Consultants tell Seattle school board district spends more per pupil but gets less purchasing power; recommend clearer resource-equity strategy

Education Resource Strategies (ERS) presented a diagnostic to the Seattle School Board on Sept. 26 showing the district spends roughly $22,000 per pupil overall but faces lower purchasing power than many peer districts and uneven resource alignment across schools.

ERS partner Dr. Angela King Smith said the report, a 160‑page diagnostic compiled from nine months of qualitative and quantitative work, "is not meant to prescribe a set of solutions" but to create a fact base so the district can align resources more deliberately.

The presentation focused on three areas: school‑level resourcing, access to advanced courses and teacher experience, and central‑office and principal supports. Jonathan Travers of ERS summarized the school‑level finding: "we've got a roughly 40% differential between the lowest to highest quartile schools in terms of their overall per pupil funding." ERS said that difference translates, in an average 350‑student elementary, to about a 19.5…