A look at how much money goes into individual schools in Washington

At all curious how much money goes into running a whole school, or dozens of schools broken down by type, like charter, middle school and high school?

District of Columbia Public Schools posts the budgets of each of its schools, helping reify some of the district’s spending numbers that seem like near abstractions whenever news outlets (like this one) list them.

A breakdown of the costs associated for operating individual schools not only moves the decimal points a few spaces to the right, but can also put a dollar amount to the image students and parents have of the schools they’ll come to know intimately for at least a few years.

To offer a more complete picture, we will also use 2009-2010 U.S. Department of Education figures on total school enrollment. The budget figures come from the FY2012 budget for DCPS, and will include select staffing numbers.

Here are six schools to start:

Anacostia High School, with 836 students and 104 total employees, of which 88 are full-time and 59 are full-time teachers, has a FY2012 budget of $8,298,610.

Cardozo High School, with 631 students and 84 total employees, of which 72 are full-time and 46 are full-time teachers, has a FY2012 budget of $6,307,116.

Heart Elementary School, with 197 students and 47 total employees, of which 25 are full-time and 17 full-time teachers, has a FY2012 budget of $2,814,029.

Hyde-Addison Elementary School (Charter School), with 235 students and 49 total employees, of which 28 are full-time and 18 are full-time teachers, has a FY2012 budget of $3,046,015

Washington Metropolitan High School (Charter School), with 126 students and 36 total employees, of which 34 are full-time and 20 are full-time teachers, has a FY2012 budget of $2,936,109

Langdon Education Campus (Montessori School) with 419 students and 53 total employees, of which 39 are full-time and 27 are full-time teachers, has a FY2012 budget of $ 3,785,012