MILWAUKEE
It may be one of the most expensive schools in the country.
The cost at Ethan Allen School, the locked campus in Waukesha County for juvenile offenders, is expected to top $90,000 per student this year, making it more expensive than a year at Harvard University, which costs about $46,000.
The cost for sending a teenager to Ethan Allen is expected to increase 25 percent this year, and the price is rising at other juvenile correctional institutions as well, officials said.
“When the budget came out, I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s a lot of money,'” said Kathy Malone, division manager for delinquency and court services in Milwaukee County’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Milwaukee County sends a majority of its juvenile offenders to Ethan Allen in Delafield.
Part of the reason for the price increase is that fewer teens are being sent to the school, which means fixed costs such as utilities are being spread over fewer people, said Silvia Jackson, deputy administrator of the state Division of Juvenile Corrections. About 450 boys were at Ethan Allen in 1998, while less than 290 were there last month, she said.
