cheesehead
Lifer
I feel that this is an issue that everyone can agree on: Appropriate spending in schools.
First, as the son of a teacher, I can verify that they don't live high on the hog. Sure, they get benifits, insurance, et cetera, but that's only after they work at the same job for many, many years. To get said job, both college and grad school are required. The hours suck, too - most teachers spend several hours a night grading papers, and I can testify that of the five teachers in the physics department at my high school, not one slept more than 4-5 hours a night - and they routinely would show up at work even if they were at death's door.
So, if teachers are paid so poorly, why is all this money going down the tubes?
Administrators.
At a school of 2100 students, there are 5 principals and at least nine secretaries working at a given time. That's 14 people, and assuming an average $60,000 a year salary after benifits (it's likely more - remember, these are principals!), that's almost eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year - for one school!
Of course, they've reduced everything else - there's now only one school psychologist on call, and he or she is usually in one pointless meeting or another. At a school that averages over three successful suicides a year (likely more), it seems a bit odd, no?
Go up the ladder a little bit, and it gets worse. There's an obvious "you scratch my back, and I scratch yours" thing going on here.
Examples:
1. Foodservice. $3 gets you a low-quality "sub" sandwich or other low-nutrition junk. Considering that the same $3 will get me a sandwich at Subway that has real meat and fresh veggies on it somewhere, I'm guessing there's a large profit margin involved.
2.Software. The school system spends truckloads on Novellware, which costs a mint, makes everying hideously slow, and gives the poor computer guy aneurysms. (Coincidentally, he's only there part time, in a school with hundreds of computers.) The Physics department has paid for Macs out of their own pocket, mostly because they're sick of the endless bugs in the Windows port of their modelling software.
3. Texbooks. Why, exactly, can't we bargain for lower prices, or buy textbooks that are'nt $80 each? Simple: The buyers get free lunches from sales reps, and don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.
4. Stupid regulations. The high school is required not to simply boot students out of class if they're unruly; instead,"problem students" cannot be "let go". They have a team of security guards that deals with them, and is constantly herding them around - add in assorted random related costs, and it gets very expensive very quickly. It would likely cost less to actually send them to remedial classes in a reform school - but that's not politically correct. (This applies to students of ALL ethnicities.)
5. Stupid programs. $500,000 a year is being spent on a program to re-organize kids into "smaller learning communities". In other words, an amount of money equal to the pay of twelve fresh-out-of-grad-school teachers is spent on organizing kids not by grade, but by the first letter of their last name.
If we started being a bit smarter about school spending, budget cuts would'nt be necessary.
First, as the son of a teacher, I can verify that they don't live high on the hog. Sure, they get benifits, insurance, et cetera, but that's only after they work at the same job for many, many years. To get said job, both college and grad school are required. The hours suck, too - most teachers spend several hours a night grading papers, and I can testify that of the five teachers in the physics department at my high school, not one slept more than 4-5 hours a night - and they routinely would show up at work even if they were at death's door.
So, if teachers are paid so poorly, why is all this money going down the tubes?
Administrators.
At a school of 2100 students, there are 5 principals and at least nine secretaries working at a given time. That's 14 people, and assuming an average $60,000 a year salary after benifits (it's likely more - remember, these are principals!), that's almost eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year - for one school!
Of course, they've reduced everything else - there's now only one school psychologist on call, and he or she is usually in one pointless meeting or another. At a school that averages over three successful suicides a year (likely more), it seems a bit odd, no?
Go up the ladder a little bit, and it gets worse. There's an obvious "you scratch my back, and I scratch yours" thing going on here.
Examples:
1. Foodservice. $3 gets you a low-quality "sub" sandwich or other low-nutrition junk. Considering that the same $3 will get me a sandwich at Subway that has real meat and fresh veggies on it somewhere, I'm guessing there's a large profit margin involved.
2.Software. The school system spends truckloads on Novellware, which costs a mint, makes everying hideously slow, and gives the poor computer guy aneurysms. (Coincidentally, he's only there part time, in a school with hundreds of computers.) The Physics department has paid for Macs out of their own pocket, mostly because they're sick of the endless bugs in the Windows port of their modelling software.
3. Texbooks. Why, exactly, can't we bargain for lower prices, or buy textbooks that are'nt $80 each? Simple: The buyers get free lunches from sales reps, and don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.
4. Stupid regulations. The high school is required not to simply boot students out of class if they're unruly; instead,"problem students" cannot be "let go". They have a team of security guards that deals with them, and is constantly herding them around - add in assorted random related costs, and it gets very expensive very quickly. It would likely cost less to actually send them to remedial classes in a reform school - but that's not politically correct. (This applies to students of ALL ethnicities.)
5. Stupid programs. $500,000 a year is being spent on a program to re-organize kids into "smaller learning communities". In other words, an amount of money equal to the pay of twelve fresh-out-of-grad-school teachers is spent on organizing kids not by grade, but by the first letter of their last name.
If we started being a bit smarter about school spending, budget cuts would'nt be necessary.
