Thanks for the clarification, indigo. My point in noting public school per pupil spending was actually in comparison to private school tuition--which in turn is not necessarily fully representative of per pupil spending, as many private schools rely heavily on giving outside of tuition (as do many high-performing publics). But it's at least a point of reference when discussing educational costs and return on investment.

And fwiw, private schools' principal expenditures are not all that different, with possibly more emphasis on capital/building/grounds expenditures, and somewhat less on personnel.

Of course, as you rightly point out, spending is not necessarily reflective of effectiveness or meaningful resourcing. But I think that's one of the takeaways from the original article.

...pronounced like the long vowel and first letter of the alphabet...