 MILLION | +29.3%
Combined Administration*
$13.73M → $14.23M
⬆️ +$497,000 | +3.6%
And total General Fund expenditures?
$194.9M → $240.54M
That's approximately:
+$45.6 MILLION | +23.4%
But surely we need more context, yes?
👥 LET'S LOOK AT STAFFING.
From 2022 to 2024:
Teachers: +22
Administrators: -11
Secretaries: +5
Maintenance/Grounds/Tech: +11
Paraprofessionals: +35
Executive Staff/Directors: +4
TOTAL STAFF:
1,422 → 1,488
⬆️ +66 FTE | +4.6%
And now for another rather important piece of that elusive context:
🎓 ENROLLMENT
The comparable enrollment data available in these records show:
2021: 14,983 students
2023: 14,875 students
⬇️ -108 students | -0.7%
The records being used here do not provide a comparable actual enrollment figure beyond 2023, so Lady Budgetdown won't invent one.
Now that, Dearest Readers, is context.
Rochester increased staffing while enrollment declined modestly.
It increased instruction spending by $21.8 million.
It increased instructional support by $2.8 million.
Administration increased much less—3.6%—and administrators themselves actually decreased by 11 FTEs.
And total General Fund spending increased approximately $45.6 MILLION from the 2021-22 actual to the 2026-27 budget.
Lady Budgetdown has no interest in cherry-picking the numbers that support one narrative while hiding the ones that don't.
If administration didn't explode, we'll tell you.
If classroom spending increased, we'll tell you.
If staffing increased, we'll tell you.
If enrollment declined, we'll tell you that too.
Because context isn't the information surrounding a number that happens to support your argument.
Context is all of it.
And once we put all of it on the table, taxpayers can decide for themselves whether the additional spending is producing the results they expect from their investment.
🪶 Context requested. Context delivered.
Administration includes General Administration, School Administration and Business Support.
#LadyBudgetdown #TheReceipts #ContextMatters #RochesterCommunitySchools #SocietySpendingExposed #FollowTheMoney #TaxpayerTransparency #SchoolSpending #FactsMatter